Woodwork on TV - Kevin McCloud's shed

[AndyT]

I just finished watching the first episode of Kevin "Grand Designs" McCloud's new series 'Man Made House' on C4.

Worth a look, I thought. He bought two acres of land including some woodland, and is building a smart-looking shed, mostly from the oak in the wood or recycled materials. He does get lots of TV-style help from experts, and the editing is geared towards telling a story rather than dwelling on the techniques, but I thought it was worth a look.

It does include tree felling; a rather unconventional way of splitting oak tree trunks (using gunpowder!) cleaving oak for shingles, and a digression into making his own fuel and beer. I thought it was nice to see the overall message that a shed is a good thing to have and a general air of 'making things is fun'.

 

[marcros]

i missed the first 25 minutes but the rest was interesting enough. must get some gunpowder to try that method of splitting

 

[AndyT]

It's all on 4OD of course - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevin-mcclouds-man-made-home/4od#3414014 for anyone who missed it or wants to see it again.

 

[paulm]

Like you said Andy, was a bit of fun albeit a bit short on details, but interesting and entertaining all the same.

Cheers, Paul

 

[yetloh]

He's always watchable, even if he is sometimes superficial. It's entertainment but, like Grand Designs, it's wrapped around an interesting project. I shall certainly watch the rest of the series.

Jim

 

[WoodMangler]

I enjoyed the programme, and always find Kevin worth watching - but I could have done without those dreadful cartoons, and I intensely dislike the current TV habit of recapping the programme-so-far after every advertising break - we don't all have short-term memory problems...

 

[No skills]

I think theres a lot more to Kevin than you see on the TV programs, shame there dumbed down so much - I end up watching things like this while I'm on the computer, bit more information and content in them and they would be much more involving.

 

[No skills]

Oh the irony, I'm watching the new program ON the computer

 

[paultnl]

Given that it was very green oak, I wonder how the frame will be shaped in a year or twos time.

 

[Jensmith]

I watched it too. Recorded it last night and watched it this evening. Entertaining and I find him enjoyable to watch. Yes, the cartoons were a bit silly and the recapping is unnecessary but they've been doing that on channel 4 for years.

 

[zb1]

Just watched this on 4od. Can't say I was overly impressed but it was watchable. Strange thing is I could swear blind he said oak shingles during the piece the film then showed him splitting out cedar shingles followed by the nailing on of oak shingles. Maybe the cedar ones were just for a bit of practice.

 

[devonwoody]

I signed up to that channel 4 link. registered and went to watch Ken but found I could not advance the video to dodge the adverts, so switched off.

Anyone know how to advance to dodge these adverts? :wink:

 

[AndyT]

I signed up to that channel 4 link. registered and went to watch Ken but found I could not advance the video to dodge the adverts, so switched off.

Anyone know how to advance to dodge these adverts? :wink:

That's odd. I just checked the link I gave and (for me) 4OD shows where the ad breaks were (on the timeline at the foot of the screen) but automatically skips them!

For future episodes, you could record them on your PVR and then the ads would be there for you to skip. :wink:

 

[devonwoody]

I signed up to that channel 4 link. registered and went to watch Ken but found I could not advance the video to dodge the adverts, so switched off.

Anyone know how to advance to dodge these adverts? :wink:

That's odd. I just checked the link I gave and (for me) 4OD shows where the ad breaks were (on the timeline at the foot of the screen) but automatically skips them!

For future episodes, you could record them on your PVR and then the ads would be there for you to skip. :wink:

Thanks AndyT, I went and had another look and there is no way for me to jump the adverts on the computer. as you say I can record on my Hamex now I have found the Sunday 8pm playingtime.

 

[AndyT]

But the ads are not there when you watch on-line!
At least, not for me. I am running Firefox with AdBlock Plus installed - if you are actually seeing the ads in the video playback, I recommend you install AdBlock Plus.

EDIT: I just checked, and it is ABP doing its magic. It's free and very useful. (But don't block the ads on UKW and do click on them from time to time - some sites deserve the revenue!!)

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks AndyT

 

[JakeS]

EDIT: I just checked, and it is ABP doing its magic.

That's useful to know - I never expected AdBlock would be able to kill ads in streamed video, I would have thought for sites like C4's they'd be inserted into the same stream by the server and thus be indistinguishable from the desired video...

(And I'll apologise for depriving C4 of ad revenue when they apologise for Big Brother!)

 

[disco_monkey79]

It was enjoyable, but a bit too light on detail. I left the room for only a few minutes, and the shed was entirely built in that space of time, plus he'd made the bark beer. Although in the myriad re-caps, it looked rank anyway!

I'll keep watching, but it would be vastly improved with a bit more substance and and a bit less messing around.

Also, I dispute the success of blowing those logs up. He was left with one usable half (of the first piece to get exploded), but the other half appeared to get smashed in to teeny bits.

 

[RogerS]

He's likeable to watch although tends to be a bit of a drama queen at times. I remember when he was presenting a Grand Designs on someone renovating a very old property and he said, in his inimitable style', "And those walls bulge out by nearly 10mm along their entire length". No sh*t, Sherlock!

 

[Richard T]

We watched it and did a lot of shouting at it.

Those logs were lovely and straight and would have split well with wedges.

That was a brand new Petromax 500 lamp he tried to run on sewage - extracted fat bio diesel ... no mention of the amount of times the mantle would have had to be changed.

That mini - screw shingle splitter was pathetically stupid. Who would have even entertained the idea that a screw like that would split out a precise, thin shingle?

He couldn't use a froe and blamed the froe.

He had no ridge.

The "Oak" changed into what I can only hope was WR Cedar though spit more like Lelandii

Those joints were steel plate and bolts.

The beer looked like the pre Dieseled sewage ...

We thoroughly enjoyed it.