A Grand Designs star has revealed the harrowing moment his dream home nearly collapsed into a pile of debris.
Richard Hawkes, an architect, and his wife, Sophie, had previously participated on Channel 4’s show to create an ecohome in Kentish countryside.
The pair chose a Passivhaus, an energy-efficient structure with an arched roof, which presenter Kevin McCloud describes as absolute ‘lunacy’.
And perhaps Richard and Sophie should have heeded Kevin’s warning when the roof fell, nearly destroying their home.
After the damage, the couple had to pay an additional £200.00 since the project went over budget, but they were not responsible for the roof itself.
Richard recalled the dramatic moment the roof broke in a new interview, remembering: ‘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 Sun: ‘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 went through the roof and landed on a crash pad, thankfully sustaining no injuries other than a grazed 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 completed the big project and continue to live there now.
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 shared the most recent update on Grand Design’s’saddest ever’ house.
Located on the North Devon shore, it received the’saddest’ moniker because the homeowner, Edward, was £7 million in debt and his 20-year marriage to his wife Hazel had dissolved.
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.
