Grand Designs homeowner who lost £200,000 after house collapsed explains how 'it could have been much worse'

The Grand Designs homeowner who lost £200,000 after his house collapsed has explained how 'it could have been much worse'.

Architect Richard Hawkes' Kent property was featured on the Channel 4 show, when presenter Kevin McCloud suddenly heard the structure collapse from behind him.

Watch below:

49-year-old Richard - who lives with his wife Sophie, 50 - was in the process of building his dream home with a world-first design.

However, it seems that the build turned out to be 'extremely delicate' as one worker ended up forgetting 'a key rule'.

"There was a time when Kevin was on site filming with the house in the background when the roof collapsed," Richard explained to The Sun.

"I was standing by the camera person looking at the camera. You hear this almighty crash."

The accident took place after the stonemason leaned on the first completed layer of tiles of the unique curved roof, and fell through.

"One of the things they were told not to do was lean on the first layer of tiles. It's extremely delicate," the founder of Hawkes Architecture explained.

Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud heard the structure collapse from behind him. Channel 4

"It's the subsequent layers that make it stronger. He leaned too much. It made part of it fail and whatever that was left fell with it. So that was dramatic."

The on-site rule was to not lean on the dome structure, as contractor Tony was said to have fallen through the roof onto a crash pad below.

Richard claims he grazed his head along the way down, explaining: "Our contractor Tony 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."

Richard revealed how it 'could have been a lot worse' as the other 15 people working onsite were left uninjured.

Homeowner Richard has explained how 'it could have been much worse'. YouTube/Richard Hawkes

"It was his responsibility. I said there were 15 people working onsite. Other than Tony falling through and getting a graze and dented ego, no one was hurt," he added.

"There was a crash deck that caught the falling material and Tony. No windows got smashed.

"Sometimes you've got to dust yourself down and think actually we were very fortunate in the grand scheme of things. Within a week we were back to where we were."

LADbible has contacted Channel 4 for comment.

Topics: Channel 4, Home, TV and Film, Grand Designs

Anish Vij

Anish is a GG2 Young Journalist of the Year 2024 finalist. He has a Master's degree in Multimedia Journalism and a Bachelor's degree in International Business Management. Apart from that, his life revolves around the ‘Four F’s’ - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

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