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Like many across the country, I watched the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in horror. With 19 years of building contacts, including some big construction companies, I wondered if we could do something to help. 

DIY SOS has grown over the years since it became the Big Build seven years ago – we still often build extensions but have also built community centres and done up a street of derelict houses, and looked at issues such as young people leaving care, gay parents, mental health, young carers, adopting disabled children, and veterans.

I went down to the site with Nick Knowles, with no cameras, and started talking to people on the ground. The effort by so many kind volunteers was inspiring.

A call to David Brindley in commissioning and he was really supportive of doing something if we could find the right project. Housing was too big a task, but it turned out in the lower floors of the tower were different community spaces including a gym for the Dale Youth Boxing Club.

Dale Youth is a west London success story: it opens its doors to any young person who wants to train. It has started the careers of George Groves and James DeGale, current and former world champions respectively and many other national champions. It teaches more than just boxing – manners and discipline are important and keeps kids off the streets and out of gangs.

The club also needed a home, as it was squatting in a gym in a disused car park that had no heating or showers. Mick and Gary, the two inspiring trainers who are like dads to the people they coach, were only too happy to meet and take up a potential offer of a new club.

Wandering around the area, we found an empty plot and worked out who the people were who managed it – the Westway Trust. We then pitched them what we were proposing and they suggested a different bigger plot under the Westway A40 flyover and agreed.

We then wondered if we could do two buildings at the same time on the 750 square metre site. Talking to the community it was clear that there weren't enough low cost community spaces in the area. We went back to the channel and pitched the idea of a two-part series.

Most people have to get access and film their story. We had to do that and organise and build two huge buildings as well. The scale was enormous, more than twice the size of anything we had attempted before. Normally we build a home extension. This was two buildings and, in a first, steel construction.

We pumped our contacts book and ended up with one of the country's biggest construction firms on board who took on the role of project manager. We drew up plans and a materials list and it just seemed to keep rolling. But it has been far from a smooth ride. There were many days when it looked like the whole thing was going to collapse.

What we were asking for were enormous commitments: £100k+ of steel, for example. Carillion happened and we lost some companies. Up and down. Up and down. And many sleepless nights.

The community around Grenfell is understandably traumatised and access wasn't always straightforward. Many people were suspicious and angry and we thought it was important to reflect that in the programme, even if it's not very DIY SOS.

The programmes have a different tone, to be respectful of what had happened: no triumphalism, no big opening clapping, different music, no end-piece to camera summary from Nick which might have sounded trite – we wanted local people to end the shows.

We met some amazing people along the way, the inspiring eloquent kids from Dale Youth and the pensioners from a West Indian dominoes club for example, all to hopefully tell different stories about Grenfell and the community around. And we also got a special visitor who watches the show back – Prince William.

In the end though, thanks to the enormous generosity of many companies, we built two buildings (the 280 square meter boxing gym was built in just nine weeks!) through donations worth over £2 million.

I think we are all a bit shocked that it actually happened – I can say this now – when you start a project of this scale, you don't know that it actually will happen. But it did thanks to an amazing, and small, team and a lot of help and luck.

Television still has enormous power.

DIY SOS: Grenfell was broadcast on 5 and 12 September on 主播大秀 One, and is available on 主播大秀 iPlayer.