Build your own house rte1

Saw a tiny bit and quickly turned over, but you've described it as what I thought it might be, all a bit staged.

Nobody is a master of all trades and amateur mistakes cost a lot to rectify later.

I agree - I dont believe they done all the work themselves. The house last night was quite a complicated structure aswell. The idea that someone could build a house from scratch with help from the boyfriend and teenage kids is far fetched. Did the couple last night acutally have a day job aswell?

Harrison ( I cant decide if hes English or Austrailian) - the guy thats advising them is also questionable. Some of the scenes where he talks about the build he seems to be in his own house - which looks poor quality being honest.

The couple, in the first episode, charted their progress on instagram. The woman has a torrid time with the bathroom tiles but got it done in the end.

Don't think they got too much “assistance” outside of what was shown on the show but they may have gotten help for certain jobs. Either way, they got a very nice renovation for the money they paid.

I watched some of it but turned off, doesn't seem that realistic.

Very questionable how much if any work novices could do themselves.

Sure some jobs can be picked up relatively quickly and completed.How good the finished job would be is another story.

Other jobs on a site ,not a hope someone would be able to do it without plenty of experience or lots of help that isn't shown in the program.

I thought the house in first episode was a lot more than 25k! Maybe just a typo and missed the 3 :) 235k

I do a lot of my own diy and even I was nervous of her using that saw, I have lots of saws but the circular saw one is my least favourite, scary things!

The second show commenced with a man standing on another man’s shoulders as a scaffolding. It is unbelievable that any 2 adults would do this. This is in breyof the Health and Safety Acts for Construction Sites.

The writing on the screen stated that “all Health and Safety boxes were ticked”. There were many breaches of the Health and Safety Acts on the second show also.

Below are my comments on the first episode.

The show was a disgrace and had many breaches of the S.I. No. 291/2013 - Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013. It was just luck that no one was killed or maimed etc. 

Everyone involved with the show should be prosecuted and fined by the HSA. 

Children should never be allowed to go in to a building site under any circumstances. And 5 year old children should never be allowed to have dangerous wire cutters capable of amputation fingers. 

Note to Harrison- Construction Sites are not Children's Playgrounds. 

Grace and Robbie should not have been allowed drive an excavator unless they were trained and Certified to drive the excavator. 

Robbie was seen trying to drive the excavator out through the back door - with no safety frame on the machine. 

Master Builder and Building Teacher and Craftsman Harrison Gardner then decide that the viewers needed to see Harrison driving the excavator with no safety frame. Safety Frames are only for sissies. 

It appears that Harrison wants people to learn nothing from the T V show - so they will need to book in to classes at his workshop. Also looks like Harrison is hoping for an Oscar. 

“Build your own Home”. - they had Masons, electricians, plumbers, plasterers etc, and Harrison did the Carpentry. 

Harrison built a formwork for a worktop and did not explain anything about making it. It was exciting to see Grace master the Poker Vibrator on the concrete. At least the viewers learned about big good Vibrations. 

Viewers were not shown how to build or do anything constructive 

Girls night out was brilliant with all the fashion and cocktails, and probably ate in to the Budget- Grace probably couldn’t afford the other part of the shoulder of her red dress.

Lovely to see the female friends helping out on the Construction Site near the concrete blocks and masons on scaffolding - not in compliance with the HSA Acts, and the ladies with wonderful hair styles and no Safety Helmets and lovely designer 👠 and no boring Safety boots, no hiVis vests, no safety glasses etc. Next show may include the Grandparents and In-laws and a few little toddlers crawling around the Building Site and playing with the half-ton mechanical excavator toy thinges. 

I cannot understand why the Health and Safety Authority, with all the substantial evidence of breaches of the HSA Acts would not prosecute RTE and Master Builder and Building Teacher and Craftsman Harrison Gardner. Or will the HSA wait until someone is killed or maimed on a Building Site on one of these shows. 

Budget - The budget was well explained. They had an Architect who knew that the budget was €70k, and the architect said that he designed works for Robbie and Grace for multiplies of the budget. 

The budget was €70k and they spent approx €95k. They will need to hire many more Craftsmen, to “Build Your Own Home” 😂😂 and pay out approx €60k to finish off the house. 

Corkionions have a great song called ‘The Langer’. Master Builder and Building Teacher and Craftsman Harrison Gardner, should rename the show :- “ Only Fools and Langers”

Excellent post. Didn't see the show as I'm allergic to anything coming from here -

Thanks for your comment ShamNNspace, I agree.

No unskilled person should be allowed to touch a Nail gun or a Skill-saw or a Sabre saw etc, and should never be allowed near an 1/4 ton excavator.

It is beyond belief that Master Builder and Building Teacher and Craftsman Harrison Gardner would hand any of these dangerous tools to unskilled amateurs.

You are correct in stating that no nonsense local builders with experience would certainly have shown viewers how to build their own home.

Harrisons biography doesnt do much to convince me that he has the skills needed to teach people how to build their own home in Ireland.

I presume he charges these so called self builders a large fee to pass on his knowledge. I wouldnt like to be trying to sell any of these buildings in years to come.

Yep hes doing good - I feel sorry for the eejits paying him though.

If you’re dependent on mortgage drawdowns, then yes, the bank would be very strict on having all works certified / signed off. But in this series it’s made clear that these people are working on tight budgets - from their savings and small personal loans.

Ffs, nanny state rubbish. The second couple were circus acrobats, having his missus on his shoulders is par for the course at that lark. They got their extension and renovation done for 50k iirc n fair play to them.

Stick with Dermot Bannon n fully registered builders doing a revamp n extension for 260k which ends up at 380k.

Harrison cannot teach ordinary people how to be a groundsperson, builder, plumber, electrician, plasterer etc etc over a few days - that's the issue. Either these self builders have professional help that's not shown on the show or they will have problems with the houses further down the line due to bad workmanship. I certainly wouldn't be buying any of these houses should they ever come up for sale.

To gloss over health and safety on a building site is very negligent.

In the most recent show I felt Uncle Teddy could see through Harrison and is not a fan of Harrison's work.

This weeks end result was brilliant. Nerves of steel to approach a build in that way but I suppose he is an architect and for all the mentions of the DoneDeal bargains, you'd swear DoneDeal must have been sponsoring (though I think there was a mention of adverts at one point too!).