MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Didn't realise there was a new series!
There's also a podcast show on More4 just after with Greg James and Kevin talking about the episode just shown 👍
“Why didn’t anybody pick up on this before ? “
Isn’t that the project managers job ? Ahem .. 😉
I admired her commitment to the hemp, but when she had guessed at £20k for cladding, I did facepalm a little...
Should've bought a nice modular fixed price number instead...
https://www.hebhomes.com/
It did feel like she had £330K so that's the budget rather than actually working out what it will actually cost. I quite liked the look of the hemp but the interior finish was not to my taste
The whole thing was awful - apart from the weird hemp, it was characterless.
The Stonework was nice, and I actually didn't mind the hemp walls.
Yet again though...no chuffin blinds!
Which episode is it? Looking on Channel 4 catch up - there are lots of episodes for 2025 but isnt clear which one it is.
Perfect thanks!
Black is the new grey.
Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom in the factory is
a bit of a gimmick and the end result absolutely looked like something designed to fit on a lorry. Couldn’t help thinking they could have had a more traditionally constructed building for less money and had a less compromised design
Large footprint and driveway didn't exactly leave much room for the wild nature garden before you even start down the path of an "eco house" replacing a perfectly serviceable existing house.
I couldn’t help thinking that if you are building a bungalow it’s a bit dumb not to make it wheel chair accessible. We all get old and who knows what will happen in life.
Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom in the factory is
a bit of a gimmick and the end result absolutely looked like something designed to fit on a lorry. Couldn’t help thinking they could have had a more traditionally constructed building for less money and had a less compromised design
Yeah, I was thinking what the actual benefits were of doing everything in the factory, as opposed to building the walls, floors, etc and flat packing it to site, sticking it up in a day, then getting the trades in once it's weatherproof. 🤔
I couldn’t get over: the frame not being designed to receive plumbing, surely the whole point is you design and construct the frame with sufficient space for toilet waste pipes etc and; if that’s your companies job, why don’t you design the width of the gates a bit more generously. Insane.
It seemed alot of money for what they actually got in the end. The exterior may look awful after some proper weathering? I think you will always look at it and think "container!" as well. Even if it was done well.
Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom in the factory is
a bit of a gimmick and the end result absolutely looked like something designed to fit on a lorry. Couldn’t help thinking they could have had a more traditionally constructed building for less money and had a less compromised design
Yeah, I was thinking what the actual benefits were of doing everything in the factory, as opposed to building the walls, floors, etc and flat packing it to site, sticking it up in a day, then getting the trades in once it's weatherproof. 🤔
this. Factory built seems to make sense if you’re going a lot of identical modules - hotels, high rise apartments etc. but doesn’t seem to make sense for one off houses. And the house was taking up space in a factory when it was effectively water tight (eg “Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom”. A massively overbuild 7 layer floor so it wouldn’t crack in transit!??)
also, looked like it was out in the voucher try, but a 2m fence around the whole plot so no view. If you want a visual barrier make it planting but surely you’d only need that on one side anyway.
Another one here who thought it a high financial cost for a black portacabin with some tilted roofs.
Any anyone who describes a house as 'eco' in 2025 shows thier shallow knowledge...
I liked it and think this a far better build method than brick by brick in some muddy site whilst everything gets damaged by rain.
I think there was some embellishment to the tree selection portion of proceedings but, even as a veteran of several modular housing projects, I was impressed by the construction if not necessarily the execution (chopping stuff out on site should be avoidable if everyone knows what they're doing). A 4m wide module is a massive thing and wasn't something we were ever able to achieve in a mechanised factory but these guys seem to have achieved it quite well and the modules are actually quite nice liveable spaces. There's still the issue about double thick walls where the modules meet but there's no real way around that.
I was quite impressed.
I still think the FACIT solution is more impressive overall though.
Enjoyed this one - turning trees into a building where felled is quite nice
Yes all really great and he was genuinely humble about the whole thing especially in acknowledging how lucky they were to be able to give it a go, shame that they hadn't done it years earlier when the kids were younger. Definitely hits my one of the top builds lists - I even thought the bathroom location would make for a fabulous experience.
I liked but struggled with the whole eco side of it. The idea that they are turning the existing home into an Airbnb means that the whole new building is extra eco impact how ever motivated they are.
They have to live the life style for 5 years while being monitored, would you not hedge your bets and keep your existing house?
I really liked it but I did think that their kids looked unhappy about their new living arrangements/home. At 14 yrs old I'm not sure I would have appreciated going to live in the woods somewhere......
I thought they had kept their original house and it was used as an Air bnb permanently?
Yeah, the kids looked very far from happy about it. Did they say how far from civilisation it was? (I was only half-watching at times). Also, I thought some of the wood supports looked a bit flimsy and wondered how rot-proof they will be (I accept they are on stone piers so they are not in the ground slowly rotting).
They did say that every summer they lived away from their Tenby house, so the kids should be used to it.
Really not that far away anyway -
https://maps.app.goo.gl/T2M2MBVC2nMonTk77
Strange lack of gutters but apart from that I liked it. Kids less than impressed!
I even thought the bathroom location would make for a fabulous experience.
If having an outside bath in West Wales was a good thing then we'd all be doing it. It's a really stupid idea that might be used once before the cold, damp and mouldy reality intrudes. We don't have an outdoor lifestyle in Wales for very obvious reasons. To paraphrase Rhod Gilbert - I was 16 before I realised that I could take my cagoule off.
They have to live the life style for 5 years while being monitored, would you not hedge your bets and keep your existing house?
My problem with the Tenby house was that Kevin made it sound like they were hippies for giving up their house every summer and living in a shed. They aren't, they give up the house to make money out of it. And I also agree that your eco motives are questionable if you have a cosy second home to fall back on when you fail. (Also, on eco notes, did anyone notice that their food was standard supermarket packaged food.) The kids will need to be driven to school each day because there's nothing around Lawrenny, ditto shopping and all of their other day to day activities. I suspect that their eco motivation is not that deep.
I stumbled across this yesterday, which puts most of the efforts on Grand Designs to shame...
Talking of Grand Designs - this house has been going up just outside Oakerthorpe in Derbyshire (for nearly 4 years now!). I drive past regularly and keep expecting to see a film crew and Kevin McCloud being filmed in the driveway!...
It looks like a new Baptist/Methodist church
I stumbled across this yesterday, which puts most of the efforts on Grand Designs to shame...
You didn't stumble across it at all, and neither did I, it was the algorithms that stumbled across us 😂
It's quite a story isn't it.
If having an outside bath in West Wales was a good thing then we'd all be doing it. It's a really stupid idea that might be used once before the cold, damp and mouldy reality intrudes.
Aww where's your sense of fun & also so much better than having a bath in your bedroom, which seems all the rage these days. Or maybe it's just that my great aunts view that having a toilet in the house was a disgusting idea has rubbed off on me?
I really liked last night's house but it was such a shame that she didn't get to see it finished
It looks like a new Baptist/Methodist church
That was my initial reaction.
I still like it though, and with some good landscaping it'll look less like one.
That was a lovely episode - love that she wanted a project to keep her mind off cancer.
Never ceases to amaze me how much money some people have.
Next week's looks proper bonkers with someone with way more money than sense when I heard £7,000,000 casually mentioned as if it was just a weeks grocery shopping.
Talking of Grand Designs - this house has been going up just outside Oakerthorpe in Derbyshire (for nearly 4 years now!). I drive past regularly and keep expecting to see a film crew and Kevin McCloud being filmed in the driveway!...
That looks truly hideous!
This is just down the road from me and I keep expecting to see Kev and a pregnent woman in a static caravan outside. Ive seen the artists impression of what its going to look like when/if it ever gets built and it looks amazing and ambitious, with more than a slight 'visitor centre' vibe about it.
Work began on it about a year ago, which involved clearing a whole massive chunk of very steep hillside of trees then digging an enormous hole. Work then stopped for 6 months, for whatever reason, then they came back and made the hole even bigger. That in itself is probably a metaphor for something.
They've just been slapped with an order to pack in working on it by the local planning office and United Utilities as their excavations are causing havoc with the drainage and underground pipework around the site as the hillside is sliding down in an attempt to fill the big hole they've dug. As there are houses all around it - perfectly normal stone terraces - it seems a very odd choice of site. God knows how they got planning permission for it.
I'll be really dissapointed if its not on telly as its already got '4 years late and 3.5 million overbudget' written all over it. They must have spent a fortune already and all they've got is a bloody big hole!
That was a lovely episode - love that she wanted a project to keep her mind off cancer.
Never ceases to amaze me how much money some people have.
Have to admit I didn't really get it, spending £700k on what was a pretty simple building & not sure it was right sort of house for the horse & dog loving partner left behind.
Well tonight’s build was dreadful, a silly amount of money for a huge awful house and a very unlikeable developer. It’s not often I wish they loose it all but he was getting pretty close
Well tonight’s build was dreadful, a silly amount of money for a huge awful house and a very unlikeable developer. It’s not often I wish they loose it all but he was getting pretty close
I thought it was going the way of Edwards Saunton Sands house for a while there.
Just didn’t seem homely at all, they seemed more interested in leaving a legacy .
Certainly did that, he’s up there at No 2 in the knobs who bit off more than they could chew charts
I've only seen the black house and the "hippy" house. Like both with reservations.
The black house seemed ideal but that budget was at least double I was expecting. For a £1.5million house it's suddenly expensive (including land purchase and house demolition). As always I'm astounded at kitchens that cost the same as houses
The hippy house was odd. Two mobile home sized units stuck together because of planning? Mobile homes only really get planning because they are mobile that's why they have wheels.
Noticed they passed over the communal garden and that 35% of their food would have to come from there, what about everyone else? And, yes suddenly it's supermarket scran in the kitchen.
I've only seen the black house and the "hippy" house. Like both with reservations.
The black house seemed ideal but that budget was at least double I was expecting. For a £1.5million house it's suddenly expensive (including land purchase and house demolition). As always I'm astounded at kitchens that cost the same as houses
The hippy house was odd. Two mobile home sized units stuck together because of planning? Mobile homes only really get planning because they are mobile that's why they have wheels.
Noticed they passed over the communal garden and that 35% of their food would have to come from there, what about everyone else? And, yes suddenly it's supermarket scran in the kitchen.
Last night's 'castle' was just, well, a bit shite? It seemed all about legacy, money, ooh look at us- and zero to do with home and family. He seemed to be wealthy, only matched by his ability to keep spending more and more.
I despised that he was tapping up mums pension/retirement savings. And surely they are on the knife edge of losing it all...? It seemed he was playing with everyone else's money - and had an ability to shrug off losing £500k in the 'test' house.
The barn they were in was lovely. I just don't get why you would risk so much.
Edit: he also would have made a great Fast Show character....
Last night's house looked more like a nuclear power station or ww2 bunker, just blinking horrible & that's before you get into the excess of it all. Still utterly bonkers & truly worthy of the grand designs moniker.
He seemed to be wealthy, only matched by his ability to keep spending more and more.
I missed the beginning so don't know where the initial money came from.
He seemed to have aged about 10 years between 2022 and 2025 mind.
For someone who professed to be some kind of engineer, he seemed awfully surprised at how big and expensive it all was
And as for the "grand entrance way", reminded me of a piss-stench suburban subway crushing with broken glass underfoot
Aye, 1970's Brutalist stylee with a dose of Vera Duckworth's stone cladding... A lot of the modern to excess stuff just looks like a new civic centre or local council offices to me tho I'm probly a philistine...
Fair play to Matt, looked a bit like a rabbit in headlights when promoted but has stepped up.
For someone who professed to be some kind of engineer, he seemed awfully surprised at how big and expensive it all was
He came across as a chancer who had made some money on other property developments and now wanted to show he was in the big time. I suspect he never intends to live in it for any longer that hmrc requires him to for tax purposes and then hope he can find someone daft enough to to buy it for a price that doesn’t ruin him
I'm looking forward to catching up tonight - sounds like there will be lots of eye rolling & pointing & laughing.
Or according to the people on social media - we're all jealous of those that have money 😀
Now thats a proper GD episode!
It's on the market for 8m iirc, I get that they wanted to buy the land to prevent a housing development/secure services to the barn property but the old gaff would've been lovely with a big refurb. Might have made afew quid too taking the smaller build into account. Seems like the lighthouse mk2 to me but I'll reserve judgement till the revisit, it'll never look like a castle though.
we're all jealous of those that have money
It's true. We're all jealous of people who are making no money from their dubious startups but up to their eyeballs in debt. If the result of all his team's 'imagineering' is a smart home switch/display which I'm pretty sure I can buy right now off amazon, and a replaceable socket core which is somehow worse than a socket with a USB-A port already on it?
It was an absolute shocker, replaced one folly with another one, blowing his entire wealth and his mum's pension funds, with only the fact that it is unsellable allowing him to possibly ever live in the place.
For that money you could get a proper, fully fitted out modern mansion, and one which isn't shoved up against a whole village.
It's still on the market, with entirely rendered photos by the look of it because I'm sure it's still almost as much of a shell as when Kevin left.
Can't get over what a waste of money, time, energy and the world's resources this one is. They had what looked like a really lovely home, and are swapping everything they have for something that looks like it should be home to an obscure government department. That entrance hallway thing is ripe for a couple of security card readers and CCTV. Unreal.
The barn they were in was lovely. I just don't get why you would risk so much.
This is close to me. Pass it everyday. The barns is up for raffle if you fancy a punt.
and a replaceable socket core which is somehow worse than a socket with a USB-A port already on it?
At first I thought it was a good idea and then realised that it just replaced one plug part with another plug part...
I usually can't be arsed, but i took a look at the companies he's currently a director at, and it all looks a bit gravity-defying. Not quite sure how he's still afloat........
I usually can't be arsed, but i took a look at the companies he's currently a director at, and it all looks a bit gravity-defying. Not quite sure how he's still afloat........
The whole time he seemed to be spending other people's money on gambling his wealthy future...
I also wonder if he's Trump and many squander a large fortune into a small fortune, but still have a fortune as the end.
I liked his can do attitude, he provides employment for people, works hard and is having a go. In my opinion we need more people to take a punt and have a go. I don’t know how he copes with that amount of financial worry, balls of steel.
Thought the castle was a bit fuggly though.
Grand Designs is great for schadenfreude
It's still on the market, with entirely rendered photos by the look of it because I'm sure it's still almost as much of a shell as when Kevin left
Well, yes, the last filming was in September, so nothing substantial will have been done to it. I’d estimate at £1m to finish the ‘house’ and landscape.
I was completely prepared to dislike him, but warmed to the chap when he said something like, he didn't want to tell people what he was planning to do, as they'd probably think he was a bit of a d1ck.
He was described as an entrepreneur, not an engineer.
Castle/ house was massively too big, but they almost always are.
So much concrete.
Nice views from the top mind.
Agreed he grew on me a little as it went along
What baffles me though was his own admission that it was a lot bigger than he thought it would be. Where did the disconnect between architect come or is he just blindly optimistic/ambivalent until things become real
I loved their old house, but could see they were ‘forced’ to buy the castle.
I don’t like the castle particularly, love its views, but couldn’t see that there were any lifts built in to the design?
Here it is for sale. I reckon they will struggle to sell it, I hope they do manage to keep it, but no idea what they will do with all that space
I can’t work out if some of the pics are computer generated or whether they have moved on with the build since GD was there
Quite enjoyed the episode. I didn't get the impression that his mother was too concerned about her pension pot. His life felt like a bit of a ponzi scheme...borrowing from one place to pay another and so it goes on...but a castle ? The first built in the UK in 100yrs? It really doesn't fit my idea of a castle...its a concrete block with cladding and a few cranellations on the top. I've seen crematoriums, water works and such like that look very similar. He wants to leave a 'legacy'. Mmm
Caught up last night - liked him way more than I thought I would.
The castle itself, I can't quite work out if I hate it or love it. I think if I was building something like that I would've done it much slower.
The barn they bought was much nicer. I'm not sure if he was brave or just stupid - 12% interest on a loan of what was it £2,000,000?
& like most entrepreneurs it looks like he had rich parents to fall back on.
The fact that the banks all refused to finance the project tells you all you need to know so he was down to private lenders and his mum. It was clear to me that this was always about developing to sell. When he talks about refinancing suggests it’s owned by a company and was looking to refinance the company. Why would he do that? Tax breaks and it means the buyer doesnt have to pay stamp duty because they buy the company and not a house. He is clearly in a financial mess given that he is selling it and raffling their home.
I liked the views from the inside, mainly because you can't see the building from there - there are better looking industrial units.
I think given the amount spent he missed a trick not setting up a block manufacturing company after first went bust, create a better block, build part of the castle to prototype and then sell blocks to other projects - seems like something he would have been good at.
Not to my taste, but i doubt my semi modernist is to every one elses.
I think you should start with a small design to practise. I built this house, and it might be time for another. While theres a lot i like, theres some big stuff i don't, and really i think you need to build 3 to get it right.
Good luck to anyone trying!
I was also expecting to hate it and him but I actually quite liked it. Not sure you could really call it a castle but it was certainly big and castle inspired. It's the sort of thing that you'd build as a billionaire and no-one would blink a eye at. He was just doing it on a much smaller (and ever expanding) budget.
Best of luck to them though I doubt they need it he seemed the type that would always land on his feet.
I agree, they were much more likeable than i expected.
House was stupid though.
Far far too large. Who needs 5 kitchens? i can get my head around some people. If i had a billion dollar, i wouldnt have a house with 5 kitchens. whats the point? 6 car garage? get over yourself.
Also, kidding himself that its a castle.
Castle Drogo (the last modern castle, that i'm STAGGERED Phil didnt actually bother to visit), has Granite walls 2m thick.
A bit of hempcrete and rebar doth not make it a castle. Apparently there are planning exemptions if you are buildling a castle, but i think if you are wanting to classify a building as a castle, it has to be able to take a round from a cannon/tank.
Drogo looks incredible still. This place will look ragged in 50 -100 years. Plastic moat liner will need replacing too.
A bit of hempcrete and rebar doth not make it a castle. Apparently there are planning exemptions if you are buildling a castle, but i think if you are wanting to classify a building as a castle, it has to be able to take a round from a cannon/tank.
I would like to see building control rock up with an 18th century cannon, a 6 pound round and a bag of black powder in order to sign off the build.
I could do with at least a 4 car garage now.2 for cars,1 for the motor home and one for bikes/workshop. I could get up to 2 kitchens if I had an outside one based around the BBQ if thats how it gets counted but not 5
If you're missing your Kev fix, he's doing the RIBA house of the year again on Wednesdays.
Follow along as the judges pick not-your-favourite from the nominations each week.
My fav from this week's (26.11) was the 3 wing retirement house. Absolutely stunning.
"retirement house"
Not sure that's many people's idea of a retirement house. £2-3m build? That internal ceiling cladding was certainly done with money being no object.
Just goes to prove that good architecture costs lots of money. None of the builds were cheap. I guess it's an R I B A (not reeba) self congratulation thing, so has to have extensive architect input, rather than a GD which can be a lash up self build done on a fag packet.
If you're missing your Kev fix, he's doing the RIBA house of the year again on Wednesdays.
Follow along as the judges pick not-your-favourite from the nominations each week.
My fav from this week's (26.11) was the 3 wing retirement house. Absolutely stunning.
Good PSA; I'd been wondering what happened to that given the last series was a while (couple of years?) ago
I’m slightly confused. The programme says it’s about new builds and new home of the year. But so far 2 of the 3 shortlisted are extensions rather than new homes. At this rate it will need renaming as extension of the year.
"retirement house"
Just goes to prove that good architecture costs lots of money.
It does. You want cheap then it's what the mass house builders do: 2 story square box, timber frame, brick clad, tiled pitched roof, unexciting windows, external plastic gutters.
Pretty much any other method of building will be more expensive. And anything that is not an 'off the shelf' part - anything unique or custom - adds loads of cost, uncertainty and potential issues. Unless someone has done it before you're building a prototype.
When we did ours the biggest points of conflict with the architect were the bits of design that were labelled "T.B.C. by M.C.", which turned out to mean "to be confirmed by main contractor". A meeting followed where we pointed out that were the main contractor and we needed to be able to build it - we were looking for the house to be designed, not just sketched. There were still a load of things that we had to solve that wouldn't have needed to be thought about on a standard estate house.
we were looking for the house to be designed, not just sketched.
I have some sympathy with architects over the amount of work that goes into designing a house but ime there's a hell of a lot of stuff that's "someone else's problem" that they just wash their hands of. They do mostly like to do the pretty bits and take all the credit.