Author: Diane

Series 2 -Episode 9 – Help! My House Is Falling Down
Thursday 04 August 8PM Channel 4
Hull Garden Village house episode of Help My house is falling down on 4oD.

The TV blurb says:
In Hull’s Garden Village, Sarah Beeny revisits a Victorian house that was under attack from tree roots.

Dave, Sharon and their two children were forced out of their handsome five-bedroom Victorian house in Hull when massive cracks started ripping through their newly decorated walls, causing their doorways and windows to get badly bent out of shape. Sarah and her team discovered that huge trees surrounding the house were the likely culprits for the damage. However, the local council did not want them cut down.

A year on, Sarah revisits the family to see what progress they have made

This episode runs as all the other episodes have: a family have bought a house and there’s something wrong with it. This couple bought this house on impulse at auction without a survey. It makes me wonder if they looked at it. Hull’s Garden Suberb was built in 1907 so the houses are over 100 years old and listed.
The windows are metal framed small squares and many of these are broken or cracked and let huge amounts of drafts in. Replacements are not only expensive – it’ll cost about £20k to do the lot, but have to be approved by the council.
Sarah’s suvreying team get to work on the house and look at the bay window leaning away, as well as the drains. The cause of the cracking in the house is the large number of trees nearby. These have sucked up vast amounts of water from under the foundations and the house is sinking which in turn is pulling it apart. Some of the cracks are big enough to put your hand in!
There’s also woodworm upstairs which is dealt with by spraying all the affected wood and removing anything beyond saving.
A smoke test reveals just how leaky the windows are and Sarah recommends some flexible sealer for a temporary repair. After 18 months the windows still haven’t been replaced as they are still in discussions with the council.
The trees have a tree preservation order on them and as such need to have permission granted by the council before they can be removed. Sarah’s surveyors prepare a report which is sent to the council. It takes longer than expected to get an answer but they are given permission to remove some of the trees.

When the trees are removed the ground under the house will start to hydrate again and correct the previous movement. This needs to be measured and cracks filled that form during this process.
Sarah’s building experiment shows the family that a brick built house is able to withstand huge strains and won’t fall down just because of a few trees.

The first visit back is after 6 months and the family have had the drains entirely replaced deep enough not to have root issues again. The house has been rendered and the inside remodelled. It looks like they have a new kitchen and a new bathroom as well as redecoration. This episode unlike the others doesn’t bang on about how little money they have. They did buy the house for a bargain price at auction though.

Sarah encourages them to plant a tree – but one that won’t be a water hog.
Sarah returns after a further year and sees that the grounds outside now have been done and the land level has risen so that the previously exposed manhole is now level with the grass. It’s impressive to see!

A minor point: The TV Blurb says it’s a Victorian house. But the Garden Suberb in Hull was built in 1907 – for workers at Reckitt’s chemical works. This means the house isn’t Victorian.The reign of Queen Victoria was 1837—1901 – so these houses are built after then and are as such would be Edwardian.

It says they bought it for £80 at auction.

The Secret Life Of Buildings on Channel 4 last night.
Dyckhoff explores how the design of our homes works secretly to influence our behaviour. Light, room size, layout, proportion and materials all have measurable effects on our lives.

So why do we accept the smallest windows and the smallest room sizes in Europe?

I’ve not watched it yet but it’s critical of new builds. I’ve read elsewhere that new builds don’t meet social housing requirements because of room sizes and the open kitchen layout. Apparently social housing requirements are for closed kitchens.
It’s always concerned me that new build estates have so little space between properties, and that they have bizarre designs which mean paths are right next to windows.

Starting at David Adjaye’s hidden house that is mostly black with 3 light wells as a design triumph worries me. It’s not. It’s not a family home. It’s not for anyone who has clutter or likes bright light to read by!
When the house sets down the rules it’s wrong!

New build windows are too small! This affects your bodyclock but modern windows are small! There’s an experiment where they cut down the light in the presenter’s flat to new build levels. With urine and blood tests as well as sleep monitoring and mood rating tests – it’ll be interesting to see the results.

I know what he means – our 50s house has huge windows – something we always moan about when we’re buying curtains as we need huge ones! But it does mean we have massive amounts of light coming in!
The results are worrying – could low light be killing us?
Not only is the low light a problem, but the size is the smallest in western europe.

Room sizes – We buy by number of bedrooms rather than considering the size of the property. The UK has the smallest size of house!
He’s going to a new build property. But the owner moaning about the downstairs bedroom five years on is crazy. She bought it! She could see how small it was – or could she? It’s believed that developers use 3/4 size furniture that makes their room sizes look bigger than they are.
Always measure your biggest items of furniture and work out if they’ll fit in your new build box!
Ceiling heights are also important. Think how high the ceilings are in georgian houses – they’re high and spacious!
Need private spaces and nice outdoor spaces to meet the neighbours in.
They then look at Bjarke Ingels – “Eight House” which is really bizarre to look at! It’s got shops at the bottom, townhouses above, flats above that and then penthouse houses with gardens on the top.
They put the presenter in an ice bath to measure pain tolerance in nasty and nice surroundings.
The golden mean or ration – can make designs look pleasing to the eye
They then go to Maggies cancer centre in London which is built to not feel like a hospital using careful choice of materials.

They then go to Holland to look at the Reitveld Shroder house there. Worth a look at that – it’s a museum!

1960s estate – residents are being allowed to have a say in the design of the replacement estate when the current one is knocked down.
They don’t like the multiple ways in, the small windows, the fact it’s hard to keep clean.
Glass-house community design is helping them.

Build your own –
Would people make better choices if they self- build? Is it expensive? Not necessarily.
They got to a new city of 720 self build plots at Almere in the Netherlands. Ages range from 19-75 so it’s a mixture of people building.
It’s not so easy in the UK though. Land is dear and developers landbank.

Overall a very interesting program about the state of UK housing and how new builds are too small and bad for you!