Viewers of Grand Designs Revisited, broadcast on Channel 4 last week, heard how police sergeant Richard Curtis and his wife Anne went over budget. But Building can reveal that the project was the subject of a legal bust-up.
The programme was about the Curtis family's conversion of a disused electricity substation in East Boldon, Newcastle upon Tyne, into a Moroccan-style home in 2000.
The project resulted in a legal battle between the family and Imperial Waterproofing Systems, the contractor that installed the roof. This ended with the Essex-based firm being awarded about £12,000.
Jonathan Forbes Brown, the managing director of Imperial, put a claim into Newcastle County Court to receive full payment for the work he had carried out.
A source close to the case said that the amount that Imperial was awarded was less than the sum originally claimed.
Forbes Brown said he received about £3000 in payment for works completed on the project, as well as costs, giving a total award of about £12,000.
The judge ruled against Imperial on one point, relating to the "unit price quotation" for the cost of the roof.
The source said the judge had dismissed a counterclaim from Richard Curtis that the work Imperial carried out was unsatisfactory.
Forbes Brown's witness statement to the court said he had been introduced to Richard Curtis at a trade fair held at Alexandra Palace in north London.
It said that Curtis told him he owned an electricity substation in Newcastle and was interested in having a Firestone EPDM roofing system installed.
The statement said that Curtis had told him that the project was going to be featured by Channel 4 and asked whether he would provide a quotation to install the system.
Richard Curtis could not be contacted this week. Talkback Thames, the company that produces Grand Designs, refused to comment.
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