A GRAND Designs homeowner who was called nuts for his world-first house design is still living there despite losing £200,000 on it.
Richard Hawkes, 49, and wife Sophie, 50, designed a “gravity defying” house which was dubbed “lunacy” by the show’s presenter.
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The fancy gaff was built near Maidstone, and featured an arch roof that the pair dreamed of when they first bought the land that the home was built on.
Although the roof helped the home to stand out with its unique look – the specialist way of building it proved to be a huge problem.
The couple consulted a master builder and together decided on a method called Timbrel Vaulting, which consists of weaving layers of tiles together which compress and are held together with plaster.
When Richard first decided on the idea, everyone around him called it “bonkers”.
Timbrel Vault
Also known as “masonry vault”, “Catalan vault”, “tiled vault”, “laminated vault”, “flat vault” and “layered vault” – Timbrel Vaulting is a technique which was developed in the 14th century.
The type of construction work consists of weaving tiles together and using a form of mortar to hold them in place.
The trick to the technique is to use multiple layers to increase how sturdy it is – and usually needs at least three layers before it could be considered safe.
Nowadays, construction workers lean on steel to reinforce structures due its strength being stronger than concrete, brick and stone.
The roof arch ended up being 20 metres wide, nine metres high and 100mm thick, sporting three layers of woven tiles.
He said: “It’s a fantastic technique. So I had every confidence in it.”
Soon after deciding on the method, he got in touch with a master builder who had used the Plaster of Paris – a type of plaster for moulding and casting – and stacked tiles method on another home.
The technique is commonly used to build domes, and Richard’s structure is thought to be the only example in the world of an Arch being built with it.
But the technique was used before in St Margaret’s Bay, a project called Pines Calyx, which used timber and was built by the same chap that worked on Richard’s house.
Richard said: “It’s used to to you to you glue tiles together in rings, basically, and that they helps help.
“Each tile kind of holds its after the first tile. Every other subsequent tile is being glued on 2 edges. So they’re kind of holding each other up.
“The guys at the beginning who were working on it thought it was bonkers. They said it was crazy and was never going to work.
“But as they started working on it as the days and weeks were going by of course they grew in confidence.
“They’re standing and living and working on this arch.”
However, drama struck when the show’s presenter, Kevin McCloud, was talking to camera while the show was being filmed and the arch fell to bits behind him.
The damage set them back a week’s worth of work and added in to the extra costs the house needed before it was finished.
Richard told The Sun: “There was a time when Kevin was on site filming with the house in the background when the roof collapsed.
“I was standing by the camera person looking at the camera. You hear this almighty crash.”
The stonemason had leaned on the first completed layer of tiles while laying the second on top, causing it to fall beneath him.
The issue with the leaning on the first layer is that it’s at its weakest, and can be easily destroyed before more second and third layers are woven into the arch.
Richard added: “One of the things they were told not to do was lean on the first layer of tiles. It’s extremely delicate.
Grand Designs disasters
VANDALISED HOUSEBOAT
Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu Lai’s 2007 episode followed their renovation of a two-storey houseboat using only recycled materials.
The couple dreamed of escaping their small London flat.
But the project cost £80,000 before it failed and the 100ft barge was left unfinished in the Thames estuary near Southend, Essex.
Chris didn’t have a design in mind for the barge and one of four builders to give up on the project told Grand Designs: “It is bizarre, but then they are a fairly bizarre couple.”
The couple struggled to find anywhere to moor the vessel.
One boatyard owner said: “People here like the boats to look like… boats, really.”
It became a target for vandals before the abandoned vessel washed up on an Essex beach in 2011.
It is now thought to have been overtaken by squatters and party-throwing teenagers.
FLAMING DISASTER
A design nicknamed “Britain’s Cheapest Home” went up in flames in Pembrokeshire on New Year’s Day in 2018.
An electrical fire reduced the £27,000-build to ashes as fire crews battled for six hours.
A JustGiving page set up to help owners Simon and Jasmine Dale rebuild the home raised £35,000.
It read: “Simon, Jasmine and their two children have been residents at Lammas eco village, Pembrokeshire, since the start of the project. They have been working on their family home for the last six years.
“This beautiful building was featured on Grand Designs last year. Sadly a fire started on New Year’s Day and their beloved home was burned to the ground.”
Simon, who now runs a consultancy business helping others create their dream ecological home, said: “On January 1, 2018, the house, very near completion, burnt to the ground.
“Whilst we have been in shock and hibernation, our dear friends cleared the burnt debris and cut down the charred timber frame.
“The foundations of the house are still largely intact, a blank canvas once again. For us, time to do something completely different.”
NEIGHBOUR ROW
Architect and owner Robert Gaukroger ploughed £1million and two years of his life into his seven-bedroom “Dome House” above Bowness-in-Windermere.
But he and his wife Milla reportedly fell into a vicious £55,000 battle with a neighbour after the couple was accused of encroaching on their land.
The house was slammed for looking worn, as the gardens were allowed to grow wild and the wooden exterior left unvarnished.
He moved back south and tried to sell the luxury home for £2.3million in 2015.
Months later the price was dropped to £1.45million.
A once-anonymous donor to the project, Yvonne Malley, eventually bought it and it’s now run as a successful holiday let.
It’s currently on the market for a huge £3.5million.
It comes with a swimming pool and a picture-perfect outdoor picnic area with a fireplace.
It even includes even self-contained private apartments, meaning that this is not only a home for its prospective buyer, but a business.
The property in total has a whopping seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, two massive kitchens, and a huge family room.
“It’s the subsequent layers that make it stronger. He leaned too much. It made part of it fail and whatever that was left fell with it. So that was dramatic.
“They’re standing and living and working on this arch. And I think, by the way, the bit where it collapsed was where it had almost gone too far.
“They got so complacent, well not complacent but they’re so comfortable being up there complacency set in. They forgot the rule about not leaning on the first layer of tiles.”
It was the site’s contractor Tony that fell through the roof, but he luckily dropped onto a crash pad below him and came out with a slight graze on his head, but was otherwise okay.
Richard said: “Our contractor Tony 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.
“It was his responsibility. I said there were 15 people working onsite. Other than Tony falling through and getting a graze and dented ego, no one was hurt.”
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