Episode Information Birmingham: The Team Build

Date Published:

12/06/2008

In May 1999, 11 people in Bordesley, West Birmingham, set out to build their own homes.

Few of them had any professional experience in construction. For the previous two years, the Accord Housing Association had been training them in the skills they would need. Now they were to put them to the test.

Angela, who worked for Accord, would be the project co-ordinator. Peter, a builder with 20 years' experience, would be site manager, overseeing the work. The group members; Calvin (who was appointed leader), Paul, Carol, Mr Azad, Petrona, Tab, Gerald, Paul, Yasser, Richard, Bash - had not known each other when they signed up, having been attracted to the project through advertising and word of mouth.

The group would have to work as a team, with everyone doing 20 hours a week on site. Each person had chosen to specialise in one skill – bricklaying, plumbing, carpentry, electrics – and they would work on each other's houses in turn.

At the end of the build, each person would own 25 per cent of their home - their 'sweat equity' - while 75 per cent belonged to the housing association.

The group, now owner-tenants, would then have three options: they could pay rent, increase their equity by buying a further slice of the property or sell their share on to someone else.

The Build Begins

The houses were built in a group at one end of a housing estate. They had the same external design, which Kevin McCloud dubbed 'Brookside'. He felt it was a missed opportunity: 'In my opinion, there’s not much to be said about the architectural value of these buildings. Housing association and self-build projects should be offering the opportunities to develop interesting and alternative patterns of design that major developers might consider too uncommercial'.

Team Work

Instead, these were familiar, boxy houses that ranged in size from three bedrooms to five. Group members could choose from a number of floor plans, so the sizes and proportions of rooms differed from house to house. Standard modern construction methods were used: a concrete base, a pre-fabricated timber frame, partition walls, roof trusses, with tiles and brick cladding to finish.

Some flexibility was built into the project with a scheme of 'bankable hours' - if you couldn't do 20 hours regularly every week, you could do more one week and fewer another. This was vital for people who worked, studied or looked after children - and some group members did all three.

Even so, Angela warned the self-builders: 'For the next 18 months, imagine you have no life. If you have a partner, tell your partner they won't be seeing you'.

When The Going Got Tough

The self-builders worked alongside professionals during the construction of the first four houses. They laid concrete floors, fitted them with damp-proof membranes and metal base plates, and erected the timber frames on top.

They fixed partition walls inside and built the external brick walls. After the roofs were tiled, internal work followed – plaster-boarding, plumbing and electrics.

In December, things got tough. The professionals left and the group started on the next seven houses alone. It was cold, it got dark early and many people found it hard to put in the hours. Vandalism and bad weather added to their problems. All winter, they fell steadily behind schedule, and not surprisingly, morale was low.

'I nearly left at that point,' said Petrona later. 'It was cold and dark and I just didn't want to be there. But I took some time off over Christmas to be with my son and came back feeling better.'

Moving In

Matters improved in the spring, and by summer, the shells of all the houses were up. However, while some were now at the electrics and decorating stage, others were far behind. In the autumn, outside contractors were brought in to finish the plaster-boarding (everyone's least favourite job) and the timber porches. It was vital that the build finish on schedule as the cost of over-running would be paid out of the group's 'sweat equity', reducing their stake in their homes.

Once the houses were structurally complete, plumbed and wired, they were inspected. The standard of work was good, with only a few minor adjustments needed. And the build ended on time.

Six months on, all the self-builders are in their new homes. And just like most people after a move, they're still decorating - in their neighbours' houses as well as their own.