Guy Martin’s House Without Bills

[MAB]

"Guy's rolling up his sleeves as he explores how to make your home cheaper to heat. Using all his engineering experience, can Guy make energy bills a thing of the past?"

"Guy Martin attempts to transform a 1930s semi-detached property into an eco home with no energy bills. The 90-minute programme, Guy Martin’s House Without Bills, will follow Guy's nine-month renovation of an average family home in Trafford, with the ultimate aim of driving its gas and electricity bills as low as possible. Whilst taking on the ambitious project, he also shows viewers how to reduce their rising energy costs with a range of advice and tips for any household wanting to cut bills and carbon emissions from their home, regardless of their budget."

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-house-without-bills

 

I watched this programme with some interest but i think the Home Building Industry will have to raise the general levels of on-site accuracy, specialist training, apprenticeships, quality control inspections and recruit/improve installation/construction skills in the UK workforce.....

 

 

 

 

[JohnMo]

6 minutes ago, MAB said:

Guy Martin attempts to transform a 1930s semi-detached property into an eco home with no energy bills. 

He doesn't attempt, they film a team doing it and does a little bit of hands on.

 

It was interesting but...

[Nickfromwales]

It's like picking one single grain of sand off a beach and polishing it for a few hours and saying it's a diamond.

 

As above, it's just not achievable as nobody has enough GIF to do absolutely amazing work for the same price as someone else making it a bag of shit.

 

Public just won't or can't spend this amount on capital 'adventure', especially if they're not living there for the rest of their lives, which they'd need to do for the ROI.

 

Great TV though, I'm sure, ......as is GD.......  

[markharro]

I think it was a really important programme actually. Guy Martin is the modern day Fred Dibnah and people will sit up and take notice. Yes of course a 6 figure renovation is niche but the pre-fab terraces are the real takeaway message. We can and we should be building quality stuff like this and not the absolute C%$p that is the standard new build or indeed old build.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, markharro said:

I think it was a really important programme actually. Guy Martin is the modern day Fred Dibnah and people will sit up and take notice. Yes of course a 6 figure renovation is niche but the pre-fab terraces are the real takeaway message. We can and we should be building quality stuff like this and not the absolute C%$p that is the standard new build or indeed old build.

Not saying we shouldn't  Look at what we promote here, with everyone contributing to help the next chap.

 

"Can" is down to cost, "Niche" comes with a price tag, and often the goal not being achieved by corner-cutting or commercial bean-counting, or lazy trades getting a newer, elevated wage, to still turn out crap.

[craig]

I hate to say it, we don't have the standard of workmanship or mass builders capable of achieving it. Training the trades will take a long time and a lot of "we know better attitude". All of them do the builds on the cheap, cut corners where and when they can. As an example, I wouldn't trust Bellway to run a bath.

 

Smaller more independent builders have come a long way but in my opinion, we are still miles behind achieving anything like this on a mass scale. The recent warm grant scheme should highlight the amount of charlatans that are around.

[SteamyTea]

3 hours ago, craig said:

Bellway

Misread that as Bellend.

[craig]

4 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Misread that as Bellend.

 

They are tbf.

[TheMitchells]

I thought the programme was pretty good in showing what could be done, as the vast majority of the public really have no idea.  So in that sense, i think it did a great job.  It was a shame that the church renovation cost was mentioned as over a million pounds!  That will put anyone off renovating to such a standard.  I know they did say it was unusually high but thats a number that people will remember. And they did not give an accurate figure for the Manchester house.  I love Guy Martins enthusiasm and his explanations/experiments were great.  

But as said before, it will take a long time for builders to even think about changing their methods, never mind training for it.

 

A friend has recently had to have her lounge floor joists replaced as there was no airbrick and the beams had rotted, with her floor dropping away from the skirting. As they fitted OSB to the beams, I mentioned to make sure the builder used airtight tape to seal the edges, to stop draughts before the new laminate was fitted but she was told it wasnt necessary/appropriate. I think it was a missed opportunity but then why should an experienced builder listen to a friend of the client - and a woman at that!