Laura Kampf

Posted by Ryan Posted onMar 17, 2026 at 11:05 AM and filed under Featured Spaces
Updated onUpdated on Mar 17, 2026 at 6:05 AM

I’ve been following Laura Kampf for close to a decade now, and there’s just something about the way she works that hits home. The style, the aesthetic, the willingness to jump between disciplines without overthinking it, she’s the definition of a true maker of things. Over the last couple of years she’s moved from Germany and is now in the middle of setting up a new shop in LA. Somewhere in the chaos of that, she picked up a $1 camper and decided to turn it into a backyard ADU of sorts…

It’s exactly the kind of project I daydream about constantly and never quite make time for. And that’s probably the other thing I admire most about her, the energy. She just does the work. No overplanning, no waiting for the perfect moment.

Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed following along with this build and figured some of you guys might as well. Here’s the playlist.

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67carl

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My wife and found her just a few months ago and have been watching. The most recent project, the 1$ trailer, is really worth following. Carpentry, leather working, welding and just a lot of cleverness. Our plan is to go back to the beginning, when she was in Germany.

One of the other things that struck me was the small 1-2 person craftsmen businesses in industrial areas doing very specific tasks she visits. Nice to see that exists. I remember watching Wheeler Dealers (2 British guys buy old, damaged cars, fix them up then sell them) went to these types of places in a small village to have something done.
 
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67carl

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Ryan said:
Seems far more common in countries like Germany and Japan.



These guys... well... these guys didn't end well... Look it up.
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I remember Ed left because, as he said, they wanted to have less mechanical detail. I remember the first episode where Ed's replacement spent a significant amount of the show breaking down and rebuilding a turbocharger in detail. I thought it was fascinating. It didn't mesh with what Ed said, but I can't be sure it didn't decline after that. It was long ago.
 
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Ryan

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67carl said:
I remember Ed left because, as he said, they wanted to have less mechanical detail. I remember the first episode where Ed's replacement spent a significant amount of the show breaking down and rebuilding a turbocharger in detail. I thought it was fascinating. It didn't mesh with what Ed said, but I can't be sure it didn't decline after that. It was long ago.
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I don’t know either of them personally. All I’ve ever had to go on are the reputations, and even repeating those starts to feel like rumor-peddling… so I’ll leave it alone.

I will say this, though — it got ugly on YouTube for a stretch. Real ugly. This was probably a decade ago now, but it wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t quiet.
 
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y'sguy

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She does have some interesting solutions. I agree with questioning the design of manufactured things for sale. If you need a thing you don't have to buy it, if you can make something that better suits you. It helps curb the mass consumerism we live with. But hey, I'm just an old crab. haha.
 
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F-22

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Ryan said:
I don’t know either of them personally. All I’ve ever had to go on are the reputations, and even repeating those starts to feel like rumor-peddling… so I’ll leave it alone.

I will say this, though — it got ugly on YouTube for a stretch. Real ugly. This was probably a decade ago now, but it wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t quiet.
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It's sad what happened. The show did run for ~14 years with Edd. Similarly sad how the Mythbusters ended up, it's a show I grew up with. Can't say any new show on discovery pulls me in as much as these did...
 
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Stuart in MN

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F-22 said:
It's sad what happened. The show did run for ~14 years with Edd. Similarly sad how the Mythbusters ended up, it's a show I grew up with. Can't say any new show on discovery pulls me in as much as these did...
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Adam Savage's YouTube channel is pretty good. Interestingly, even after all these years he spends quite a bit of time responding to viewer questions about Mythbuster episodes.

Both Laura and Simone collaborate with him too every so often.
 
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67carl

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F-22 said:
It's sad what happened. The show did run for ~14 years with Edd. Similarly sad how the Mythbusters ended up, it's a show I grew up with. Can't say any new show on discovery pulls me in as much as these did...
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Yeah, that was a big downer. When they fired the 3 cast members and just announced it at the opening of the show by way of a sentence or two that it was going to be just Adam and Jamie, without any explanation or nod to the cast, and blithely went into the episode like nothing happened. It was very strange and disrespectful.
 
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Daedalus

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Ryan said:
I will say this, though — it got ugly on YouTube for a stretch. Real ugly. This was probably a decade ago now, but it wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t quiet.
Click to expand...
F-22 said:
Similarly sad how the Mythbusters ended up
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67carl said:
Yeah, that was a big downer. When they fired the 3 cast members and just announced it at the opening of the show by way of a sentence or two that it was going to be just Adam and Jamie, without any explanation or nod to the cast, and blithely went into the episode like nothing happened. It was very strange and disrespectful.
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Less-than-subtle reminder of how much under a rock I'm living sometimes. I've watched both these shows, but not on youtube. I'm so sheltered!!!
 
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William Payne

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I love that I still get to find out about people I have never heard of before. I have thought about doing the youtube thing but I find recording myself to be not only a weird experience but something I almost avoid. I don't know how these people get used to it.

Thanks for the article @Ryan I would never have known about this person if I had not have read it.
 
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Georgeinidaho

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Ryan said:
Continue reading...
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I only hope for the best for anyone, I just hope that She don't have any trouble with permits, taxes , fuel costs, inspections.
I wanted to buy my uncle a tiny home to live in, out in the sticks near the border of Tecate, B.C. ,Mexico.
The amount of money I would have had to spend was ridiculous. 3x the amount of the tiny house.
I am a native of east San Diego county, and I am upset with the way the fees and taxes are. If it were for a business the amount would have been more.
Sorry im just venting. Its why im Georgeinidaho
 
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Ryan

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harley jim said:
I watch Laura on the builders channel, its a production of this old house. She built what I would call a gypsy wagon to live in, in Germany. She has an imagination when it comes to solving problems, I hope she dose well here.
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She’s doing really, really well. Pulling something like 100k views a video and, from the outside, it looks like she’s running lean. No bloated crew, no nonsense, just tools, materials, and intent.

I’m most impressed by her versatility. If she doesn’t know how to do something, she just jumps in and figures it out. To me, that’s what talent looks like.
 
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Stuart in MN

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Ryan said:
She’s doing really, really well. Pulling something like 100k views a video and, from the outside, it looks like she’s running lean. No bloated crew, no nonsense, just tools, materials, and intent.

I’m most impressed by her versatility. If she doesn’t know how to do something, she just jumps in and figures it out. To me, that’s what talent looks like.
Click to expand...
She was renovating a house in Germany. I got the impression there were many parts of the work she hadn't done before but like you said she just dug in and figured it out.
 
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Ryan

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Okay... cleaned up yet again. User banned this time. Permanently... I won't pretend it didn't feel like cracking a cold beer on a hot afternoon in Austin, because it did.

If you are a bigot, if you are the kind of small, shriveled soul who gets his kicks judging how other people choose to live their one and only life on this godforsaken spinning rock, then get out. Find yourself another watering hole. Pack your prehistoric opinions into a bag and haul them somewhere else, because this forum has no use for them and neither do I. My patience for that particular breed of stupidity ran out a long time ago... and I'm done.

To everybody else, the decent ones, the people who showed up here in good faith to actually engage with other human beings like civilized adults, I apologize for the interruption.
 
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Byrdnyrd

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I for one am happy to have a place like this to hang out, I always learn something here. It’s the administrators that keep this civil and that’s how it should be! No politics, no name calling, no “my ratchet is better than your Ratchet” BS.

A virtual Beer to Ryan and other admins, Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy Hoi,Hoi Hoi. (If you know, you know!)

Sincerely, Thank you!

Cheers,
BN
 
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gren_t

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Glad I'm late to this party, and missed the unpleasantness. I like Laura's no fluff or BS content it's refreshing.

However, if you enjoy off the wall projects check out Colin Furz on YouTube if you enjoy left field engineering and English eccentric-ism taken to 11

Enjoy the weekend all..
 
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billspit

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Ryan said:
Cleaned this thread up a bit… probably should have banned a user, but didn’t. Maybe I will later. :)

In any case, if you don’t have anything nice to say, go **** yourself. ;)
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Uhhhhhhh, I thought it was no cursing here.
 
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Buford T. Justice

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Ryan said:
Cleaned this thread up a bit… probably should have banned a user, but didn’t. Maybe I will later. :)

In any case, if you don’t have anything nice to say, go **** yourself. ;)
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Couldn’t have said it better or more clearly myself! Thanks Ryan! And by the way, thanks for the original post. I don’t know how I missed her, but am now binge watching her stuff along with some others that were mentioned in the thread; that’s why I love this place ☺️
 
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billspit

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Ryan said:
No cursing on the Garage Journal? If that were the case, there wouldn't be any users left... and I'd be one of the first to be banned.
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I guess I’m thinking of another website.
 
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Superbowl

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I love Wheeler Dealers but they rarely made any money on the cars they flipped. Myth Busters was good, but it ran it's course.
 
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sjones

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Fav Onefour said:
I think Laura was from Koln. Their beer is served in "strange" glasses. Drinking from a stein would be a pretty slow turn between rounds. ;)

What part of Germany
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She was born in Munich but spent most of her life in the US. Her father was in the army and her mother was German
 
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richfinn

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Ryan said:
I don’t know either of them personally. All I’ve ever had to go on are the reputations, and even repeating those starts to feel like rumor-peddling… so I’ll leave it alone.

I will say this, though — it got ugly on YouTube for a stretch. Real ugly. This was probably a decade ago now, but it wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t quiet.
Click to expand...

Wheeler Dealers had a nice simple format aimed at car enthusiasts when it began. I think Edd China wanted it to stay that way, but that's not how TV works unfortunately (especially in the USA), it's a shame it was a good show in it's heyday. Until it "Jumped The Shark" 🤐

I will look Laura up, thanks for the recommendation 👍
 
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