Discovery Channel Debut for Brighton's Green Tiger

Date: October 1st 2009

When celebrity builder Tommy Walsh and his sidekick Liam Collins went hunting reclaimed building materials across the South East of England for a new Discovery Real Time channel programme Fix Your House For Free, they had help from Brighton's own Green Tiger, Dan Hill.

The premise is simple: could you build a house out of the materials that people throw away? Well, celebrity builder Tommy Walsh and side-kick - self-confessed "blagger" Liam Collins - certainly think you can and with the help of Brighton-based reclamation experts Tiger Enterprises have set out to prove it in a new Discovery Channel programme.

Tommy Walsh and his sidekick Liam Collins hunting for reclaimed waste.

Set across 10 episodes and featuring five projects, Fix Your House For Free promises to be as informative as it is entertaining with Liam claiming he can build anything from a conservatory to a loft extension simply by rummaging through skips, dumps and builders' cast-offs.

One of the people that has been helping the dynamic duo to renovate buildings using other people's waste is Dan Hill, MD of Brighton-based Tiger Enterprises. Dan played a part in four of the episodes after being approached by the film-maker Flame following the pioneering work he has done on developing his free collection reclamation service across the South East.

Established only three years ago, Tiger takes large construction company surplus and demolition strip-out material and sells it to smaller builders and the public from his yard and pioneering on-line auction (www.constructionresale.co.uk/tiger). His site holds around £100,000 of material that would normally be thrown into landfill, saving 3,000 tonnes a year from being dumped in the ground.

He says: "Essentially we get everything through our yard that you would need to build a house, so it made sense when the programme makers approached us about the series. It was great fun to do and we get to help show people how they can help reduce landfill use and save money as well.

"I would like to build my own home out of our materials one day, but that is one for the future when things are a little less hectic," says Dan.

During the programme Tommy and Liam help one woman save £6,500 by reclaiming materials that would otherwise be discarded, while another family saved £6-8,000 on a summer house. Most materials were gained at no cost simply because Tommy and Liam collected them for free, a secret Dan has known for a while.

Dan: "Large contractors buy material in bulk and so secure a low price for them. Some would choose waste management over reclamation if a fee were charged, leading to valuable materials being lost to landfill. But they can't argue with free," he says.

Tommy says he has nothing but respect for Dan and other recyclers and feels more people should know about the hard work they are putting in to help improve the environment. "It is an untold story. They are doing great things. We need to be shouting it from the rooftops," he said.

Fix Your House for Free.
Discovery Real Time Channel.
Thursdays from 1 October at 9.00pm.