‘Not what happened’: Home renovator refutes claims video viewed 8.4 million times was staged

A homeowner in the UK has been left aghast over allegations she staged the reveal of a tiled section of the flooring of her vintage property.

Melly Reid, a DIY home renovator in Yorkshire, has gained a solid following on social media after posting authentic progress videos of the renovation of her 1870s Victorian home.

The videos range from Reid and her partner taking the keys, to the harsh reality of bringing the century-old home into the modern era and the countless hours it takes to achieve this.

Then, last week, Reid posted a video to TikTok about “a treasure” hidden underneath the carpet in her home. It went viral, with the minute long clip viewed more than eight million views.

In the video, Reid kneels on the carpet and using a butter knife, cuts into the plush grey fabric. She then peels back the carpet to reveal a stunning tiled mosaic floor.

“Look what I found,” Reid captioned the video. 

The clip, posted five days ago, has since had more than 520,000 likes and almost 6000 comments, many equally as impressed with the discovery as Reid herself.

“Wow. What a find. Beautiful floor,” one TikTok user wrote.

“It’s hard watching someone else live out your dreams,” a second person wrote.

“I don’t know how’s she so calm. I would be flipping out,” a third person shared.

Soon enough, other people started to question whether Reid’s reveal is indeed real.

“Looks like brand new carpet,” one person wrote.

“The carpet looks like it was put down yesterday,” another person chimed in.

“The underlining of that carpet was too new and didn’t stick enough, for me to believe this wasn’t set up,” yet another person wrote.

Despite the commenter indicating they were making light of the situation, Reid took issue.

In a separate video, she addressed the doubters.

“People on TikTok are wild. “What do you mean? You think I have gone out, bought brand new carpet, laid it and then ripped it up just to make a TikTok video?” she said.

“What? Are there people out there who would do that? That is bizarre. That’s not what’s happened here.”

Reid went on to explain the reason the carpet and the underlay don’t look too old is because, the chances are, it isn’t.

She shared that she only took ownership of the home six months ago.

“I think the previous owners, who we bought this house from, six months ago, probably put this carpet down to hide the many problems that are hiding in this house,” she said.

“If you go back and look at the video, you’ll see at the end, the huge crack which could be caused from movement in the house – I don’t know yet as I’ve not investigated.

“But they were clearly trying to hide problems like that. So that is why it doesn’t look that old.”

Many online came to Reid’s defence, dispelling any suggestion her video was a set up.

“Carpet is too expensive to put down and rip up for no reason,” one person wrote.

“I believe you because I noticed that big crack in the floor and it worried me. I never even considered you wouldn’t have faked it all,” a second person wrote.

“People are ridiculous,” another person shared.

Reid cemented her position with a further comment, again showing the reality of the reno.

“The reno money pit would not allow for me to waste money on a carpet just to rip it up,” she added.