Rubbish nails and dusty skin may be the downsides of being a ‘lady builder’ but property expert Sian Astley is sharing her knowledge with the nation in a new TV DIY show. ANNA MANSELL found out more.

A PETITE, pretty, blonde, Sian Astley is a long way from being a typical builder.

But with a £2million property portfolio under her tool belt, she’s successfully climbed up the industry since starting out with a new-build flat which cost her a mere £1 deposit.

Sixteen years on, last night saw Blackburn-born Sian front the debut episode of new primetime property and DIY show Half Built House on Channel 5.

During the programme, Sian and her team — including partner Martin Sykes — rescue properties from the brink of disaster where inexperienced DIY-ers have taken on more than they could handle.

“It’s surreal,” she said ahead of last night’s transmission. “I have been doing a job in interiors for a lot of years but this is stepping into the unknown.

“It has been an amazing experience so far and now only time will tell.”

Just four months after filming began, four family homes have been resurrected and the series edited for broadcast — a pace of work Sian is very comfortable with.

“The show has been in the pipeline for a while and getting the go-ahead can take a while, but the timescales for the actual work and filming have been very rapid.

“Four houses in under three months is pretty full-on, although it usually is breakneck speed with me.

“That’s one of the gripes about DIY — how long it can take for a job to be done, which comes through either inexperience or the DIY impacting on and one job creating another.

“That is something people realise very quickly — that you often end up with 10 jobs rather than the one you set out to do. Hence I’m now rescuing houses, not being rescued.”

Sian, who lived in Brownhill until she moved to Manchester to study law, descibes herself as a ‘property renovator, interior designer, TV presenter and residential landlord’ at the helm of her firm Moregeous, based around Didsbury in Manchester.

And it’s clear she loves the work, despite its pitfalls: “My nails are rubbish and your skin is horrible after a day on the building site. The dust is disgusting. But I can have a shower at the end of the day, knowing I have provided someone with a beautiful home.”

Sian happily admits using her feminine charms to good effect within the building trade, and is clearly more than a match for the industry’s chauvenistic elements.

“In the early days I never even thought about my being a woman in a man’s world as I was so busy building the business,” the 42-year-old said.

“At first, you do get slightly negative feedback from some men. But whether a man or a woman in any industry, when you’re a novice you are going to get that from people with more experience.

“I still get a little sexism but I give as good as I get and I think you can get sexism in any walk of life. Being a woman definitely helps with this job; we tend to be very good organisers and can multi-task, so on a building site I can deal with the electricians, plumbers, kitchen design, choosing paint colours and specifying carpets all at the same time.

“Multi-tasking is definitely a more female trait, which leads to good site management which is what I do as a ‘lady builder’.

“Anything can be a disadvantage if you allow it. Of course I use my womanly wiles —and anyone who didn’t would be a fool.

“With Half Built House we had to do the best we could with very tight budgets, so I flattered my eyelashes to get deals.

“They are real disasters and building sites, so it wasn’t some two-day decoration job — it was full-on back-to-basics building and in a short period of time.

“It’s a very real show. There are traumas and stresses and not just from the experts.”

See Sian on Half Built House, Tuesdays at 8pm on Channel 5.