I broke the Grand Designs budget building a ludicrous home – it was a NIGHTMARE and I’d never live there

THE project manager of a HUGE sculpture house from Grand Designs has slammed the build as a "NIGHTMARE".

Hux Shard was built by Phil Saunders last year - and was showcased on the long-running Channel 4 show hosted by Kevin McCloud.

Project manager Phil slammed the artistic property as ludicrous as he admitted there had been a series of delays and constructive issues.

The house was being built for property developer Joe Priday, his wife and their three children who were looking for a forever home.

The unusual design plans, however, even had TV presenter Kevin doubting on whether the "epitome of ambition" could be achieved.

Joe started with a budget of £835,000 for their home inspire by Dartmoor's granite Tors - which are carefully placed piles of rock.

The plans covered a huge 6,000sq ft and had five bedrooms all with en-suites, a gym, cinema room, study and utility room.

The sprawling home had a huge living room and open-plan kitchen inside - which would cost a whopping £125,000 alone.

Despite starting well, the build hit complications halfway and the price skyrocketed to a massive £2.5million to complete the project.

At the end of the episode it featured on, it was compared to an art museum thanks to its unusual grey facade.

Joe was keen to have many of the sides of the facade pre-made in a factory and brought on site to be constructed to simplify the process.

However, the builders found that once on site, the facade pieces were not lining up with the pre-drilled holes made to attach the brackets.

It meant that project manager Phil had to change tact, as all six of the men got busy fixing one beam at a time to the outside of the house.

Carpenter Michael Taylor told Joe in the show: "It's designed with no tolerance. It's designed millimetre perfect. It just doesn't fit."

Viewers were told how it took 12 weeks to fit the 300 beams, with Phil admitting he was "going to lose his head".

He called Joe on site to tell him off for the ongoing issues - and insisted all the pieces would have to be made on-site.

It took two further months for the first stage of building, leaving Phil to simply tell the cameras it had been "a nightmare".

"It's a nightmare. The last two weeks of weather we've had rain, 70mph winds," he explained.

You can see the shape of the scaffolding around is a nightmare in itself. To get to this stage, the work and the intensity and logistics behind it all are just a nightmare.

"I wouldn't want to live in a house like this. Ludicrous isn't it really?"