Brothers in arms: in this week's Grand Designs identical twins attempt to build matching homes in Sheffield – on a tiny budget

Brothers Nik and Jon Daughtrey think they can build two huge family homes on the site of an ancient water mill for just £345,000. Presenter Kevin McCloud thinks otherwise...
1/68
Jess Denham17 October 2018

Identical 48-year-old twins, “adventurous” Nik and “pragmatic” Jon Daughtrey from Sheffield, live identical lives in many ways.

They run a design company and gallery space together, drive identical cars, keep identical dogs and now, they’ve decided to build two identical modern-industrial homes on stilts next to each other.

The ambition to build was instilled into the brothers by their parents Barbara and David, who self-built two houses while their children were young, moving the family into a caravan by the construction site for three years like last week’s Grand Designs couple .

Nik and his wife Emma have four children and need more space, while for Jon, the project represents a whole new start after splitting from his wife. His two children are still regular visitors, however, so he’ll need space for three.

THE PLOT
The site for this exciting family venture is tucked away behind the two houses Nik and Jon are currently renting. Home to a corn mill 200 years ago and two Fifties buildings until recently, it has a beautifully flat concrete yard. By the time the programme starts, they’ve bought it together, fully cleared, for £173,000.

The spooky underground water wheel they plan to uncover and one-acre pond once used to drive the mill hint at the land’s history, bringing a characterful dimension to this project.

Steel frames will sketch the outlines of two sizeable buildings, in a nod to the steel-making heritage of their South Yorkshire city, before the voids are dressed out with pre-sized concrete slabs and blockwork walls, then clad in sleek black corrugated steel.

Jon’s house will be much more compact than Nik’s, with concrete stairs leading up and into a large single space living area with a heavy blockwork chimney set into a glazed gable end. The kids’ bedrooms will be on the ground floor with the master suite tucked behind a kitchen, above which will sit Jon’s study on a mezzanine.

Joined at the hip: Nik and Jon take the meaning of 'identical' to another level

Nik’s house will feature a snug and two teenage bedrooms on the ground floor, with two further bedrooms above. A staircase in an atrium will divide this sleeping quarter from the main living area, leading you up into a large kitchen, then up again into an open dining and living space separated by a free-standing wall. The master suite will be found in their mezzanine with views out to the pond.

Exposed bare plywood, steel and blockwork will become design features.

While the brothers will be sharing the site and attempting to bag ‘buy one, get one free’ style deals with contractors, they will not be sharing a bank account. Their aim to keep to a finite budget of £850 per square metre shocks Kevin, who describes the projection as “dead cheap…an incredibly, unrealistically low sum”, which translates to £345,000 for both houses.

THE BUILD
Unsurprisingly, given the challenge they’ve set themselves, construction is yet to start nearly a year after Kevin’s first visit. The stress has caused strain between the brothers, who have fallen out for the first time in 40 years, with Jon contemplating abandoning ship.

Fortunately, he has a change of heart, they up their budget by 25 per cent after securing more money from the bank, and ground works tentatively begin 14 months late.

The brothers employ a local family steel-making business to fabricate the frames, and it is only when the steel skeletons start rising up from their concrete footings a month after the foundations are laid that the huge scale of this ambitious project becomes clear.

“They’re going to be covered in black, corrugated, grab-you-by-the-balls Sheffield steel!” says an animated Kevin. “They’re going to look big.”

Slice of history: the brothers uncover a 200-year-old water mill on the site

Shortly after the two timber roofs are installed and the blockwork gets underway, there’s a shake-up. Jon has asked his girlfriend of a year, Ali, and her two children to move in with him, meaning he’s going to rework his plans.

He promptly asks the council for permission to do “a bit of a cut and paste” on top of the two existing bedrooms, which will cost an extra £40,000. Thankfully, given his tight purse strings, Ali will be chipping in. Even more thankfully, the neighbours embrace it, and he gets the go-ahead.

THE UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES
But this is Grand Designs, and there are more hiccups to come. Jon discovers problems with a sloping wall, which needs ripping out and building again, eating into the rapidly eroding money pot. The blockwork fails to finish on time or budget, forcing the twins to help out with the labour themselves, and the arrival of the Beast from the East makes installing the glazing a heart-in-the-mouth job amid a snow-filled winter sky.

Hard hats on: Nik and Jon end up putting some labour in themselves

It quickly becomes clear that even the revised joint budget of £435,000 will not be enough to finish, so they head back to the bank to beg for an extra £140,000 which, remarkably, they bag.

Nik’s house starts racing ahead, with a brick-effect plywood ceiling inspired by legendary British designer David Mellor. Jon, meanwhile, is building a massive statement chimney from 800 blocks.

Both brothers have joined forces to design their own bespoke lighting and kitchens – Jon’s will be dark grey and Nik’s, black. They set to work helping to dig trenches for their heating systems and grinding concrete for their kitchen floors. By this point, the long three-year journey is inching to completion.

WILL THEY GET THE MCCLOUD SEAL OF APPROVAL?
When Kevin returns to see the finished products, it is clear that the siblings’ Sheffield spirit has produced two proud industrial statements, that look like one building on the approach.

“It’s like walking into a very luxurious power station…fabulous”, says Kevin upon entering Jon’s abode, which boasts the scale of an old Victorian pump house.

Secret site: Nik and Jon's houses are built on an industrial yard by a pond
Channel 4

The blocks have been finished as crisply as stonework and exposed copper pipes proclaims it a magnificently detailed, fully functioning building. The high ceilings give the place an awesome, almost ecclesiastical vibe.

The living space looks fresh and the extension has been clad entirely in plywood sheets. Ali admits she struggled to accept Jon’s vision for such heavy usage of raw materials, such as a steel staircase, but quickly fell in love with the result. Bucolic pond views from the galley kitchen soften the harsh modernity of the interiors.

Ode to steel: Jon has relied heavily upon raw materials for his interiors
Channel 4

The entrance to Nik’s property is through a huge glazed wall. A big tree framed by a large window draws you up the staircase to the kids’ wing.

Stairs divide these from the living area along with a wall of lattice steelwork, beyond which is a kitchen overlooking the pond, with powder-coated stainless steel worktops and precision-cut cabinets.

Nik’s rooms are more defined and cosier, with everything oriented to make the most of the countryside views outside. Cleverly, the kitchen ceiling forms part of the sitting room’s wall, with this suspended plywood box also housing the master suite – a soft sanctuary for Nik and Emma to retreat to.

It’s the unique decorative touches that set the two houses apart. “This is an exercise in getting stuff right and proving two minds are better than one,” says Kevin. “I like that very much.”

Overall, the cost for both homes reached £610,000 which, for the urban oasis they’ve conjured from a rundown industrial yard, is still very impressive. The endearing fist pump Jon and Nik share as we bid them farewell feels justified.

See Grand Designs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.