Grand Designs home dramatically collapses in £200,000 disaster after builder 'forgets key rule'

A modern Grand Designs home dramatically collapsed in a £200,000 disaster after the builder seemingly 'forgot a key rule'.

The property near Maidstone, Kent, is home to Richard Hawkes, 49, who lives with his wife Sophie, 50.

Sadly, their dream build didn't exactly go to plan as the house was featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.

During filming, presenter Kevin McCloud heard the structure collapse from behind him as world-first design turned out to be 'extremely delicate'.

Watch below:

Richard, who is an architect, told The Sun: "There was a time when Kevin was on site filming with the house in the background when the roof collapsed.

"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," Richard explained.

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.

"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.

"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.

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

Channel 4

"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."

The cost of the damages racked up to £200,000 and another week was added onto the finish date.

Richard admitted it could have been a lot worse as the other 15 workers were left uninjured.

"The first layer is glued with Plaster of Paris and the others are cross bonded laid at 45 degree angles across from the layers below," he said.

"It's the world's largest timbrel vaulted arch. It's the technique usually used to build domes. In a landscape where we have lots of clay it's a wonderful use of local materials."

LADbible has contacted Channel 4 for comment.