After a ‘life-changing’ decision to relocate to Cornwall last year, The Repair Shop’s Dominic Chinea was hit with two back-to back disasters

Dominic says the back-to-back storms caused severe damage (Image: BBC)

A dramatic storm has left Dominic Chinea’s workshop in an absolutely “heartbreaking” state, The Repair Shop star has revealed. Part of the roof fell in, resulting in serious damage to an almost irreplaceable car he had been working on below.

Returning to his base of operations after picking up a rare piece of vintage engineering kit from the Isle of Wight, Dominic surveyed the damage. “There has been a storm back in Cornwall again, another storm, and I’m terrified of the state of the workshop roof,” he explained in a new YouTube update, adding that while the weather remained bad, he was planning to work indoors and leave the roof repair for a drier day.

“A lot of rain water has come in through the open roller shutter door,” he said. “All my equipment is wet as ever, but I was kind of expecting that. Kind of heartbreakingly, I was not expecting [that] I’m missing another chunk of roof up the top.

“The first storm, Goretti, ruined the very end of that open section at the back, which I had my Porsche and all my stuff below. It just got wet.” However, Storm Goretti was followed closely by Storm Chandra, bringing further strong winds and heavy rain to Cornwall.

The storm tore off a sizeable chunk of Dominic’s workshop roof, with large chunks of corrugated plastic roofing material falling onto his prized Cadillac below: “It damaged the bonnet, damaged the wing – ruined it,” Dominic said, bitterly.

Dominic Chinea found the car he’d been working on had been damaged (Image: BBC/Ricochet/Guy Levy)

When Dominic and his wife Maria packed up their house in Kent last year and moved to Cornwall with their dog Wendy, he admitted that weatherproofing the newly converted workshop would be a “pressure”.

The severe storms of January 2026 made Dominic’s prediction all too real. He was left struggling to make urgent repairs before he could get back to work, all while attempting to complete the renovations for his farmhouse kitchen.

In a YouTube video, he said: “The storm has caused a lot of damage, the workshop roof, various tiles and bits and bobs. I’m doing my best to deal with those, I’ve ordered more roof sheets and I’ve lined up roofers to try and fix the roof, but I’m also juggling trying to finish this kitchen.”

He added that he was by no means the only person in the region affected, and there had been damage to buildings and trees across the county.

Dominic Chinea (Image: BBC)

He said: “I think every tree surgeon in Cornwall is up to their eyeballs busy at the moment. It’s kind of heartbreaking, there’s not enough trees here as it is.”

Dominic has previously spoken about how stressful he found moving his family from Kent to Cornwall. He said: “It is completely life-changing. It really is.

“I’m never moving again. It was stressful, but it’s like having that workshop and having that at home has been a dream for so long. And I’m very, very fortunate, very grateful that I’ve actually been able to do it, but it doesn’t come easy.”

He added: “It has been a lot of work, a huge amount of work, and as I say, it is still very much derelict. I’m still shovelling cow poo out where all my tools are.

Dominic describes the Repair Shop team as a ‘family’ (Image: BBC/Ricochet Ltd/Steve Peskett)

“So, you know, it’s been a long road, and it will continue to be a long road, but it has been a life-changing decision. Moving to the other side of the country, it’s like, you know, seven hours away from anyone. But it’s good, it’s nice.”

Dominic describes his role on The Repair Shop as a “dream job”. He told CornwallLive: “I was at my workshop in Hackney Wick, I was making props, designing and building props, and so on set, but behind the camera. Never in a million years did I think I would end up on camera.

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“So this whole sort of TV presenter thing is nothing I could have ever expected. Just shows, I suppose, you make the most of the opportunities that you’re presented with, and give it your all, try your hardest, and yeah, good things can come of it. It is a dream job.

“We are all a big family down there, we all get on, we all love what we do., and I’m extremely fortunate to be part of the family.”