Episode 3 Money for Nothing

What are you chucking out today, then?

How do you make money for nothing?

Don't throw them, don't throw them.

The answer could be hiding in the 30 million tonnes

of household waste we throw out every year.

Thanks so much for letting me have that.

That's absolutely made my day. I love it.

That's why entrepreneur Sarah Moore wants to get her hands on things

before they hit the skip.

I'm a passionate buyer, maker and user of old stuff.

I turned that passion into a moneymaking business.

I make new stuff out of old stuff, and I sell it for a profit.

And with some of the country's elite designers and makers...

What do you reckon to that? It's quite smart, isn't it?

-Tell me you love it.

-I love it.

..she can transform her finds into desirable...

Isn't it amazing?

-..valuable...

-It's quite a statement piece!

..and hopefully saleable items.

I'll take you down to the till. That's fantastic.

If Sarah is successful,

then she can hand the profits back to the very people who had no idea

there was cash to be made from their trash.

Wow, that's amazing.

Witley Recycling Centre in Surrey

is a veritable smorgasbord of unloved,

smashed-up items.

The range of rubbish coming in here today is fantastic.

From a bed that's been living in the shed to a chest that's well past its best.

If I can see potential profit, I'm on it.

Sarah, who's been granted special permission to be here at Witley,

is on the hunt for three items from which she can turn a profit.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

If you say so, Sarah.

I can think of a few things I'd rather be doing.

It's not long before Sarah, eagle-eyed as ever,

spots Vivian unloading the boot of his car.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Is it a new heating system?

It looks like the remnants of an old one to me.

Yes, more or less, yes.

I love copper piping.

Well, I know copper piping is worth something.

It's worth something to me,

because I love the way that even I can use the compression joints and

things to join it together. Would it be OK if, instead of tipping it,

to let me have it, so I can see if I can do something with it?

Yeah, I don't mind where it goes. My wife's Danish. Over there, they do all sorts of architectural things

in their gardens with all this piping and all that waste stuff.

Yeah, yeah. I love the way it ages and how it looks and you can polish

it up or leave it like this. And it makes great things, like lighting.

You're welcome. I'd like to see the finished result.

Definitely. If it's OK, I'll keep in touch and show you what I've made.

-I hope I do it justice, cos it looks like there's a bundle of it here.

-Jolly good, OK.

-Thank you.

-Fine.

There's a lot to live up to with this find,

what with Vivian being so familiar with recycled copper cast-offs.

He's bound to have some suggestions for what could be done with them.

Well, I think she was going to do some artistic work, was she not?

Is that the idea?

Vivian, we haven't a clue.

I love the fact with copper pipe you get all of these joints,

these compression joints. So, even I can use it like a massive Meccano

set. So, I think, if this is turned into a lovely,

luxury interior design item, there's a profit to be made too.

It's going to take a lot of imagination

to transform that collection of pipes.

Fortunately, Sarah knows just the people.

Say hello to Josh and Ollie.

Designer-makers, business partners and best friends.

These boys use naturally recycled materials to create handcrafted

furniture and high-end interior pieces.

I definitely love what we do.

I think we're really lucky in that sense.

I think what makes us different is that we have got original ideas and

we have got our own style to bring to the table.

Josh's background is in woodwork,

but my background is in graphic design.

It's a really nice combination and I think we've got some pretty crazy

ideas and we think quite out of the box.

Yes, I think it does make us stand out from the rest.

They do say that two heads are better than one, which is good news,

as it's going to take some serious brainpower

to make anything with this little lot.

With one item already found, Sarah is still on the hunt for two more.

There's plenty to choose from.

And you never can tell what might just turn up next.

You could guess 1,000 times and you'd still never get there.

Oh, it's a Resusci Annie!

It is a Resusci Annie. A very old one.

Oh, look, extra faces.

Fantastic.

As the search continues,

it's not long before Sarah spots

something special weighing down the back of another Sarah's car.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Are those your floorboards?

They are my floorboards.

Wow, you've got loads of them.

So, what kind of age of house are they coming out of?

This part of the house is probably not that old.

Maybe about 50-odd years.

OK. So, that's why they haven't got loads of worm in them.

You've got so many of them,

it looks like such a good supply of wood.

It would be great to take a couple away and see if I can re-use them and

-even make some furniture out of them.

-That'd be fantastic. You can have as many as you like.

Any ideas what I might make out of them?

Er...

I don't know.

I hope it's something more exciting than a table.

-I was just thinking it's got "table" written all over it, hasn't it?

-Yeah, I was just thinking that.

It depends how good a table it is.

Well, I suppose. In my head, it doesn't look very exciting.

Well, I really appreciate you

letting me have so much of it and I'll try and think of something

more impressive than a table!

I'm so pleased I was here just when you were going to throw those away.

-That's all right.

-So, I shall wheel them off and take them to my store.

Thank you so much.

There's so much for Sarah to work with and plenty of potential,

but what would the other Sarah really like to see?

Something lovely would be fantastic.

We talked about tables, but that's not particularly exciting.

But anything is better than just being thrown.

Now, there is enough wood here to make pretty much anything.

So, that choice, you know, it's a bit mind-boggling.

I think it would make the most amazing, beautiful, massive table.

There's something really impressive about something that big.

Loads of people keep money under the floorboards,

I think I'm going to make money FROM the floorboards.

There's so many possibilities.

It sounds like we need to involve an expert.

With over 25 years' experience

building furniture, if you've got wood,

Norman Wilkinson's your man.

I love the timber, I love the finishing of it,

I love the product.

It's everything, it makes me tick.

Yeah, there is a passion for it,

because there's no point getting up in the morning and not doing something you don't like.

Coming in and then picking up the wood and turning it into

something lovely...you know, makes me happy.

Norman's passion is creating handmade,

bespoke furniture from reclaimed,

unwanted materials.

And also using second-hand materials,

I think it's a great joy. It's the old saying, isn't it?

Another man's rubbish is another man's...

I can't think of the saying now!

Well, he may also struggle for words

when he sees the salvaged floorboards

Sarah has secured.

Sarah has only one item left to find.

An item which she can work on herself.

Oh, wow, look at that.

My luck is definitely about to change.

Look at that, an old one as well.

1963.

Right, come on.

Lucky penny.

I think that luck is about to pay off,

as in the back of Richard's car

lurks a plastic heron -

the sort used to deter other herons from a pond.

Now, that's amazing.

You can't throw that away.

Oh, yes. They don't work.

-Have you had it by the fish pond?

-Yes, yes -

I bought it many years ago.

The heron is quite a bright bird.

It soon learns that there is no danger from this.

-Oh, really?

-Yes. It might work for a few weeks, but it...

No, they're too wise for it.

It's actually been sitting in my garage for a number of years,

-unused.

-Waiting for me, because I think I can do something with this.

All right! Well, good on you.

It doesn't involve a fish pond.

-All right.

-So, if it would be all right to have it

and save it from the tip

and I think he and I are going to have a lovely time together.

Good!

-Thank you ever so much for letting me have him.

-My pleasure!

I shall hopefully keep in touch and show you what I've done.

-OK.

-Thanks ever so much.

Now, what is she going to do with THAT?

It seems to me the perfect idea of recycling.

I don't need it, so somebody else can use it and make something of it,

that's fine by me.

I LOVE my new friend.

What do you think - attractive?

He's definitely been around a bit, cos I know this would have been all coloured up and stuff.

But I think because he's got such...

You know, he is just a heron,

I think it'd be lovely if I tried to make some taxidermy with him,

to make him look like a real heron, rather than a plastic one.

Yeah, because everyone wants an evil, bird-scaring deterrent

in their living room.

I think this could be a tough sell.

That's three items saved from the skip.

The copper pipes will be refurbished by Josh and Ollie.

The wooden floorboards will be dealt with by Norman.

And, finally, the plastic heron.

Well, there's only one person keen to take that on

and that's Sarah herself.

Today has been incredible, with such a diverse mix of items gathered.

I can't wait to see all that bounty transformed

into show-stopping money-makers.

Sarah's first stop is a visit to West Sussex,

where, in a slightly unassuming warehouse,

Ollie and Josh are nervously awaiting Sarah's arrival.

So, we're pretty excited to see what Sarah is going to be bringing.

Just a little bit nervous.

She's usually got a knack of bringing some pretty crazy stuff

-along with her, hasn't she?

-Yes, yes.

There are endless possibilities

about what you can do with copper pipe.

Whenever I see it, I always want to pick it up.

I'm just hoping that Josh and Ollie

are going to have some original ideas

-of what I can do with it.

-Hopefully,

it's something that we can see some real good potential in and,

yeah, make something real nice.

-Yeah, hopefully.

-Having copped a load of the copper tubing,

and with Sarah seeing endless possibilities,

the pressure is on to pipe up with some plans to produce a profit.

-Loads of it.

-Yeah.

It's a good haul.

In this process,

it's all about the end product

and what you can make and then what I can sell it for. So,

I'm after horrifically commercial stuff

that's got a great high-end value.

So, I don't know what kind of stuff you've done with copper before.

It could be something ornamental.

Maybe candleholders or something.

-OK.

-Where we could make quite a collection of them

-that would have quite a good value to them.

-That sounds cool.

So, maybe that could be something we could do.

We've done something similar in the past,

where we've just used a little bit of copper and then...

-on the lathes we've turned, like, a base, or...

-OK.

Or some other wooden element.

You've got this, kind of, natural verdigris of the copper.

Yeah, those two textures together are beautiful, aren't they?

It just works so well together, the colour combinations.

And I think using all of the copper

for products like this would be a great use.

So, the boys are thinking of candle sticks,

using the copper pipe and adding wood-turned bases.

With this amount of copper, a whole collection would be possible,

but it's important to keep costs under control,

as Sarah is all about making a profit.

OK, so maybe it's better for me to set you a budget and then you can

just get crazy with the budget and stop when you stop.

Yeah, what kind of figure did you have in mind?

If I left you with 300 quid...

I think that gives us more freedom to experiment and, you know,

see what comes out at the end and

go crazy with it all.

Crazy sounds great.

Give me a shout if you've got any problems, if you have any more mad ideas.

-Just go for your lives, OK?

-OK.

-Thanks ever so much!

-All right.

-Cheers, Sarah.

It's nice when you get something like this,

cos you can experiment with the material.

There's enough of it here where we really can make a couple of mistakes.

But, at the end of the day, we can have a really good range,

a good selection of different products on offer.

So I think this is good.

This might sound a bit silly,

because we're just talking about a load of copper pipes,

but there is a real sense of excitement in that workshop

and I cannot wait to see what those boys produce.

With a budget of £300

and free range to go crazy,

what could possibly go wrong?

Sarah's next stop takes her to the picturesque village of Hellingly

in East Sussex.

Not known as a hotbed of creativity,

but home nonetheless to Jus Jones,

where Norman Wilkinson specialises in making new from old.

I think it's going to be great fun.

Just to see what we've got to do,

but my worst nightmare would be to have something in flat-pack,

to think, "Hey, what are we going to do with it?" What a disaster!

Luckily, there's nothing flat-packed about this little lot.

And with so much material,

thinking of something more impressive than a table

should be easy, right?

I'm hoping that is a tempting little pile of floorboards,

that Norman will be pleased to take on to turn into something amazing.

There's lots to work with here. Let's see what he comes up with.

Something amazing. No pressure there, then, Norman.

-Ah!

-Sarah, how are you?

Yeah, really well, how are things?

Yeah, good. They're good.

-Floorboards?

-Yeah, not just these, check this lot out.

Oh, look at those.

-Hundreds of them.

-Fantastic, just... That is what I love.

-Floorboards.

-Brilliant. Here - you have this lot.

-Thank you.

-Shall I load you a few more up?

Well, who would have thought that in East Sussex,

the way to a man's heart is with a big pile of old planks?

-I'll take these in and come back for the rest.

-Brilliant.

-Lovely, aren't they?

-Loads and loads of lovely floorboards.

So, the really obvious thing

is to make a lovely plank-top table out of it.

Why can't we be a bit more exciting?

Something other than a table, perhaps?

I think we've got all this timber here,

why don't we do something creative?

We're going to get, say, this first piece of board...

-Yeah.

-And then we'll cut a size and we might start with a square.

-Right.

-And then, here, we might then do three other bits

and then we might cut another one to go around the corner, like that.

I reckon we could make a good 6' x 36 dining table.

Oh, so we're going with the table, then?

At least this one sounds interesting.

If these were the set of legs that we had, we could actually use these.

It'd give it a really cool look.

OK, and in terms of the finish you get on the leg,

-do you leave it just like that?

-No, no, we'll clean it up with a wire brush.

Give it a good old clean with a wire brush.

And then we'll wax it

and it'll give it a really nice tactile feel as well.

It'll make it go darker, but it just makes it, you know, lovely.

OK, I'm really bought-in on those.

I think they are beautiful and they add that kind of finesse,

-adding that metal.

-Yeah.

Industrial-feel legs to complement the intricate, wooden top design.

Sounds time-consuming and expensive.

To make it all into a lovely saleable item...

..you'd be looking at 975.

-OK.

-With the metal legs. It'll give it a lovely twist and make it

a little bit industrial with everything else and I think

-it'll be on the money.

-975?

-So, you're teasing me at under 1,000 there, aren't you?

-I am!

You're trying to win me over.

-I'm trying!

-Cos, at 1,000, you know, basically,

to commission something for a grand,

I really want this to pack a punch.

I want to be selling it.

It will pack a punch, I promise you.

OK, OK.

And you'll have a good retail profit.

OK. I think I...

am... I think I'm fine(!)

-..to say...yes! Go for it.

-Fantastic. Well done.

Cool! (Phew!)

-See you soon.

-See you soon!

I think I've got a great, great project.

Great material.

The timber's lovely. You know, you can look at it, you can read it.

It's what we're used to working in,

so, I think I really, really am looking forward to it.

I always get the heebie-jeebies

when I commission something that's nearly £1,000.

BUT dining tables always sell well,

Norman is talking a really good game and fingers crossed,

I can make some money on it too.

This is a serious outlay of almost £1,000 in costs.

Can Norman really come up with

something that will make Sarah a profit?

Back home, in idyllic West Sussex,

where wildlife is in abundance,

Sarah has been inspired with her very own project.

They say that a bird in the hand is worth two in a bush.

Perhaps that's where this bird should have been left? In a bush.

I have been dying to get started on this piece of pond life.

I have got great plans for him.

I want to cover him in fabric and turn him into a really high-end,

taxidermy sculpture.

I'm going to start off, I think, by putting some fabric on his beak.

And begin the transformation.

Sarah is about to cover this heron

with coloured fabric to make him look more realistic.

This, I can't wait to see.

This isn't completely natural, but I think it'll be pretty effective,

by the time it's all in place.

I'm cutting out some little grey, feather-shaped pieces,

so I can start building up the pattern that the feathers make

all along this head section and down here.

I've put layers and layers of little trimmings of linen across this top

bit here, to try and make it like that fluffy Mohican

that the heron has.

I've cut little strips of it like this.

And if I just lay them on, and layer them up...

..hopefully, he's beginning to get

that really menacing heron look again.

Herons are unmistakable

in their natural appearance and can be found in

all areas of the UK all year round,

as they're birds which do not migrate.

-Interesting.

-Looks more like emu.

Oh, no. Why do I take these things on?

Unlike emus, herons eat lots of fish,

but they're also partial to other small birds,

small mammals and even rodents.

Interesting.

You can buy a little plastic heron, like this,

for about 35 quid in a pet shop

to keep the herons away from your goldfish.

I'm hoping I'm going to make...

..three times that, at least.

IF I can make it look good.

That's certainly the challenge here, Sarah.

And you still have some way to go.

With the off-cuts of material sourced for free,

the only costs so far have been just £7.

The question is, will somebody actually want it when it's finished?

Back in West Sussex, the boys have taken Sarah's words,

regarding mad ideas, to heart.

If their plans are anything to go by,

things are about to hot up around here.

What we want to do is, probably,

use some of this bigger pipe to make our candelabras and anything we've

got left over, then we can melt down to make the joints.

So, we'll probably chop up most of the skinny stuff,

cos we want to create like,

a solid bar of copper, where...

..we'd have the bigger tubes coming out of the bar.

So, that would be our candleholder part.

And then we're going to turn a wooden base to it as well.

This is sounding more and more ambitious.

Josh and Ollie start on their classic candelabras

by cutting up the copper that they intend to melt down.

The boys plan to use a method of casting called the lost wax method.

Although, with a slight twist, on this occasion,

it will be a lost polystyrene method.

That works.

Just a tiny bit.

The idea is that the desired look of the final item is created using

polystyrene, which, once in contact with molten copper, burns away,

leaving an exact-shaped mould.

With this polystyrene idea, it's not definitely going to work.

We have tried it a couple of times before

and managed to get something out of it.

So, I just hope that it'll work today.

Not only is this their own method of casting they're trying out,

but they will also be using their own home-made furnace. Yikes!

The boys have lined half an oil barrel with heat-resistant cement

and have built an air duct at the bottom,

to which a hairdryer will be attached.

They're about to heat copper to above 1,000 degrees.

Good luck, guys.

I've got a feeling it could go really bad.

-Why?

-Once the molten copper gets into this bit,

it could just run all down these pipes.

That's absolutely what's going to happen, isn't it?

So, we either go for it or try and prevent that.

This is making us look heavily stupid right now.

To be honest, this is half the fun.

I mean, if everything went smooth, it would be pretty boring, you know.

So, this is where it gets interesting.

Having spotted a flaw in their casting plan,

the boys choose the prevention route,

rather than "just going for it".

By packing sand into the bottom of the pipes,

the hope is that the molten copper will be prevented from escaping down

the hollow tubes.

And it's only until you do stuff

that you realise where the problems are going to come from.

Cos you write this down on paper

and you can't really see that happening.

So, you've got to actually get out there and do it before you realise

where the potential mistakes are going to come from.

If you say so, Josh.

In such critical operations as this,

teamwork is everything and clear communication is key.

MUFFLED VOICES

THEY SLUR THEIR VOICES

Yeah, I think it's going all right, isn't it?

It's heating up pretty quick.

The pipes just disappear into nothing.

I know. Yeah, they don't add up to too much.

Once the pipes have melted down,

Josh pours the molten copper into the mould.

Hopefully, this polystyrene mould works.

The moment of truth, guys.

Wow, look at that.

That's cool.

Sweet.

I like the green bits around there.

Yeah, yeah. Hopefully, it'll keep some of that colour.

It's pretty rough.

Well, no, it's smooth, but you've got the pipes kind of half showing.

Yeah, that's come off(!)

The home-made furnace has worked like a dream,

melting the copper down.

The casting, however, has not gone quite to plan,

leaving the boys with some work to do

if a profit is still to be in the pipeline.

Back in East Sussex,

Norman is embarking on making a complex mosaic tabletop

out of the old floorboards Sarah left behind.

Not as simple as it sounds.

Today, we're going to start the table with the floorboards.

We've already pre-cut the size of the table.

So, this is the size of what we're going to be working on.

So, we're going to start in one corner, cos it's the easiest part.

And I'm thinking we're going to...

go there,

cut across the saw there and then we can then use that to start and start

working away across the piece.

Norman's first task

is to cut the floorboards into all sorts of different shapes

and sizes.

To make it stand out, we want to chamfer all the edges.

So, if we get a plane...

And as you can see, we're just taking the edges off.

You know, if one is a bit more than the other, it doesn't matter,

cos it'll all add to its charm.

The challenge is just keep concentrating and get it right

and hopefully we don't go out the square.

Cos nine times out of ten, we do.

So, you know,

we cut it and then we put it down

and you don't quite get it on the edge

and we lose what we're doing.

So, we've really got to make sure we're doing it right.

Norman is using an MDF base to stick the small pieces of floorboards to

with both wood glue and nails.

Also, we try and get some of the grain going the other way,

because then, obviously, when we come to strip it and polish it,

it's so much better having the grains going a different way.

It'll give it another different look and another different texture.

So, again, we've got to take the...

-..edge off.

-With so many blocks to cut and with no definitive plan to

follow, it would be easy for things to go wrong,

so it's important for Norman

to maintain a focus on the task in hand.

It's fun, but then also when you're

playing with the bricks and trying to make it work,

it can do your head in as well.

You know, because you're doing so many blocks and all of a sudden,

your mind is going everywhere.

So, sometimes, you have to stop for ten minutes,

rethink and then see where you're going again.

I imagine, going home to bed tonight, I'll be thinking blocks,

won't I? That's all I'll see. You know, instead of counting sheep,

I can count blocks. And how many I put down.

At a cost of almost £1,000,

this project is certainly enough to cause a few sleepless nights.

Let's just hope when it's finished,

Sarah is able to make a profit from all those fragments of floorboards.

I've made a real mess here, but I have got some lovely green velvet.

I'm going to cover this base...

..with some green velvet.

So, he looks like he's standing on a beautiful, mossy river bank.

Finish up here and then he should look fantastic.

You certainly can't fault Sarah for effort with this one.

She's managed to turn what was an unremarkable bird-scarer...

..into a remarkably scary bird.

When Sarah collected him, this heron was destined for the dump.

With a little fabric, pots and pots of glue

and what looks like a bandage,

he now stands proud, clothed in his plumage of many colours.

So, hopefully, heron has made a transformation -

from pond-side predator to top-end taxidermy.

With the heron all ready to fly the nest,

Sarah takes photos to show its splendour.

So, who would want a 2-foot plastic heron?

Well, they did.

Perhaps for obvious reasons.

Surprisingly, this little pub in Havant didn't have its own heron.

It does now.

Sarah met Richard holding a heron at the Witley Recycling Centre.

You can't throw that away.

Oh, yes. They don't work.

An ineffectual bird-scarer certainly wasn't about to scare Sarah.

I think I can do something with this.

All right(!) Good on you.

Sarah set about styling the bird.

And, luckily, knew of a heron-less pub,

who were keen to take it off her hands.

Now, Sarah has returned to near Witley

to update Richard on his old bit of pond life.

Hi, there.

-Hi, oh.

-Richard!

-Hello.

-Lovely to see you again.

-Good to see you again.

-You're not in your tip kit, are you?!

-No. Definitely not!

I've just come back to catch up with you with your heron.

-Right.

-Well, he's taken flight again. He has been transformed.

-OK.

-I've got a few pictures here to show you what happened to him.

-Let's see.

-So, he was given a new set of feathers

and he's been...

completely covered in a linen plumage.

Goodness! I love the way you've done the feathers here.

-That's really good.

-Oh, thank you.

You've done a fabulous job, I must say!

He is being used

as a decoration for a pub.

And I have £50 here for you.

Cor, that's marvellous!

But I shall give this to charity.

-OK.

-Probably RNID, which is one of the charities I support.

Oh, fantastic. Well,

I think that's good news that that heron has been transformed.

He's out of hibernation and now to support something like that,

that's lovely. Thank you so much for letting me have your heron.

-Lovely to see you again.

-Pleasure. Thank you for letting me see the end result.

-My pleasure, my pleasure.

-Take care. Bye-bye.

-OK, bye.

The heron transformation cost Sarah just £7 in total.

£5 for the plinth

and £2 for the glue.

And with the new feathered friend

selling for £57,

that left a profit of £50 to be handed back to Richard.

Well, I love it when the projects are a little bit of a surprise.

And I think Richard was really pleased to see what happened to his heron.

And I'm pleased that it's got a new home

and I've handed over some money for nothing.

With a bird no longer in hand,

Sarah is heading back to West Sussex to catch up with Ollie and Josh,

with whom she left a treasure trove of old copper pipes.

So, I left Josh and Ollie with a mission.

They had £300 and a pile of copper pipe to transform into something

saleable that I can make a profit from.

How did Josh and Ollie feel about Sarah's visit?

Confident. I'm ready.

I think she's going to like these. They're pretty fun too...

Yeah. I think she's going to react well to these.

Sarah left behind the remnants of an old heating system,

in the form of a jumble of copper pipes.

Ollie and Josh have heated and polished, hammered and chiselled,

and with a lot of trial and the odd bit of error,

they've created a magnificent, modern,

stylish range of candlesticks

and flower holders.

Wow!

They are FANTASTIC!

They are beautiful.

-They are lovely.

-Thank you.

-Great grouped together, aren't they?

-Yeah, yeah.

-You've had some fun with that lot, haven't you?

Let's see those. So, talk me through that.

How did...? So, what have you done?

Um...

-Well...

-Yeah, this was a mission.

The original idea was to use some of the copper pipes to melt down

and make these, but our set-up is sketchy.

So, we've made our own furnace

and it doesn't always work to plan.

Although our set-up is quite sketchy,

I think that's what makes them quite nice,

because they're not very...

You know, they're all kind of bubbly and that adds to the charm of them.

Um, I really like the way you have polished and not polished.

-Yeah.

-And you've got that contrast and stuff going on.

They are going to sell instantly.

-People are going to make these, people are going to copy you making these.

-Yeah.

When you get hold of one for the first time,

-you just want to touch it, don't you?

-Yeah.

And get your hands on it.

I think you've done...

..really well. 300 quid...

-..budget?

-Fine for us, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-I hope you can make some money off them.

I'd say that's £300 well invested.

With so little to work with, the boys have created a range that will,

hopefully, provide a copper-bottomed return.

Well, never mind molten metal,

those boys are on fire, aren't they?

I absolutely love their copper collection

and I think there's cash to be made here.

When Sarah met him at the tip in Witley,

Vivian had already seen the potential in his copper cast-offs.

My wife is Danish. Over there,

they do all sorts of architectural things in their gardens

with all this piping.

Sarah took a shine to the cast-off plumbing and Vivian had

ideas as to what they could become.

I think she was going to do some artistic work, was she not?

-Is that the idea?

-In the end,

it was Josh and Ollie with the adventurous artistic ideas.

Their beautiful collection was quickly snapped up by Nick,

who runs the online shop Smithers of Stamford.

-Is it the kind of thing you think you might want to buy?

-Yeah,

definitely. They'd do well on the website, yeah.

That's got retail potential.

-Yeah.

-That's front cover of serious style magazines.

-It's got such a great look, hasn't it?

-Mm.

-I want that one.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-I'll sell it to you, if you want.

Cheeky. I'll do the jokes around here, thank you.

With a final cost of £300

to transform the old copper pipes

and with Nick agreeing to pay £400

to take them all,

that's a neat profit of £100.

Well, Josh and Ollie certainly

worked their magic on those copper pipes,

but, unfortunately, I haven't been able to get hold of Vivian,

who dropped them off at the tip.

So I'm going to make sure that the £100 profit

goes straight to Children In Need.

The copper pipe creations have been a huge success.

And the heron makeover is...

Well, at least it's finished.

So, Sarah has returned to East Sussex,

where Norman has been piecing together his mosaic-style table.

I left Norman with a lovely lot of floorboards

and nearly £1,000 worth of budget.

So I hope he's managed to transform them into something truly saleable.

Cos at that price, it's going to have to be fantastic,

if I'm going to make a profit.

When Sarah dropped off the tired old timber, it was, literally,

just a pile of old planks.

Norman has painstakingly cut and levelled each individual piece,

so they fit together to create a tabletop which is totally unique.

Norman's chosen wooden legs to complement the top,

instead of Sarah's much-loved metal legs.

So, how is she going to react?

-I'm well, how are you?

-Yeah, good.

Oh, wow!

How on EARTH did you do that?

It must have taken hours.

-Too many.

-Too many hours?

Oh, that doesn't sound good for budget.

-No, no. We didn't use the metal legs in the end.

-Where have my legs gone?

We looked at them and we didn't feel it worked.

So, we've done the whole painted base.

But we think it actually works

and picks the top out and really shows it off.

It's a big old chunk, isn't it?

-It's lovely.

-Yeah,

it's definitely got a surface on it that you want to touch.

There's not a lot of the black and the stuff left on it.

No, obviously, we've stripped it, cos you have to strip it

and then even up, you know, the cuts and everything.

So, that's what we do.

Obviously, there are different shades of timber and everything.

Yeah.

Well, it certainly looks like hours and hours of work.

It's an intricate top, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it took longer than we thought,

because we've used smaller blocks than we maybe would have.

I know you said before, it depends on your mood.

-Oh, definitely.

-Was it all right?

-Did it get you in trouble or was it OK?

-No, no - I mean, obviously,

sometimes, it takes you half an hour or something to get into it.

You scratch your head and can't think where you're going and then,

all of a sudden, you get into it and just lose yourself.

Then you go into a different direction.

I can see you got lost around here.

There's some really little bits.

Oh, yeah. That's the M25!

Yeah!

I don't think perfection

means things have to be perfect.

-No.

-I think this is, you know...

-A work in progress.

-Yeah, precisely.

-Excellent.

-I don't think we'll ever get there.

The original budget was £975,

using the reclaimed metal legs.

With the change of plan to much cheaper, although no less classy,

pine legs, what difference will that make to the final cost?

So, what are you saying, 850?

-850.

-850.

Well, I really appreciate that.

Nobody is ever going to have one just like this.

I know, but when I say it, I just want to cry!

I'm sending a courier. Make sure you wrap it up, all right?

-Yeah, I'll do the tears, I'll mop them up.

-Thanks, Norman. Bye!

Well, that's a whopping reduction of £125.

No wonder Sarah has a spring in her step.

Sometimes, it's not always about the money, it's about...

making the piece work. Someone's going to love it one day.

That's the best thing about it.

Some family, whoever it is,

are going to enjoy it and love it and cherish it.

Well, if you're going to have a table that's got crazy paving

all over the top of it, that's a very good example of it.

I'm glad the budget has gone down a bit,

because I'm going to have to find somebody who really likes that look

in order to buy it and make a good profit.

When Sarah met Sarah at the tip in Witley,

she was busy unloading a boot full of floorboards.

-Are they your floorboards?

-They are our floorboards.

Wow, you've got loads of them.

Sarah had hopes as to what the boards might become.

I hope it's something more exciting than a table.

I'll try and think of something more impressive than a table.

Try as she might, the floorboards did indeed become a table.

But Norman made sure it wasn't just ANY table.

And it was snapped up by established vintage and retro dealer,

The Old Cinema in London.

Our Sarah has now returned to Witley to catch up with the other Sarah,

to break the whole "it is a table" news.

-Hiya.

-Hello.

-It's so nice to see you again.

-And you.

-How are you?

-Good, thank you.

-I was hoping to catch up with you,

because I took your floorboards at the tip.

I remember you saying that you'd been renovating your back bedroom,

-is that right?

-Yes, we have been.

-Has that all happened now?

I wish it had, but, unfortunately, it's a bit slow in progress. But it's getting there!

Oh, fantastic. So, when we took them away, I remember you saying,

"I wonder what you'll make. Anything but a table."

Had you thought what we might do?

To be honest with you, I hadn't.

But I'm very interested to see.

Well, I work with this fantastic guy called Norman,

who is a real old-school maker.

I took the floorboards to him

and he loved all the textures on them and he said,

"I must make a table out of them!" And I went, "Oh, no!"

And he said, "Well, it's a really great one. I've got lovely ideas."

So, I've brought you some pictures to have a look at.

So, this is how it turned out in the end.

-Oh, wow.

-So, that is now...

Well, it's not the straight planks, is it?

So, it's definitely a very intricate patchwork.

-That's lovely.

-Yeah, so, it was snapped up by London buyer,

who has a big, big shop in town.

And I have £100 profit from your floorboards for you.

Oh, wow. That will help towards making our back bedroom better.

Oh, fantastic. That's a lovely feeling that it's going to go right back to where it came from.

They were great to work with and I'm sorry we didn't come up with

something more interesting.

-But it was lovely. Thank you very much.

-Our pleasure.

-Lovely to see you again.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Bye-bye.

With final costs of £850,

Sarah managed to sell the mosaic-top table for 950,

which meant £100 profit could be left with Sarah to help finish those

bedroom renovations.

Well, I think we got away with that.

Sarah said making a table out of her floorboards might be a bit boring.

But with 100 quid in her pocket, I think we changed her mind.

Sarah has salvaged three unwanted items

from the Witley Recycling Centre.

Vivian's old copper pipes were turned into candelabras

and candlesticks.

Sarah's floorboards were made into a mosaic-style table.

And the plastic heron has been

adorned with a new coat of feathers.

So, that's three more things saved that were destined to be dumped.

We met some fantastic people,

created some amazing items and we turned a pretty decent profit too.