Episode 27 Cowboy Trap

Cowboy builders will stop at nothing,

and they could soon be operating in a town near you.

Why, basically, would you leave it in a position that it were dangerous?

Why would you do that because of money?

We're uncovering yet another building disaster.

We got a text to say they'd left. We came back

and it just wasn't finished - the house was completely upside down.

But have no fear, my team and I are here to right the wrongs those cowboy builders leave behind.

-Is that the business, or what?

-Thanks so much.

-Brilliant.

Stick with me, and I'll pass on all my hints and tips

in the hope it'll help prevent you from falling into the Cowboy Trap.

On today's Cowboy Trap, we'll discover cowboys

don't discriminate - they'll even wreck their neighbours' homes.

How somebody can just totally disregard other people -

and they live round the corner.

So they're driving past our house regularly and they know it's not finished.

Although they lived round the corner, these cowardly cowboys couldn't face up to their customers.

Once they'd had all the money, they even quit the job by sending a text.

They said, sorry, there's no more money in the job.

We can't come back, I'm washing my hands of it, were the words he used.

We're in Wakefield, West Yorkshire

with the Myers family. Laurinda and Andi have three children.

Andi is an IT worker and Laurinda works in a school.

She's also gone back to university to do teacher training.

Jared's 16, Christie is nearly ten now, and Millie's four.

We decided to have a loft conversion because of the family growing.

Millie was young,

and my eldest son has some special needs.

We'd outgrown this house.

The girls were sharing, and we had some issues on a night where,

due to Jared's condition, that he was disturbing the other two children.

So we knew that we really needed a house that would house our children separately.

So obviously the loft conversion was the easiest and most accessible thing at the time.

Laurinda and Andi realised if they extended upwards

they could create two more bedrooms for the girls and an extra bathroom.

There would also be a home office for Andi,

because he has a rare brain illness and has to work from home.

Now the search was on for a good builder.

We looked into trying to find a few builders.

We looked around papers, we asked friends and family if they

knew any builders that we could try. And it all started from there,

we got six or seven quotes and started making our decisions from there.

They wanted a builder who could do everything -

a one-stop shop - but they were about to make

their final choice based on a rather surprising assumption.

The people that we chose to go with,

it was on the basis that we'd seen two of their vans here and there at various jobs and thought, well,

they must be doing the right business, the vans looked tidy...

We found that they were local people and we thought

in this setting at the moment that that would be a good idea.

The Myers wanted a one-stop shop builder, so after lots of quotes

they decided on a builder who lived just up the road.

What could be better than somebody local?

The Myers wanted their six-week build to be finished in time for

the end of the school summer holidays and the start of term.

Son Jared and husband Andi both have some health issues,

so Laurinda wanted to minimise the stress of the build.

Because of our family circumstances with Jared, and my husband's got a condition as well,

it meant that most of the arrangements and the dealings with builders would be myself.

So I asked

that they could do everything for me -

all the building regulation fees,

all the plans, the plumber, the electrician...

So I was dealing directly with the builder,

and they obviously had the rest of the people to deal with.

While the loft was being converted to bedrooms, a bathroom and office,

the Myers decided to have the central heating and wiring replaced too.

They'd taken out a loan to pay for the work,

so they agreed a fixed price with their builder to cover everything.

And work got off to a great start.

They turned up on time, every day -

they didn't have breaks every two minutes, which we thought, fantastic.

-They seemed really hard-working.

-They were really good, they really got on.

But then shortly after the builders had taken the roof off, disaster struck.

We had atrocious weather, and they'd taken the entire roof off, and they'd covered what they could

with tarpaulin and this weather was just awful.

I got up in the middle of the night, and as I opened the bathroom door, it was just like,

-well, it was like a swimming pool - it was all coming through the light fittings.

-Light fittings.

The sunk lights.

But Laurinda didn't panic. She had faith in her hard-working builders

and got straight on the phone to them.

We rang them up and said "Help", and they came straight out no problems, middle of the night.

-Two o'clock in the morning.

-Really apologetic.

-They were great for that.

Dealt with it...

And at that we thought, do you know what - these are really nice chaps.

Great. This is just what we need.

-We thought we'd got lucky, really.

-Totally.

The builders continued to impress the Myers,

until halfway through the build when they made a costly mistake.

They misread the architect's drawings,

and as a result they got the structural calculations wrong.

They'd said that they could either use steels, or they could do it in timber.

They chose the timber option, but they've misread the diagram

and the calculations were wrong for the loadings for the joists that they'd used, basically.

The builders did redo the work, but it took longer and cost extra for materials.

Take my tip...

Some builders try and charge the customers extra

to correct THEIR mistakes, but it's not your responsibility to pay.

Because Laurinda and Andi had agreed a fixed price for the whole job,

the builders had no choice but to stomach the extra costs.

Because they did that, it put them back x-amount of time.

It also cost more for the extra materials. And that's when we noticed a difference in them, weren't it?

Yeah. It started sort of going downhill from there.

The build was finally about to run off the rails, when the Myers handed

the builders the keys, packed their bags and went on holiday.

We went away to France with other family members, and I thought

great, we're going to get back, we're going to decorate this loft...

And then when I got on holiday, they sent a text message.

Oh, yeah - and if your builder starts contacting you by text, begin to worry.

The text message basically said

that they'd not been paid for the past x-amount of days' work.

They'd been working for free due to the problems they'd had with the trusses et cetera,

and as a result that they'd have to do some other jobs to bring some money in.

The Myers had the shine taken off their holiday by the builders' text tantrum -

but nothing could have prepared the family for what greeted them when they got home.

It just wasn't finished.

The house was completely upside down. Totally upside down.

We couldn't get into bedrooms, we could only just get into our kitchen...

And the rooms - when we got upstairs, the rooms were nowhere near ready.

What work they had done was absolutely atrocious,

and what was so upsetting is the rest of it appeared like they were really getting on with it.

This was just...

thrown on the walls, and it was just awful.

So we were well behind.

There were no way that we were going to be able to paint these bedrooms and get them ready.

Laurinda and Andi paid £20,000 to the builders

for their loft conversion, rewiring, and central heating.

But they were left with a building site.

There's damage all over the house, an abandoned bathroom,

and the new staircase and fire doors are dangerous.

So let's see what sort of loft conversion the Myers got for their money.

This is not what we were expecting at all.

We were hoping that it was going to be at least tidy

and they would have made good of what area they'd damaged.

This is kind of the worst of it for me.

The staircase is obviously unsafe -

all these areas are not actually screwed in, they just slot out.

The stairs themselves are just kind of floating here, they don't touch anything at all.

They do on this end, there's a little plank of wood just slotted in.

The worst part of it is the different heights of these stairs.

You don't notice it as much going up as you actually do when you're coming down.

That's the issue, coming down the stairs -

as you walk up, they're all different heights.

Down here - as you come down there you catch your leg there, look,

as you're coming down because it overhangs.

It's not good at all. It's even worse thinking that the children

are coming down here, and they're much smaller than us so obviously they don't have that leg stride.

The building inspector says the stairs are dangerous

and must be rebuilt,

and all the new fire doors upstairs must be made safe.

The casings here

are poorly fitted.

There's gaps round the edges of the frame.

So the doors don't actually fit properly -

you can see as we shut this door just how bad it is.

They even put the doors on the wrong way round -

you can see that there's the hole here, but as we shut the door...

..you can see it just doesn't fit at all,

so that's not a fire door

cos obviously it'd allow something to go straight underneath.

One year on, and the Myers have run out of money.

When the building inspector failed everything,

it put a different picture on it.

Then when we start getting quotes as well, something that we thought

were going to take a few hundred to solve

then turned into a few thousand and a bit more besides that.

And it was...

There was no way that we were going to be able to cover that type of bill.

I only work part time, and I still have to pay for my university fees as well. So there was just no way.

The girls are sleeping in the loft conversion, but Laurinda and Andi are worried for their safety

because they know there is so much wrong with the staircase and the fire doors.

Coming up, and independent chartered surveyor

warns the builders' bodges have put the family at even greater risk if ever a fire should break out.

Staircases are just a path for fire to spread through a house very, very quickly,

and it's something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

We're in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The Myers couldn't sell their house, so like many families

they decided to extend it by converting the loft.

Local builders offered them a fixed price job to add two extra bedrooms,

a new bathroom, and a home office.

The house would also be rewired, and new central heating installed -

but the builders quit by sending a text when the money ran out.

Now the loft conversion has failed essential safety checks.

The stairs and fire doors are dangerous, and the family have been

ordered to make their home safe by the building control officer.

We've stepped in to help.

It's time for me to see the damage for myself.

Hiya. Laurinda?

-Hi.

-Hi. Andi?

-Hi there.

-Do you mind showing me what the damage is?

-Absolutely, come on in.

'The builders came to convert the loft -

'but when they rewired and fitted new central heating,

'they left a trail of destruction throughout the house.'

OK, so just talk us through what's going on here.

This is most of the pipework for the loft conversion.

We had a full central heating system fitted at the same time.

All those cables are coming in, look -

they shouldn't be that close to any hot pipe.

So you're right, it's looking a real mess.

'These builders have made a right mess of the ceilings downstairs.

'The hallway has been blighted too.'

They've definitely taken a hammer to that roof void there.

I think it were their favourite tool actually.

You can see all the hammerhead marks as they've just crashed into it.

But they haven't unknown what's underneath,

and yet they've just crashed on with the hammer.

'The higher you get up the house, the worse the damage gets.'

Ooh! I didn't see that.

-OK, so this is the new staircase up to the loft?

-It is, yeah.

All right. OK. That's an open void.

Now, that doesn't meet fire regulations,

cos whilst all that's open, if there was ever a fire down here this staircase will act as a chimney.

And a real big killer of course is the smoke and the toxics that come from that smoke,

and that would just travel straight through. And that's why that has to be completely sealed off.

Considering I've got two of my girls up there.

Yeah. That is just bang out of order.

They should have known that, and

for fire safety that needs completely enclosing.

'But there's another problem with the safety of the stairs, just around the corner.'

This is totally my biggest worry.

As you can see the newel post is supposed to reach the floor -

it doesn't, and if you wobble it it's not very safe.

I don't like that.

And this is even worse -

the staircase doesn't reach the floor.

-Did you say that you've got two girls moving up here?

-Yeah.

No. I mean, that's not even safe for adults, I mean... No.

'Carefully up the dodgy stairs,

'and there's another fire hazard lurking.'

-Now these are supposed to be fire doors?

-Yes, they are.

-Er...no, they're not.

-No.

-So they don't meet fire regs.

-No, not at all.

You've got gaps all around - all around the perimeter, the top and

the bottom - which means smoke will easily ingress into the bedrooms.

-They must have known that.

-Absolutely.

'The fire doors and frames have all failed building control,

'because they won't stop the spread of fire or smoke.

'The bathroom has been abandoned too.'

-Great room(!)

-Yeah...

Lovely room, but...

-Nothing's fitted.

-Right.

The worry is as well, you see, the reason we got this fitted up here

-is so that the girls weren't running up and down a staircase anyway.

-Yes.

-So not only can they not use it, but they're running up and down a dangerous staircase.

-Correct.

'Despite the fire risk, Laurinda has had to let the girls move up into their new bedrooms.

'Because of all the disruption, her son Jared had to go and stay at his gran's house.'

The other issue is Jared's been without a bedroom for so long, and he's got Asperger's.

And it was his GCSE year, so the worst year of his life.

Loads of pressure.

He had no bedroom, so he had to stay at my mum and dad's house, and that's why we were so forced

into the position of having the girls into their bedrooms. We've got nowhere else to go.

'The building control officer has ordered the family to have

'the house made safe - but their funds are exhausted.

'I wonder what we can do to help.'

What could we do for you that would help you move on?

Doing the stairs.

-Make it safe, isn't it?

-It's the staircase. Getting the staircase...

Knowing that it's safe.

Knowing that we can finally get this job signed off by the local council would make the world of...

take a massive weight off our shoulders. It really would.

At the moment they've put an order on it as well, saying it has to be done within 21 days.

-OK. It has to be done within 21 days.

-Yeah.

OK. Here's a deal for you.

I'm going to get in

a top geezer, to come in and make a bespoke staircase, all right,

sort out the fire doors,

sort out the security for the window that's on the landing, all right,

and then I'm going to show you what they've done.

-How's that?

-Brilliant.

-Is that a deal?

This isn't only a big job - it's a race against time.

The Myers have been given just 21 days to make their house safe.

And the clock is ticking big time.

Fortunately, I know the team that can put this right.

It's time to bring on the good guys.

Before the good guys get stuck in making this loft conversion safe,

I want to get the verdict of independent chartered surveyor Colin Harrop on this builder's work.

Colin, what can only be described as a mess but a dangerous mess to boot.

You've had a look around - what have you found that's just not to your liking?

I think some of my main problems are with the structure, the way that

it's actually been put together and the real bones of the thing.

This staircase, for instance, there is an awful lot wrong with it.

It doesn't have a continuous handrail round it,

the newel post at the bottom hasn't been taken down and firmly fixed to the structure, so it's loose,

and one of the main problems is that building regulations require

staircases to have evenly-sized rises between the stairs,

so that walking up and down them feels safe

and you don't have to actually look down and see how big

the next step is.

In the case of this staircase, it hasn't been done in accordance with the regulations

and there are some pretty fundamental things that need to be done.

And then of course, we're talking about fire risk.

Obviously here where the staircase is open at the back,

there's a problem there cos it could act like a chimney if there was any smoke.

And in terms of fire, we're talking about fire doors -

they're a real hash. What do you think of them?

They're not fire doors.

They don't actually stop heat and smoke passing from one room

to another, which is the point of fire doors.

They should have closers on them, they should be basically in positions whereby you can

walk out of a room and not have to worry that if a fire does break out, the entire house burns down.

Staircases are just a path for fire to spread through a house very, very quickly,

and it's something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

So big safety issues here, lots of problems - marks out of ten, if you would.

Personally, I'd give this a one out of ten, and I think the one is

there more for effort than actual quality of build.

Well, one out of ten it shall be. Nothing to be proud of.

One out of ten for effort!

These builders broke all the rules.

Coming up, the Myers' friends and family all rally round to help.

We've tiled the bathrooms... I just help out wherever I can.

We're in Wakefield, helping make the Myers' home safe.

The family needed two extra bedrooms, a bathroom, and a home office.

So when they couldn't sell their house, they decided to extend up into the roof.

The builders promised a fixed price deal to convert the loft,

rewire the house, and install new central heating.

But when the money ran out, they quit by text.

And then the Myers found their work broke all the building regulations.

Now the council have given them 21 days to make their home safe.

We've brought in the good guys to replace the dangerous staircase

up to the loft, and install the fire doors correctly.

Richard is leading our team today. So, what's the plan?

Now, Richard, loads of problems gone on in the property - dangerous

not just with the staircase but electrics, gas, whatever...

what is your plan? What are you going to do, and how long do you think it's going to take you?

Well, the first plan is to get somebody sorting the fire doors

-and putting the new casings where needed.

-Yes.

I'm going to go back to work and start making a staircase and once it's ready, we're going to erect

a scaffold tower, remove the landing window, take the old stairs out and fit the new one.

-Fantastic. How long do you think it's going to take?

-We should be done for end of the week.

-So, four or five days, job's a good 'un?

-Yes.

OK, I can't wait to show them what the good guys are capable of.

While Richard and the guys get stuck in, I want to track back with Laurinda and Andi.

I want to find out why the fact the builders live locally was such a big attraction,

and who did they speak to about the builders' previous work.

Did you physically see any of their previous completed work?

-No.

-No.

Because if anybody came to your house and knocked on the door

and said, "I'm thinking of employing these builders,

"I know they've been working on your house what can you tell us about them?" I think

-your answer would be, I'm guessing it would be, "Don't touch them with a barge pole."

-Absolutely.

Now that could have been you knocking on somebody else's door.

I can't stress this enough, go and check out the previous completed work that these guys have done, OK?

Not halfway through a build, completed job.

Do you know we recommended them, though, we actually recommended these guys to other people.

Initially, thankfully, the lady across the road

needed a new sealed unit so they did that, which is a small job, and then my best friend needed

some work doing in an attic again a small job, so they didn't get burned, there were no big issue with them.

But a friend of mine wanted a full extension and I'm so glad now, looking back in retrospect,

that I didn't say, "You know these guys turn up on time..."

So she got somebody else in.

When friends and neighbours heard the Myers had found builders, they wanted the number too.

This is very common but take my tip, only hire a builder when

you've seen with your own eyes one of their previous completed jobs.

Lots of friends and neighbours get burned by cowboys

who are inadvertently recommended

before they've botched the job or do a runner.

It's much safer to praise your builder after he's finished.

So when did the Myers start to worry they had hired the wrong builders?

How soon into the build roughly did you think the first alarm bells sounded?

-It was when there was the issues with the trusses.

-Yes.

What happened was the engineer had obviously done the drawings and the building regulations guy came out

and said that they'd place some of these trusses in the wrong place and they either had to replace

as per drawings or go back to the guy that did the drawings to recalculate and see if they could do it that way.

They went back to the engineer, he said "No, this is how it should be, this is how it's got to be."

So then they had to replace it all and that's when things started to go a little bit wrong.

OK, in what way? Just fill us in.

The general attitude of them...

started to change. You could see that they were getting annoyed, that there was something wrong,

they were getting quite irate over things that weren't quite as relaxed as they were when they started.

Annoyed with who, themselves, you guys?

It was the building regs officers actually. Initially it was because of him they thought.

They kept saying he's made us do this, so this is going to cost us

x-amount of money. It's going to cost us more time to do it and so on and so forth.

Then they started saying that the insulation was going to cost them more because they needed...

an x-amount thickness more than what they expected.

-Yes.

-It started snowballing.

But don't forget your building inspector

is very, very important and if these guys are veering off the plan,

then he'll be annoyed with them and that's the way it should be, because they are putting you at risk.

The council's building control officer Michael Addy

has written to the Myers giving them 21 days to make their house safe.

He explains why it's so important to make sure all the fire doors meet the building regulations.

The doors must be standard FD20, but what does that mean?

The FD20 means a 20-minute resistant fire door.

So if there was a fire within this particular room here,

that door and frame would stay in position for 20 minutes,

giving people time to get out of the dwelling

and time for the fire service to get here, and hopefully

find the fire and fight the fire without injuring themselves.

As well as holding back the fire for 20 minutes, the door must have some additional features.

This is a completed fire door with cover lath forming a rebate to house the fire door.

The door is held in position with three hinges to stop the fire door from bowing in case of a fire,

and the door has a latch so that the door can be closed and engaged.

It is also very important that a smoke alarm is fitted on every floor when you extend into the loft.

Smoke would be allowed to lap

and filter through the door and activate the smoke alarm

that's positioned on the ceiling, which would give that early warning.

By enforcing the rules, the council building control officer

is protecting the Myers family from their bodging builder's shortcuts.

We hope that now we've got the good guys in to put right the wrongs, the family can finally get

their completion certificates to prove their home is safe.

Coming up - the Myers family have rallied to get the job finished

including cousin Mark who's is a gas safe engineer.

Quality of work were rubbish and I think they've just got to a point

where they couldn't finish it but didn't know what to do, so they just walked away.

In Wakefield, we're helping make the Myers family safe.

Mum Laurinda and dad Andi have three children, Jared, Christie and Millie.

They wanted a bedroom for each of the kids and a home office for Andi,

so they decided to extend up into the roof.

Some local builders promised they could do the loft conversion for a fixed price of £20,000,

but they didn't finish the job, and even worse, they broke the building regulations.

Now the two young girls are sleeping in the loft, but it's not safe.

The stairs are dangerous and the fire doors aren't up to standard.

Our team has stepped in to make them good.

Richard has taken on the task of building a bespoke staircase for the family at his workshop.

And we're not the only good guys on the job.

Laurinda's cousin Mark has stepped in to help too.

He's a gas safe engineer and he's offered to finish the gas central heating

and the plumbing for the abandoned bathroom in his free time.

We've always helped each other, so that's what we do.

So we just look after each other, basically.

When it's finished, they'll be happy.

The kids will all have their own rooms, more space, be less stress,

everybody not climbing on top of each other.

Go back to being normal, I suppose.

The entire family has really rallied to get the job finished.

Andi's dad, Michael, has done what he can.

I've helped with tiling, we've tiled kitchen, we've tiled the bathrooms.

I just help out wherever I can, with putting bits of plumbing.

I've plumbed bathrooms in and you just generally just muck in

and do whatever you possibly can with the resources available.

Andi has been hard at it too but the stress of the build

and his brain disorder has had a serious impact on family life.

I have been in and out of hospital quite a few times

and they've put a lot of that down to the stress and anxiety of this job that we had done.

The conversion not getting finished, knowing that I can't get it finished myself.

The Myers' original builders said they'd have the new bedroom plastered

and ready for the family to decorate when they got back from holiday.

But almost as soon as the Myers had packed their bags and got into the car to drive to France,

the build went seriously wrong.

They sent a text message and on the text message it stated

that because of the financial issues that they would...

have to leave the job temporarily

and return in smaller periods of time basically, an odd day here or an odd day there.

Obviously we tried calling them and couldn't get through.

About half an hour later they did answer the phone and explained...

well, exactly what I said.

They'd run out of money and they were having to go on to other jobs to try and earn some.

I thought it was really naughty sending a text message and I agreed to them doing other jobs

as long as when we got home the loft was at a standard

that we could just carry on, it weren't going to hold me up.

When the Myers returned home from holiday, nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to see

when they walked through their front door.

The loft was in a mess, they'd not finished anything.

Basically from coming home, we'd driven six hours' solid driving to come home,

we did five and a half hours of cleaning up before we could even unload our car.

Thinking of converting your loft and don't want it to end in catastrophe?

Then follow my, Clive's five, top tips to create extra space, not a huge problem.

Make sure you don't have to raise the roof.

Not every loft is worth converting.

Your roof may be too low.

A dormer window can add extra head height

but building regulations dictate the minimum headroom.

Don't break the rules by rushing into the roof.

To convert the loft space into living accommodation,

even for a home office,

you must make sure the work meets building regulations.

You may also need planning permission,

so check with your local council.

Don't risk a covert conversion.

Work affecting any wall, floor or ceiling of any adjoining property

requires a party wall agreements

Don't convert on the sly.

You must have a completion certificate from building control

when you sell your house.

Make sure you calculate the real cost,

for a basic fit out with bedroom and bathroom,

expect to pay at least £30,000.

Always allow a contingency fund for unexpected problems.

Going up may be an ideal time to go green.

Converting your loft is the perfect opportunity

to improve insulation and maybe even add solar panels to your roof

to generate extra energy for your home.

Coming up - what would the Myers like to

say to their builder who broke the rules when he converted their loft?

That's a big if.

If there was any chance that

they could pay towards some of the costs that we've had to outlay.

We're with the Myers family in Wakefield.

Their building control officer has given them 21 days

to make their new loft conversion meet all the safety rules.

The builders bodged the staircase and the fire doors, now if fire breaks out

it could rapidly spread through the whole house

putting the two young girls in the loft bedrooms in grave danger.

We're hoping to help get the family their vital completion certificate,

which will prove the conversion is safe.

I wonder what they would like to say now to the builder who left them in such danger.

For me it's that staircase and them fire doors.

He's got to have known

that they didn't meet regulations, that they weren't safe.

What would you like back from him?

It's fairly obvious that you wouldn't want him to come back

and do any remedial works, of which you've done loads already anyway.

But what would you like to get back?

Would you like to get money back?

I don't think we'd even get money back, I doubt it would worth trying to go down that route.

For me, personally,

I think if, it's a big if,

there was any chance

that they could pay towards some of the costs we've had to outlay.

Would you like to take the opportunity to speak to him or not?

I don't want to speak to him, I think I'd get too upset.

-I'd rather not, no.

-You would rather not, all right. Do you know what? I rather would.

It's ringing.

'The builder answers right away, he says he believes the stairs were passed OK.

'When I ask about the fire doors, he says he hasn't got time to talk

'but if we send him a quotation for the work, he'll take it from there.'

Here's the deal then,

we've put a load of it right now anyway, all right?

But of course Laurinda and Andi have had to fork out a fair few quid as well for remedial works.

We reckon roughly about a grand, right?

There or thereabouts.

Now I reckon as a goodwill gesture to these lovely people,

I reckon a grand would do you a massive favour.

'The builder says he doesn't mind paying to put all his work right.

'He will give Laurinda and Andi £1,000

'and he adds anyone who's got a problem come to me and I will sort it out.'

-This guy has actually spoken to us...

-Hmm.

I'm hoping he'll be as good as his word and I'll be in touch to find out if that's the case.

Unfortunately, Laurinda and Andi's builder let himself down again

and didn't pay back the £1,000.

Fortunately, our team of good guys is on the job now and this is the dramatic part of the build.

We're taking the dangerous staircase out and replacing it with custom-made stairs.

Getting the old stairs out is the easy bit, they come apart no problem.

Now we've just got to get them out of the house.

The guys have got a cunning plan, put some scaffold up, take the landing window out,

and there's a convenient hole to pass the old staircase through.

Now for the tricky bit, the new staircase has been made in Richard's workshop,

so that means we've got to get it into the house somehow.

I'm looking forward to seeing their smiles later when I show them what the good guys can do.

Coming up. I hope we can get the family the safety sign off

they need, and I can't wait to see their reaction to the new stairs.

Spot on.

Absolutely spot on.

Our work is almost done in Wakefield.

The Myers family was left in danger when their builder

bodged the essential safety elements of their new loft conversion.

The stairs were dangerous and the fire doors and frames failed to meet the regulations.

The building inspector gave them 21 days to make the house safe.

The family have all pulled together to help get them out of this mess.

Laurinda's cousin Mark, who is builder, has finished installing

the new plumbing and heating, and Andi's dad has completed the bathroom in the loft upstairs.

They've done a fantastic job.

There's a smart new shower cubicle and shiny white suite.

The contemporary look is completed with the elegant black tiles.

By the time we leave, the family should be safe and finally able to make themselves at home.

Our good guy Richard has just finished installing the new staircase.

Now that is a top-looking job, Richard,

and I've got to tell you now that makes a world of difference, mate.

Just tell us what you've done, did you have any problems taking

the old one out, and have you sorted out that fire risk?

The stairs came out relatively easy.

Brought the new stairs in, fit it into place, kept the spindles so

they are less than 100 mm to stop the child's head getting stuck in them.

Before, they were well over 100mm and they didn't meet building regs at all.

In terms of the fire safety aspect of it, it was all open at the back as well, wasn't it?

It was. Well, we've double plaster boarded it underneath and where it goes through into the ceiling

at the other side, so it should all comply now with building regulations.

So all we need now is the building control officer to come in, check it out,

pass it off, and Laurinda and Andi are going to be well happy.

I can't wait to show Laurinda and Andi their safe new staircase.

Andi's dad says all the work is just what the family needs to get back on their feet.

Hopefully, everything will get passed and it's a great thing for the grandchildren

on a safety aspect, and things can start moving forward.

Laurinda and Andi should be rightly chuffed by the way

their families have supported them through this challenge.

I wonder what else they've learned from the whole ordeal.

Now, guys, before I show you what the good guys are capable of,

just remind me what it was like before we arrived, what the problems were,

and what have you learned from the experience of having a cowboy builder in your property.

So starting with the problems you had.

The staircase being the worst problem we had,

uneven treads on the stairs, the gaps in the banister rails were too wide.

-Was it a bit of a mess, Laurinda?

-It was atrocious.

Door didn't line up, there were gaps in them, they wouldn't shut properly.

The whole thing was just awful,

no bathrooms, we had no bathroom up there, no heating, nothing.

What would you say you've learned from this experience that you can take forward?

Definitely to check on references for the future.

Try and plan to see any of their other previous work that they've done,

speak to the tenants of those buildings

and see if we can get their opinions on their work, and the people themselves.

What about you, Laurinda, what would you do?

Definitely that and ask about, recommends, see if people know people.

I've got to say though,

I think we'd stick to the people we know now rather than going any further afield.

And don't forget no payments upfront,

always make sure you've got a proper contract, a full written contract.

So, what are you hoping for, what are you hoping in the short space of time we could have done for you?

-Made that staircase safe.

-Yes.

-That is paramount, wasn't it?

-That is it, definitely.

Well, I, personally, because I can, have had a sneak peek

and I can't wait to show you what the good guys have done.

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Let's go.

Ta-da!

-What do you reckon?

-Spot on.

-Absolutely spot on.

-Doesn't wobble.

-It doesn't wobble.

-That looks great.

Lovely and strong that's the main thing,

and of course, you've got these spindles that were too far apart,

are now absolutely accurate.

You've got such a great set of stairs going on here and loads of safety.

-I think Richard and the guys have done it absolutely amazing.

-Definitely.

-Problems with fire doors remember that?

-Yeah.

They've all been resolved.

So we sorted out the reveals all round the doors,

so you've got no fire problems with those doors any more.

However, there is one final part of the jigsaw that I think is very important.

Now in this envelope,

this is from your local council building regs office, right,

your building control have now actually passed the work for the stairs

and those doors upstairs as well,

with all the fire risk that you had originally, that's now all been passed off.

So you've got local authority building control completion certificate

and you've got your electrical 17th edition regs safety certificate.

So tell you what, take care of one each, how's that?

-Fantastic.

-Fantastic.

-Is that the business or what?

-Absolutely, thanks so much.

-Brilliant.

We've removed all the fire doors, remade the frames, and rehung the doors

paying careful attention to all the special details

which allow them to provide extra safety in the event of a fire.

The good guys removed the dangerous staircase and built a new bespoke set

of stairs to transform this hellish hallway into a stairway to heaven.

Now the essential safety works have been completed,

the new loft conversion meets the building regulations.

The local inspector is satisfied and has issued the completion certificate.

That's great news for the family, now they have reassurance they're all safe.

How are you feeling right now about this whole thing?

-Relieved.

-Relieved, yes, definitely, over the moon.

It's amazing, not only have we got all this done,

we now know good builders and joiners to go back to.

I think that's important too.

Just bearing in mind of course that there are good builders out there,

all you've got to do is your research and you will find them.

It's really great to see this family all smiling again after all the stress.

The Myers family needed a happy ending to this story and I hope that we've helped write one for them.

And with the help of friends and family,

they've managed to pull together to get through all the mess.

So remember, stick together and that way you won't go falling into the Cowboy Trap.

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