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My thought was how did that pass building regs for fire retardancy?
The build wasn't finished, so no final sign off needed, same as all those fancy staircases with no balustrades in other episodes. Or could be a fancy intumescent coating that meets the required standard?
I thought Kev was a bit harsh on the couple in the coloured RSJ episode. Not a lot they could have done about the decision to have the ruin knocked down but he went on and on about it. Same with the trees, all forests look terrible when freshly felled but a few years in they are green and beautiful.
Not sure the tree surgeon had his best day at work when he skimmed the monument with a tree that was supposed to be winched in the other direction either!
Geoff is a nob!
Wot a Kent!
Nice statique 🤣
Yes, why am I hoping for some unforeseen misfortune to be inflicted on Geoff in his “statique”? Besides, it’s a location only an Essex boy could love, a landscape comprising horizontal green, brown and if you’re lucky blue stripes..
Why would you take on such a complicated build in such a location in his position
It looks like a double-wide on stilts.
Hmmm, not sure about that. 🤔
1970s bungalowtastic
Is he legally required to have some sort of railing installed to stop him walking off after a few beers?
His interior design skills are top notch....
Del boys flat
Thought it was going to have great estuary views but just looks very meh
That turf ain’t gonna grow there
Is he legally required to have some sort of railing installed to stop him walking off after a few beers?
He mentioned that the balcony was delayed…but how can you spend £700k on what looks like a bland 1970s bungalow on stilts? Even the interior was like….
Why did he "have" to include a lift? I missed that. No other grand design project "had" to have a lift.
Did he throw that shockingly laid turf down 30 mins before Kev turned up?
1970s bungalowtastic
Complete with authentic furniture.
Kevin seemed to take a shine to him though.
Perhaps he had designs on the daughter 😉😂
bungalow on stilts
If it was on stilts, it would've saved all that unnecessarily complicated steel work for the pointless cantilever. Another case of architectural ****ery.
I stopped watching after 15 mins as Geoff/Jeff bloke came across as an arrogant tool.
I hope it's horrible
Why are Geoffs/Jeffs on telly always terrible/annoying/gits?
Asking for a friend.....
Why did he “have” to include a lift? I missed that. No other grand design project “had” to have a lift.
I think you have to have unassisted or level access to the main living area of a new build house now or something like that. You couldn't sensibly have a ramp or similar in that situation. I could ask my building standards colleagues, but it's likely different where I am in Scotland.
Geoff/Jeff got what he wanted. Maybe he had a condition that wasn't mentioned, hence the lift and constant references to mortality.
Lee must have had some hidden talent too.
Maybe he had a condition that wasn’t mentioned, hence the lift and constant references to mortality.
Tbh I think you could have subtly hid the lift and been unaware of its existence where as it seemed to be a feature.
I’d have have thought he’d have bought a smaller villa abroad and built something a tad cheaper here.
If it was on stilts, it would’ve saved all that unnecessarily complicated steel work for the pointless cantilever.
+1
Aside from the cantilever expense I quite liked him & his build, it suited his needs without pretending to be eco and was what he wanted rather than mirroring the latest internal design fad.
Kev questioned him on the lift and he muttered something about “building regs”.
Lift probably required to confirm to Part M Building Regs which requires level access and provisions for access. No one seems to mention that it was right behind a sailing club - all those clanking halyards. The thing is there is a nice architectural vernacular along that coast in places but instead, they design something inspired by a hideous 1970s bungalow both outside and in.
I didn't like his decor, but at least it was different. So many GD builds have soulless muted colours with no personal belongings.
From a thread on.... Mumsnet!😱.... Turned up in a Google search re GD honest!
A lot of the final visits furniture/decor is staged by ch4 with some being brought in for the final shots and then taken away. Not his though, or atleast not the obviously personal things
Might have to start playing spot the thing from a previous show!
Question re cantilevered buildings.
I worked in a school that built a nice new science block which due to slope was cantilevered and due to architectural knobbery was steel framed. Within 5 years there was obvious sag over the cantilever, like the centre of it was sagging apparently settling. But you coul slide a £1 coin under the outer side of the door and roll it under the inner side.
Will all big cantilevered buildings do this? What about the mass of roof gardens? The Cumbrian one had a redesign to foundations what about adding tens of tons of soil plus water onto the roof?
Loads of factors involved with a steel structure.
When the steel frames are detailed, holes generally have a 2mm tolerance, so stuff can and will sag a bit. The steels would have been designed for minimal deflection ( he had some pretty chunky sections in there ) , but you are never going to eliminate it all together. The steel is very rarely straight. You can get a positive camber rolled into it , so when it is fully loaded it will come level. In theory it all works, but with a +/- 3mm tolerance on fabrication and a +/-10mm tolerance on erection the real world result is quite different. That's before you start adding in temperatures effecting the steelwork as you erect it. This can have quite an effect on structures. We built a chassis and framework for a film that was sat on smallish caster wheels in the height of summer.
After we built it, they left it a week before they started cladding it
In the morning, the centre wheels were off the ground , but around mid morning they were down on the ground where the frame was moving due to the heat.
@onehundredthidiot you certainly have to get the design calcs right (or massively over engineer 🤔) you'd hope with £150k spent on concrete piles this one would be pretty stable..
I think that's my issue with this series lots of architectural design knobbery, which after build starts has to be reinforced or redone because an engineer looked at it and pointed out it wouldn't work. The guy early in the series using the bloke up the road to do the steel work. Now that's either going to be massively overengineered or possibly not up to scratch. Helluva gamble.
No one seems to mention that it was right behind a sailing club – all those clanking halyards.
It's far from being a nice noise, imo, but doesn't seem to bother thousands of people who pay a premium to live in marina developments all around the country.
It seemed one of the most unfinished projects which leads me to think he'd run out of cash, and as there was no immediate prospect of it progressing they filmed it as is. Nice enough build but lots of brown furniture - the kind your grandma thinks is a family heirloom but nobody wants. The idea of a cantilever house is more interesting than the reality you clearly don't benefit from it when inside, might as well just be on stilts for the difference it makes to the view, and spend the £200K saving on landscaping.
well. it was interesting I guess.
I thought the house was alright.... I think it was mostly let-down by "the last 5%" - if it had some decent modern exterior finishes and had been dressed/decorated a bit better, it would have been pretty nice. Not what I would be spending that much money on, but there you go.
Site was bloody massive - what's he going to do with all that land? Again, would look pretty good if he re-wilded it (not sure thats the correct term) - but I'm guess it'll probably just stay as it looks now.
At first he struck me as somebody who thinks he can succeed purely by his force of will alone, but it all ended up a bit melancholy at the end - and having the lift in the middle of the hallway was just flipping depressing.
Watched this one last night. I warmed to the guy over the course of the programme, it was certainly presented (edited or real?) that this experience had really levelled him.
I think the house did really look like a 'prefab on a pedestal'. Maybe that will be softened when the land around is landscaped...
That turf. It looked like it had been just thrown on top of the gravel? Maybe one of C4 or Jeff's attempts to last minute pretty it up for the cameras?
Was this the last in the series?
Looks like this could be the site?
https://www.google.com/maps/ @51.6912177,0.7579466,721m/data=!3m1!1e3
Statique still in place and not much sign of building going on, but the conventional houses that surround it suggest that the whole mushroom house concept wasn't really needed. (which as above it wasn't really, just build it on stilts and save a fortune on steelwork and groundworks).
Also the show suggested he had gained 1M from the spanish villa, spent 700K on the bunga-bunga-low and has left fimself 300K as a pension pot to cover him from his early 60s? Surely something not quite fully disclosed there.
You do realise that google earth pictures are not always current? Given there are references to the lift & interior above & google just shows the slab it's probably when he ran out of money before selling the villa.
Nice bit of editing to show him disclosing he turned down an offer for £1.2m as he wanted £1.3m and 2 mins later he's sold for £1m! He may have got £1m for the villa- may have had a mortgage on it tho.
If he was moaning about saying in the caravan over winter why not go to the villa before it sold?
just build it on stilts and save a fortune on steelwork and groundworks
you still need groundwork for stilts.
You do realise that google earth pictures are not always current?
<sarcasm>Oh really I thought they had a fleet of satellites giving live updates </sarcasm>
If it had been a recent image of finished site I'd have been a bit more confident that it was the correct place, as it was clearly an old image I just pointed out the bits that seemed to indicate it was.
you still need groundwork for stilts.
But if you're not supporting a massive cantilever they don't need to be piles sunk 14m, so they are simpler and cheaper. Likewise the steelwork is simpler and cheaper, hence 'saving a fortune' rather than 'not spending a penny'.
IIRC he bought the site with planning permission in place and the house was already designed. I don't think he had any involvement in the design and presume the stilts thing was away to getting planning on somewhere so close to sea level (doesn't explain the cantilever though)? Here any new property at or below the 5m contour needs to do quite a bit of work to justify getting PP.