A Grand Designs star has shared about the intense moment his dream home nearly crumbled into a pile of rubble.
Architect Richard Hawkes and his wife, Sophie, previously appeared on the Channel 4 show to construct an ecohome in the Kentish countryside.
The couple chose a Passivhaus, an energy-efficient building, with an arched roof, a design known as sheer ‘lunacy’ by presenter Kevin McCloud.
And perhaps Richard and Sophie should have paid more attention to Kevin’s warning as the roof collapsed nearly destroying their home.
Following the damage, the couple also had to fork out an extra £200,00 as the project exceeded the budget but, fortunately, were not responsible for the roof itself.
Richard remembered the dramatic moment the roof broke in a new interview, recalling: ‘I was standing by the camera person looking at the camera. You hear this almighty crash.’
A stonemason had accidentally leaned on the first layer of tiles while they were still ‘extremely delicate.’
Richard continued to The Sunsay: ‘He leaned too much. It made part of it fail and whatever that was left fell with it. So that was dramatic.’
The contractor also fell through the roof and landed on a crash pad; he fortunately did not sustain any injuries but grazed his head.
Richard added: ‘He was crying and really upset. Some of the bricklayers were frustrated but it was hugs and “Are you okay.”
‘We had a meeting the next day and the contractor was upset he had to rebuild it.’
However, Richard and Sophie managed to pull off the ambitious project and still live in it today.
He said: ‘Every day I come home and see my house rearing over the landscape and see the scary thinness of the arch.
‘I have such pride. It’s as solid as a rock. It’s brilliant. I’m very pleased. The house has given us more than we ever expected from a house.’
It comes after Kevin gave the latest update on Grand Design’s ‘saddest ever’ home.
Located on the North Devon coast, it earned the ‘saddest’ title as the homeowner Edward ended up £7 million in debt, and his 20-year marriage to his wife Hazel ended.
Revealing he was still in touch with Edward, Kevin said: ‘His honesty and his integrity kind of drove the show. In the original film at the end of it we say this is a story of hubris, it’s a story of overreaching, it’s a story of somebody’s life falling apart, their relationships falling apart.’
‘And he got all that, he was the first to say that. So it didn’t make it hard for me to say that in the closing moments of the film, I didn’t feel I was betraying his trust, because he was so open and transparent.’
Grand Designs is available to stream on Channel 4.
