Grand Designs 25/2
Discussion
Didn't enjoy this one, as per pretty much all the comments above I cringed the whole way through but did chuckle at Kevin's comments and the end result was surprisingly better than expected.
The one thing that still has me thinking thismorning though and has been touched on already, how the hell do they stop water ingress with all that soil up behind the tyres. In pretty much every single previous Grand Designs where people are building into the ground they go on extensively about trying to water proof the walls with layers of sticky stuff, space age materials and polystyrene blah blah and then driving strong piles into the ground with decent foundations to cope with the weight of all the soil and so on etc......
.....and this week we have a couple of tree huggers who (with no mention of foundations) pile up a load of tyres, fill with soil and seal with mud. Surely its a disaster waiting to happen
I did think when he was doing the roof they'd talk about doing the back wall aswell but alas no and surprised Kevin didn't bring it up in the show ??
Anyway roll on next week though, tis good Weds eve watching these days
The one thing that still has me thinking thismorning though and has been touched on already, how the hell do they stop water ingress with all that soil up behind the tyres. In pretty much every single previous Grand Designs where people are building into the ground they go on extensively about trying to water proof the walls with layers of sticky stuff, space age materials and polystyrene blah blah and then driving strong piles into the ground with decent foundations to cope with the weight of all the soil and so on etc......
.....and this week we have a couple of tree huggers who (with no mention of foundations) pile up a load of tyres, fill with soil and seal with mud. Surely its a disaster waiting to happen
I did think when he was doing the roof they'd talk about doing the back wall aswell but alas no and surprised Kevin didn't bring it up in the show ??
Anyway roll on next week though, tis good Weds eve watching these days
NotNormal said:
The one thing that still has me thinking thismorning though and has been touched on already, how the hell do they stop water ingress with all that soil up behind the tyres.
I did notice in the shots of them building up the tyre wall there was a huge sheet of plasic/Polythyene (sp?) between the bank and the tyre stack. Not sure if it would be enough, and there seemed to be no precausions in place to stop it getting damaged (que numpty with wheelbarrow full of top soil trying to get accross a narrow plank and falling off)nogginthenog said:
Foundations - are there any?
There was no mention at all of foundations, until the point where they werwe discussing the giant hot water tank, at which point yon baldyman said that the underfloor heating would be used in the summer to "charge" the slab so it would remain warm all winter. One assumes there was a f
king great not very eco concrete slab already laid prior to the start of filming (and presumably tied in to the rotunda to prevent cracking?) cardigankid said:
When you see people getting others to work for them for free you know you are dealing with rogues. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work, it's fundamental.
They sold it to people as educational, but seeing as all the people seemed to do was stack tyres and compact earth into them, I'm not sure how educational that would be. scotal said:
cardigankid said:
When you see people getting others to work for them for free you know you are dealing with rogues. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work, it's fundamental.
They sold it to people as educational, but seeing as all the people seemed to do was stack tyres and compact earth into them, I'm not sure how educational that would be. Dave_ST220 said:
scotal said:
cardigankid said:
When you see people getting others to work for them for free you know you are dealing with rogues. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work, it's fundamental.
They sold it to people as educational, but seeing as all the people seemed to do was stack tyres and compact earth into them, I'm not sure how educational that would be. Why the hell would you want to pay something you don't have too?
Let me put it this way. If someone came to you Dave and said "I'll work for you, pay you to feed me, but you gotta cook... oh, and I'll live in a tent on your land" would you consider it..?!?!
Podie said:
Dave_ST220 said:
scotal said:
cardigankid said:
When you see people getting others to work for them for free you know you are dealing with rogues. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work, it's fundamental.
They sold it to people as educational, but seeing as all the people seemed to do was stack tyres and compact earth into them, I'm not sure how educational that would be. Why the hell would you want to pay something you don't have too?
Let me put it this way. If someone came to you Dave and said "I'll work for you, pay you to feed me, but you gotta cook... oh, and I'll live in a tent on your land" would you consider it..?!?!
I actually liked the house on last night's programme. Not sure about the loo though.
Podie said:
Dave_ST220 said:
scotal said:
cardigankid said:
When you see people getting others to work for them for free you know you are dealing with rogues. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work, it's fundamental.
They sold it to people as educational, but seeing as all the people seemed to do was stack tyres and compact earth into them, I'm not sure how educational that would be. Why the hell would you want to pay something you don't have too?
Let me put it this way. If someone came to you Dave and said "I'll work for you, pay you to feed me, but you gotta cook... oh, and I'll live in a tent on your land" would you consider it..?!?!
Twincam16 said:
Maybe they just wanted to do it? Maybe not everyone thinks in terms of how much they can earn from everything they do?
But baldyman and his hairy bird took advantage. Twincam16 said:
He had a point - it's a very low-cost way of building your own house, you can end up with quite a radical design, and they were effectively showing them how to do it in return for a small amount of money for food.
They showed them how to stack tyres and fill them with mud..... all the interesting stuff was done after the volunteers left. And it wasnt a radical design. it was a rectangular box with a round box on the side. Twincam16 said:
I actually liked the house on last night's programme. Not sure about the loo though.
Agree with that, nice enough house, not sure about crapping a bucket. 
Catz said:
Well surprise, surprise!
I logged on here and expected to read more or less everything I have. Well done PHers you have not disappointed me.
Personally I liked their "earthy" approach to the build, it was very organic and showed their personality. Unlike some of the contemporary builds where it's almost as though the owners need to show their materialism to the world by building a home which is clinical, full of expensive gadgets, not homely in the slightest and is basically a show house.
As for the sponger/don't want to work comments ... I'd like to see some of you put in the hard graft that they did. The volunteers all looked pretty happy to work their socks off too, so they must have been staying in a place with a good atmosphere and rapport among workers and owners otherwise they'd have walked.
I'm no carbon friendly eco warrior, think my cars tell that story, but I liked this build. It looked like somewhere you'd feel comfortable to visit and be able to relax in.
Peace out!
I logged on here and expected to read more or less everything I have. Well done PHers you have not disappointed me.
Personally I liked their "earthy" approach to the build, it was very organic and showed their personality. Unlike some of the contemporary builds where it's almost as though the owners need to show their materialism to the world by building a home which is clinical, full of expensive gadgets, not homely in the slightest and is basically a show house.
As for the sponger/don't want to work comments ... I'd like to see some of you put in the hard graft that they did. The volunteers all looked pretty happy to work their socks off too, so they must have been staying in a place with a good atmosphere and rapport among workers and owners otherwise they'd have walked.
I'm no carbon friendly eco warrior, think my cars tell that story, but I liked this build. It looked like somewhere you'd feel comfortable to visit and be able to relax in.
Peace out!
The end result was a nice house that I bet puts many posters boxes on housing estate's to shame. I'd prefer that to any £175K house in Didcot or similar.
Dave_ST220 said:
I've not been to Didcot, is it that bad?
Its like 99% of the new (last 25 year) large scale builds in the UK, close after close of 2 bed + box room identiboxes made from plywood and cladding aka Barrett. i.e. what most of the UK aspires to and takes 4 time mortages to buy.Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff