Property makeover queen Sarah Beeny helps people whose homes are collapsing around them in her new series! Got a problem with your home? This week, property guru Sarah Beeny comes to the rescue in a new Channel 4 series, Help! My House is Falling Down (Tuesday, Aug 10), that sees her tackle obstacles faced by people who bought their homes without first discovering whether they were structurally sound. We caught up with Sarah to find out more... Housing problems are like any problems... Once you admit to yourself there’s something wrong you’re on your way to solving the difficulty. The show helps house owners who have taken on a project that’s too big, and they’re out of their depth... I try to help them get on track. We tackle things like chronic subsidence, chronic wet rot, rat infestations and black mould. One house had masses of mature trees so close to it that roots were growing through the drains... The house was so destabilised it was dangerous, and effectively falling down. The owners bought it not realising, and thought they could just fill the cracks. I’m not an expert joiner or roofer, or any of those things... I’m not highly skilled, but I can do everything. There’s no question that a proper plumber or a plasterer would do it better than me, but there’s a great empowerment that comes from knowing how things are done. People think that nobody ever listened to my advice on Property Ladder, but they did... It’s just that people only ever remember the shows when I had to keep on banging on about things and everyone thought I was whingeing old cow who should shut up and let people do what they want. I’m obsessed with setting people up on dates... It’s part of my control freak nature. I set up the MySingleFriend website for people who like meddling and want to set their friend up with someone. Every time I see the faces of people who have met someone special through it I feel very happy. I have a strange following on the internet... I deliberately don’t look as you can go slightly mental if you read everything about you. I was contacted by one fan who wanted me to send him a picture of me smoking a cigarette through a holder. That was too weird for me.
