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[Closed] Grand Designs

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How massively over budget this week? And what environment impact pouring all that concrete


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 10:25 pm
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Agree about the concrete. Loved the bit in Rom skatepark though. Visited that many times in my younger days. 🤘


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 10:27 pm
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I was in a meeting with the Cemex Technical guy last week at Cambridge University, talking about real hi-tech stuff. Not concrete with bits of paperclip in 😉


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 10:34 pm
 nerd
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Nuclear power station.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 10:51 pm
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I don't doubt the technology but domestic doesn't seem to be the best use, the design is overly complex , all those levels seem to be fussy and for all of his love of curves in the skate park there are none here.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 10:57 pm
 pk13
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I hope there is no mercury in those kitchen units

50s/60 chemistry labs.

Concrete rot in 20 years. I do love a skate park thou


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 10:57 pm
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Hmmm I liked the couples idea but I think he completely lost the idea why he liked concrete. He should have used all the curves he loved in the skate park, instead he got a badly finished concreate block with a harsh interior. Although the kitchen was okay. He must earn a pretty penny doing that diving.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 11:00 pm
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Looks dreadful.  Where is the organic element he loved so much...?  Inside looks like it’s already damp and the finish is poor.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 11:00 pm
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Abysmal. That budget, no kevin offspring . A banksy on the wall maybe?


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 11:04 pm
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My god that’s ugly.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 11:44 pm
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Awful. One of the worst I can remember.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 11:55 pm
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The looks are hurting my eyes and the acoustics especially in the kitchen diner were hurting my ears. I think it would make me ill to live there. Pigmented render inside and a nice floor covering may help.


 
Posted : 24/10/2018 11:57 pm
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The only skate park that looks like is The South Bank.

Looks like it smells of piss.

But if you rendered the lot and painted it white ld move in tomorrow.


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 12:02 am
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It looked like a U-Boat pen.


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 8:01 am
 jca
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Good luck trying to sell that in the future...


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 9:34 am
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There is a silver lining to this build, it’s been reported they’ve just signed with a major film studio who are making a feature about a dystopian future, where the world outside has collapsed and a family has no choice but to try and survive in a bunker, surrounded by broken and worn out furniture salvaged from the old world. Apparently the film makers are going to save a fortune as they don’t have to dress the set!


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 10:02 am
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All the underfloor heating in the world couldn't make that seem like an agreeable place to live.

Why didn't they just buy a decent house and build a skatepark in the garden?


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 10:29 am
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It must be Lewes thing. That ghastly rusting cheese grater of a place from a few years ago is in the same town.

Not sure about the reclaimed science lab kitchen. As a child of the 80s I wouldn't want to touch my old science lab furniture, let alone prepare food on it. Also, are there be several thousand "Subway Knobs" and messages proclaiming that "Laura is a Slag" scratched into it?

Whatever, it was their money and their choice.


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 10:51 am
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I guess a house doesn’t have to be homely if you only spend 6 months a year in it, the rest of the time being spent in a decompression chamber.

the wife may feel differently in a year or two


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 11:11 am
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Not sure about the reclaimed science lab kitchen. As a child of the 80s I wouldn’t want to touch my old science lab furniture, let alone prepare food on it. Also, are there be several thousand “Subway Knobs” and messages proclaiming that “Laura is a Slag” scratched into it?

I built some exhibition units out of reclaimed Iroko that had previously been the changing room benches from a school. Chiseling 50 years worth of hardened chewing gum off the bottom of each plank was a surprisingly nostalgic olfactory experience.


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 11:29 am
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Maybe they bought shares in Elastoplast?

I think the swimming pool just about tops it when it comes to form over function.


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 11:36 am
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I think the swimming pool just about tops it when it comes to form over function.

Every nuclear power plant needs a cooling pond.


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 11:39 am
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Shocking. I'm with the haters.

I know all skate/BMX parks look similar but that looked very like one I visited a few times.... Can't remember exactly where it was but North London/Essex border. The bike looked quite similar to my old dp freestyle too (with chain stays coming forward of the seat post). Made me nostalgic


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 1:18 pm
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It was certainly the most concete-y of all the concrete GDs. I didn't actually hate the inside as much as I thought I would in the end, but the bare surfaces really sucked the light out of the place, and there wasn't a great many windows to start with. You could see how dark it was when the were filming the final reveal.

It's sort of nice that it exists, but glad I'm not living in it.

Ooh, and looking forward to the return of the King of Cob next week! Although didn't he eventually sell the place, or at least try to?


 
Posted : 25/10/2018 1:37 pm
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Tonight’s is one of my all time favourites.  How long has it taken so far ?


 
Posted : 31/10/2018 10:10 pm
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I agree - looking forward to the finished thing, 7 years later...


 
Posted : 31/10/2018 10:12 pm
 DT78
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amazing build.  given they seemed to be out of money, and then he's got divorced, how the he'll has he managed to kit it out with such awesome stuff?  that gym must have been several thousand on it's own.

I thought they would be saying he'd had to sell up


 
Posted : 31/10/2018 11:05 pm
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Divorce = sale of old family home?


 
Posted : 31/10/2018 11:50 pm
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Has Kev given up impregnating the wives and now just flat out stealing them?


 
Posted : 31/10/2018 11:54 pm
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New partner = Injection of cash?


 
Posted : 01/11/2018 8:24 am
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Wonder what the new one thinks of the plug socket placement?


 
Posted : 01/11/2018 10:47 am
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First of this current series, Dinton Castle's up for sale £850k, didn't take them long to work out that it's not right for two growing boys then 🤔

https://m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/49291394?search_identifier=4e96ce5783f40a19b167718bbac0c3d0&fbclid=IwAR3wdOQdi4EjmKVOlrlobOZTbNTBpWuKGY9EMbUMZIYR7d6YRvR4VESR5Go


 
Posted : 01/11/2018 12:36 pm
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Divorce = sale of old family home

Kev sold his old house (which is also cob, and next door to his new place).

He does also do a lot of other cob work around the area, which is one of the reasons it took so long I suppose. But as long as he keeps working then the cash kept coming in. It's a big old place!

On another note....he's also an MTBer, and friends with a few of us on here.


 
Posted : 01/11/2018 10:31 pm
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On another note….he’s also an MTBer, and friends with a few of us on here.

Explains the log burner.

But where does he keep his bikes??


 
Posted : 01/11/2018 11:30 pm
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But where does he keep his bikes??

In a shed... made of cob.

Stunning end result, but at what cost?


 
Posted : 02/11/2018 7:33 am
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He’d certainly toned up in his new cob gym by the end of the show.


 
Posted : 02/11/2018 7:59 am
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Explains the log burner.

Yeah but I didn’t see a pizza oven or an Audi anywhere, I’m still not convinced is a proper biker


 
Posted : 02/11/2018 8:05 am
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There was a outdoor cob oven early on.

Hooligan type Scooby wrx in the background of a shot.

He could build an epic pump track with those mud skills.


 
Posted : 02/11/2018 8:09 am
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Does he have the biggest arms in SW England?


 
Posted : 02/11/2018 12:48 pm
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As an ex concrete technician and Plant Supervisor (AKA batcher) I watched the concrete house episode with a little bit of horror mixed with amazement. Firstly, there’s bugger all ‘new’ or ‘cutting edge’ about poly or steel fibres in a mix. I was using those 20 years ago. (Blackbushe Metals in Hampshire has a slab they smash cars to bits on. It’s the strongest mix we could supply at the time, containing both microsilica and steel fibres, for instance)

I wasn’t surprised when the shuttering burst. They were pouring what looked like a superplasticised mix (i.e. absolute piss) and the fluid pressure at the bottom would have been very high. Stuff like that is generally poured slowly so it’s going off at the bottom whilst you’re sill pouring in the top.

Im really not sure about not using rebar in the walls and subsitituing fibres instead. As far as I can see it complicates everything. Just use the rebar you muppet.

I did giggle when thy implied the pump couldn’t pump their special mix. Again, that’s was a sloppy superplasticsied mix. It should virtually pump itself. I’d have refused to pay the pump hire because that’s their fault. He probably hadn’t primed the line properly (using cement slurry)  or cleaned it out previously. That was a farce, believe me.

The actual house was a disaster too. Bloody awful. Terribly finished. They’ll never sell it.


 
Posted : 02/11/2018 1:04 pm
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And we are back.

Kevin's face when they stated it would be 'simple, contemporary, pared back interiors' - and the Paul the alien is carried in.... 🤣🤣🤣


 
Posted : 11/09/2019 10:48 pm
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Christ that’s grim. Looks like an 80’s car dealership.
They love it so that’s all that matters (just as well as a tricky sell without changing it to business use)


 
Posted : 11/09/2019 10:57 pm
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What about last weeks? The house on the Scottish cliff top. Great view but a bit windy most of the time.


 
Posted : 11/09/2019 10:59 pm
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The house on the Scottish cliff top

That was overlooked by a new housing development and next door to derelict hotel...

At least that one had some style and coherence, unlike tonight's giant pile disconnected and gauche offering.


 
Posted : 11/09/2019 11:03 pm
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Just watching tonight’s on plus one.
Dear oh dear , another one who thinks he can project manage.
Mmmmm, pay your cladders to stay at home whilst the timber boys go home at 4.
Obviously paying them too much, not met an erector yet who turns down extra hours (nor crane drivers come to that ) 🙂


 
Posted : 11/09/2019 11:36 pm
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