Sarah Beeny program...A con?

olias

Ok, so not really money saving, but having just watched Sarah Beenys 'Help my house is falling down' program tonight. It annoyed me enough to post this!

I've watched it several times with the wife, and thought something didn't ring true. The costs didn't seem to add up, the families appeared clueless to the point of being simple, etc etc.

On tonights show, they renovated someones 'family home', with a budget of only £130000 (yeh, right!). And apparently money was so tight they had to live in the house when the renovations were being done, and do most of the work themselves, including only a half baked bodge job on the wreck of a roof, because they couldn't afford a full new roof. They also allegedly spent £25000 on a full re wire and re plumb (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Mind you, they could afford a luxury bathroom and kitchen and brand new furniture throughout!

The bit that makes me really doubt the whole thing was at the very end during the 'reveal'. Did anyone else notice that as Sarah Beeny came through the front door of this 'family home', on the wall to her left was a commercial fire alarm system complete with the red 'break glass in case of fire' box, together with one of those large commercial/municipal warning notices stating what to do in event of fire (who the fire warden is/assembly points etc). Why would you have all this in a family home?

You couldn't even argue that maybe the house used to be a hotel or commercial premises and this was left over from that, as they had had the place gutted and a complete re-wire.

The wife thinks the 'families' are actors and the properties are probably bought by channel 4 and sold afterwards.

Anyway, the most annoying thing is that it gives a completely false idea of how a property is renovated including costs etc - there was one the other week where the 'family' were down to their last £40 and had no idea how they would manage. The next scene showed a finished luxury kitchen, together with about £5000 worth of top of the range Smeg appliances etc, and new furniture throughout:rotfl:.

Anyway, I feel better for that! Anyone else like to comment?

Olias

Doozergirl

I spent the hour ranting at it. I was saying to H that I thought it had been an HMO or a B&B and I think that is their plan for it - you don't really need 16 rooms in a house! So I think the old fire alarm system has been kept as they will need it if they plan to run it as a guest house.

But I don't really enjoy the programme. I do like Sarah very much and I can see the value to the average person but it all looks so frightening (five year old loves it for the drama, I think!) whereas it's just obvious that the owners know these places are falling down because they've bought the houses for peanuts. So the ignorance element annoys me a bit.

Not really my idea of a luxury bathroom I'm afraid and the 'erhum' beams in the master bedroom were foul. They were never ever meant for display. That is not character, that is scraping the barrel. Shallow old me prefers Cowboy Builders because I get to look at pretty houses afterwards.

Was interested in the underpinning technique though. Not seen that before

rammy007

We thought it a bit odd they said they had been in it for 3months yet the y had managed to get the programme involved during that time.Surely buying a place like that you would have had a good survey done,also they must have realised a lot of what was to be done cos of all the plumbing and rewiring needed.I don't think they were as naive as it was made out.

aboard_epsilon

I think the TV channel making it, is sub-ing the costs .

There are a lot of rip off outfits out there ..25,000 for repair of a roof does not surprise me ..if it were in London or somewhere close.

People down south just seem to accept costs ..and don't barter or argue ..they just pay ..

Ive noticed here, in this very forum ..that people are not astonished at all at prices ..they ask the price of something ..and someone in the trade replies ..that's the going rate ..and they accept it ..like lambs to the slaughter.

if people don't start getting astonished ..the prices will keep going up ...

That guy/ owner in program 3,...house with extension that was subsiding ..and severe mould problem..... i think, knew how to plaster and seemed to know what he was doing....if he was that good at that ..why was he acting like he knew nothing ?..strange
..most plasterers i know ..know the ins and outs of building work like it was second nature.

all the best.markj

BTW ...is she pregnant ..or is it a large beer belly ?

and channel foiur are known for making things up as they go along ..remember the spoof documentaries ..

SUESMITH_2

ds noticed the "wash your hands' sign at the side of the sink too.

i like sarah beeny but i have to agree this programme drives me mad - i can't believe that people can be that stupid so it would make sense if they're actors - tonights family were deffo related though as they all looked alike (slightly odd)

the money thing really pees me off too

Doozergirl

aboard_epsilon wrote: »

I think the TV channel making it, is sub-ing the costs .

There are a lot of rip off outfits out there ..25,000 for repair of a roof does not surprise me ..if it were in London or somewhere close.

People down south just seem to accept costs ..and don't barter or argue ..they just pay ..

Ive noticed here, in this very forum ..that people are not astonished at all at prices ..they ask the price of something ..and someone in the trade replies ..that's the going rate ..and they accept it ..like lambs to the slaughter.

if people don't start getting astonished ..the prices will keep going up ...

That guy/ owner in program 3,...house with extension that was subsiding ..and severe mould problem..... i think, knew how to plaster and seemed to know what he was doing....if he was that good at that ..why was he acting like he knew nothing ?..strange
..most plasterers i know ..know the ins and outs of building work like it was second nature.

all the best.markj

BTW ...is she pregnant ..or is it a large beer belly ?

and channel foiur are known for making things up as they go along ..remember the spoof documentaries ..

Are all tradespeople liars except the plasterers that you know, or are they just liars when it suits you?

I find it pretty insulting that your plasterer friends obviously know everything about buildings in general but people who give their time here to try and help people are accused of lying just to help out random tradespeople that they don't even know. I have seen many, many posts where people have advised that prices were too high.

Did you see the rooves though? There were so many of them, all intertwined with flat rooves, different heights and levels etc. And they were so rotten that really, if you were doing things properly, you'd start all over again with brand new trusses, redesigned to interlink properly. The trusses for one roof can easily cost £5,000 if you organise it yourself direct from a truss company. I can't count how many that place had. I think I counted six! Channel 4 aren't going to put the lowest estimate on it but that house was listed so there would be as much faffing with that roof as there was with the dodgy joists in the master bedroom - it should have needed one steel joist across the middle of the room to break the span and wood ones to meet it. Instead the conservation officer demanded that the original joists were left in place and they have to dance a merry dance for them. Shocking!

aboard_epsilon

Doozergirl wrote: »

Are all tradespeople liars except the plasterers that you know, or are they just liars when it suits you?

I find it pretty insulting that your plasterer friends know everything about building but people who give their time here to try and help people are accused of lying just to help out random tradespeople that they don't even know. I have seen many, many posts where people have advised that prices were too high.

Did you see the rooves though? There were so many of them, all intertwined with flat rooves, different heights and levels etc. And they were so rotten that really, if you were doing things properly, you'd start all over again. The trusses for one roof can easily cost £5,000 if you organise it yourself direct from a truss company. I can't count how many that place had. I think I counted six!

Any person that takes money off me ..more money than they should do isnt a friend ..if they were ..they aint after .:rotfl:

all the best.markj

BillTrac

aboard_epsilon wrote: »

Any person that takes money off me ..more money than they should do isnt a friend ..if they were ..they aint after .:rotfl:

all the best.markj

what is it with you and all the full stops? Except you don't stop..you keep on and on and on

CambridgeAngel

mmmmm now what can I say - We are not actors firstly !!! Just to give you the story that was mentioned in the program........ The house used to be a B&B so yes there are still fire alarms etc fitted (not working) as we haven't finished that area. This is an 18 roomed house and only 5 rooms were finished for the filming. We are still in the process of converting it into a 5 bedroom family house for us to live in!

As far as budget goes - we brought the house knowing what needed doing as Sarah said (except for the subsidence). Things happened to be worse than we orginally thought and YES we did have a full survery done which said the movement was historical and not going anywhere - just needed patching up and monitoring !

Doozergirl

You should spend some searching the forums for ways to save money, CambridgeAngel, and we shall help you do that.

Glad you made it to the board before someone started saying you look like swingers or something. That wouldn't be the first time it happened after a Sarah Beeny program

Poppycat

They said the house had 16 rooms

Now didnt they have 3-4 Kids. So say 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, 4 bedrooms thats 9 rooms yet somehow even though money was short they did the attic and turned that into master bedroom, where are all the other 7 rooms?

I watch the whole series now mainly on 4od this week, and it looks a bit fake

I cant believe many of these people are imbeciles and many of the faults dont just happen over night

I watch a couple the other day 5 bedroom house, the family had around £10 to live off that week yet they could find money for a new kitchen it doesn't add up, he said he works in recruitment in banking and times are hard so it wasnt a thing that could change quickly