Episode 10 Cowboy Trap

Once again I'm on the road to uncover really dodgy building work.

Cowboy builders may well be able to hide their work from you,

but even the most cunning can't hide their tricky work from these eyes.

I've got my dream home, my vision in my mind

and it's just all collapsed around me.

I'm going to bring in a top team who will put right

the wrongs that these cowboy builders have caused.

-We've now been bathing in a plastic tub for nine months.

-Wow!

My advice and tips will help you spot the tell-tale signs

of the cowboy builder.

That is just downright dangerous.

You've got a drop of two feet or more.

There's no way anybody can be around here.

It's time to show you how to avoid falling into the Cowboy Trap.

Today we're near Heathrow in the town of Ashford in Surrey

to meet single mum Lesley Sukamto.

Lesley's varied work life has so far taken many routes.

I've been a secretary, worked on a building site, actually.

Been backpacking round the world,

I've been a chauffeuress in a limousine.

I'm also a qualified beauty therapist.

Then in her last job, her drive for travel took her career in a whole new direction.

I've always been a confident driver,

so I've worked many years as a bus driver mainly up to Hammersmith.

That was my chosen route. I knew 14 different routes.

Lesley has lived in a two-bed semi for 19 years.

Now with daughter Honor she wanted an extension.

Her dream was to have extra bedrooms and a bigger kitchen.

But the real icing on the cake was to have a family bathroom

and a nice ensuite downstairs.

I've got my dream home, my vision in my mind.

My bathroom upstairs all nice and big and new.

My shower cubicle area downstairs, the ensuite, you know.

That's what I dream of and that's what I want.

Lesley got several quotes from builders which varied in cost.

Then her building inspector assigned by the local council

recommended two of the builders,

one of which came out at an average price.

He could start when she needed and complete the job within three months.

Lesley wanted a two-storey extension to the side and rear of her home

to create a larger kitchen, a new bathroom,

and add an extra bedroom

as well as a bedroom-cum-study with ensuite shower room.

The recommended builder quoted £31,950.

Lesley thought he was the man who could fulfil her dream.

Being a single mum is tough,

but this extension was going to create a fantastic new home

for Lesley and Honor.

To raise the money for the project, Lesley sold her car,

used credit cards and borrowed money from friends and relatives.

My parents had given me some money upfront.

My friend Nick trusted me sufficiently well

to take out a credit card with so much credit on.

In addition I've taken out another interest-free offer with another credit card.

While construction on the two-storey extension started well,

it wasn't long before the building work

made life very difficult for Lesley and Honor.

The builder left them high and dry when he removed the bathroom

without making alternative arrangements for the family to wash.

So they had to use a plastic box filled with water from the kettle.

It's been so time-consuming.

I was literally having to keep boiling up kettles

and you know how kettles run up your electricity bill.

That's it, filling up all the bath all the time.

It could take you two hours all in all.

Things are now pretty desperate for Lesley.

Unable to wash and the house in a total mess.

She's had no washing facilities for nearly nine months.

How can ANYONE do this to her?

It was not only difficult for them to live in their home,

but Lesley had noticed the quality of work was substandard.

She was so frustrated that she took it upon herself to do her own DIY repairs.

I saw a considerable amount of lack of pointing down the side alley,

so I found some wet, discarded mortar, so with my daughter's little bucket

put it in and got down the narrow gap and started pointing it myself,

which gave me mortar burns that lasted about three weeks.

By now Lesley was two months into the project

and nearly £28,000 out of pocket.

Her dream home was nowhere in sight.

Instead she had dangerous, unfinished construction work,

upheaval and mess everywhere, no bathroom and no heating.

It meant both mother and daughter were forced to camp out in the lounge.

This sofa makes up into a sofa bed, so we've been sleeping out here.

We pull it out at night, put it back in the morning.

With no heating it was just so cold to go upstairs.

Then came the final straw.

He'd been dragging his heels, turning up late, leaving early,

not doing what I considered a full day's work

which he used to do in the early days.

I went out into the garden to see what he'd been doing the previous day

and I saw how he'd re-bricked up my patio.

This is what I discovered.

That was the colour of the brick before

and he'd put in these orange engineering bricks.

No effort, look at that.

Literally thrown in there.

Well, that was it to me. That's it, that's enough.

I mean I was absolutely disgraced at that lack of skill,

care and attention to detail, couldn't care less.

Lesley's story is a particularly tragic one.

Her life has been turned upside down

by having to live in a house with an unfinished extension.

On top of that, she's now stony broke

due to having to borrow money to pay the builder

who, in my opinion, is not only a cowboy, but a callous one too.

I think it's time to meet Lesley and find out where it all went wrong

and see if we can put her life back on track.

-You must be Lesley.

-What a surprise!

-I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap.

-Pleased to meet you.

-I hear you've got problems with cowboy builders.

-Yes, yes.

-I can tell from the outside that it doesn't look too good.

-I might as well check this first.

-If I was you I'd go down the side alley first.

-OK, brilliant.

-I'll put the kettle on for you.

-Great!

Careful because there's two holes.

There's a massive hole, isn't there?

And a very little hole too.

I better be careful. Thanks for warning me in advance.

I'm not looking forward to this.

This side extension is meant to form part of the new downstairs

shower and study room. Although the wall linking it to the main house

still needs to come down, one look at this brickwork and I'm worried.

I'm just going to drop down the hole now.

That could be dangerous in itself. I'll just take a closer look.

First of all, this brick work here I've got to say

is child's play looking at it.

It's just incredible the way these are all twisted.

They knew full well that was going to be covered by render,

so a lot of the job wouldn't be seen.

If this is part of their work it is very, very poor.

The way they've actually done the interior block work,

the mortar gaps are way, way too wide.

It just doesn't look right at all.

Really this needs to be barriered off, because there's a child in the property.

If they come anywhere near this, who knows what sort of injuries

an adult could get from walking on this, let alone a child.

It is again one of the situations that's pretty poor.

I think I've seen enough in there.

Let's go and check inside and see what the problems are.

Lesley wanted a new bathroom and bedroom extension upstairs.

But has she got it? Has she heck!

First stop, the bathroom.

They've plastered one wall. I just don't get it.

Let's just say it's in a state of, um...incompletion.

This looks like it's just been abandoned.

It's going to be a while

before Lesley and Honor get to bathe in here.

I'm hoping the new bedroom is in a better shape.

You can see where her plans are going and where her dream is.

These joists here, they've put timber packers on the top, so they obviously miscalculated.

Timber packers are strips of wood that can be used to build up and even out

the levels of a floor.

This is not the safest in the world to be doing,

so I'm going to get onto this board.

So, it actually makes quite a nice sized room,

but again it's been left in a state of danger.

Just having a board across there isn't enough.

Especially, again, when you've got children in the property.

You've got a fall, there, right through,

down into what looks like the kitchen extension.

It's not safe and it's just not clever.

It just looks such a mess.

And talking of mess.

Oh, dear. Come and have a look at this. Have a look in there.

This is what life's like when you get the builders in.

Now, there's no way that little Honor can use her bedroom at all.

When you get the builders in, you've got to remember there's going

to be some sort of disruption.

But for this length of time and for this amount of aggro

that will add pressure to the whole thing.

And, as you can see, just by looking in that bedroom,

I would imagine that's a reflection

of most of the rooms around the house.

That it'll almost be like no-go zones.

From one mess to another. Here we go again.

This is how it impacts on general life. It must get you down.

Just be prepared.

No way, that shouldn't be like that.

Sadly, it looks as if Lesley's longed-for dream kitchen extension

is also in bits.

That is just downright dangerous.

You've got a drop of two feet or more, two and a half feet.

For a builder to leave it in this state, he should be ashamed.

Now, take a look at this.

This door is temporary in more ways than one.

If I try and shut it, think about the security angle

before we even think about the amount of cold air that's coming in.

But look at that, the whole frame is moving.

Now, the danger with that, of course,

is good, strong gust of wind,

who knows how long that's going to stay there.

And if anybody was down in this hole when that drops,

this is a weighty, old door, let me tell you.

And all you've got there, look, is plastic tarpaulin,

up and over the top of the threshold and, as I say,

great for posting your parcels if nobody's in

but that's about all.

The place is unfinished, dangerous and unsecure.

Worse still, Lesley and Honor have been living like this now

for more than nine months.

What's more, they have no way of having a proper wash.

Lesley's home footage records one of the last times she saw her bath.

And downstairs, the shower room extension still looks like this.

No chance of having a wash here any time soon.

It's time to find out from Lesley exactly what's being going on.

-What were your plans for this room?

-This whole wall is to come out.

It will be a shower ensuite,

come bedroom, stroke office.

-In this space, once we're open.

-Yeah.

So, we've got a shower ensuite, bedroom, office.

Well, stroke office.

All compact and bijou. It's going to be well compact, that is.

But, interestingly enough, I think it would make a massive difference

once you're knocked out through there.

You cannot be taking this wall down without supporting the stairs.

-Or, otherwise, the stairs will be floating in midair.

-Yeah.

It was my gut feeling

that this builder didn't really have the knowledge of how to do this.

So, I think he's just left it because he never planned to deal with it.

-That's my feelings.

-Yeah.

-So, let's go upstairs.

-Right, follow me, Clive.

What a relief the builder didn't touch that wall.

Unfortunately, he did get his hands on the family bathroom.

My old bath was there. And my daughter and I,

we had our bath that morning and I jokingly said to her, I said,

"Oh, I wonder how long we're going to be without a bath? Maybe three days."

Little did I know what I was letting myself in for.

Because we've now, to date,

-been bathing in a plastic tub for nine months.

-Wow.

Yes, yes, it was originally my daughter's old, baby bath

-that I got down from the loft.

-Right.

But, of course, me squeezing in there, eventually it split.

So, ended up in a plastic box that I got up the local dump.

That's ingenious that you've done that

-but should you have ever been in that that position in the first place?

-Well, course not.

It's the only way I can have a bath in this house.

And that's what I've been doing for nine months.

-You should never have had to have been doing that.

-No.

For all this time. We need to start to put an end to that.

Well, if I knew what I knew now,

there is no way he would have taken my bath out that Monday.

Monday 17th May.

-That date will stick in my mind for ever.

-Yeah.

And the botched work in this new bedroom is another thing

that I'm sure Lesley won't forget in a hurry.

Well, I'll tell you about this room.

It, actually, was lower than the rest the house.

-That's why it's got the packers on.

-Yes, yes.

It is just rough! It is just terrible!

This work is not just bad! It's dangerous!

Just look at that hole in the floor

and the downlighters are a serious fire hazard.

Before anybody seals this floor off,

that has got to have fire hoods put on it.

Basically, because the heat that's generated

from those low voltage lighting is intense.

And you've got all this, you've got combustible materials all around.

All of this sawdust goes to combustible materials.

I'm amazed you've lived in this house

for this length of time, in this condition and had no injuries.

What I've seen here is really worrying me.

But that's nothing compared to what Lesley tells me next.

-He's literally, built on top of the original, flat roof.

-Right.

But there's a steel beam in there.

Lesley's home footage of the building work

shows the problem.

That steel beam across the flat roof of the kitchen

is now supporting the extension.

But if the far end is only resting on an old lintel,

the whole building could collapse.

It's something that needs investigating urgently.

I think it was lack of thinking, really.

Yeah, you're telling me, lack of thinking.

-Just looking around us.

-He couldn't care less.

-There's no thought.

-He just put it where it suited him.

Later, there's news on that structural beam and it's alarming.

If that goes the beam, the room above,

the roof above will all come straight down into this kitchen.

And Lesley and Honor are in for a surprise.

It's a magic door.

When Lesley employed a builder to convert her semi-detached house

into her dream home, he quoted £31,900.

But, despite getting five grand in cash up front,

and another £6,000 worth of materials bought for him,

the builder somehow seemed reluctant to start work.

It was originally lined up that he was going to start,

Tuesday, 6 April, 2010. And then, in front of his wife, he came up with this superstition.

He said, would you mind if I delayed it one day?

He said, in Albania it is bad practice to dig out

foundations any other day other than Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

So, I just gave a little giggle and I said, if you like.

I said, start one day later, that's it.

-All to do with superstition of digging out...

-Footings.

-Footings.

That might have been genuine, and I'm not knocking that,

but what I would have required from him was that,

if you want money upfront, I don't pay money upfront.

I've got a superstition.

I don't pay money upfront on days with a Y in it.

Well, that superstition is a new one on me.

But, whatever the excuse your builder has for wanting money upfront, remember...

Her builder's superstitions certainly took Lesley's breath away,

but not as much as when he removed her bath

and still hadn't replaced it some five weeks on.

I ended up going up in the loft

and getting out my daughter's old baby bath.

And squeezing myself in that.

And then, of course, that eventually started splitting,

so I went up the local dump and I was lucky enough to find a plastic box.

-As you do!

-Somebody discarded it, and I thought, that'll come in handy.

So that's what we've been bathing in now, for nine months.

I have my bath, and then she'll get in and have hers.

And then I balance it on some, like, plastic thing I've got,

with the lid on, balance it on a slant, and with another plastic pot,

just literally ladle it out.

It's been so time-consuming.

Literally an hour and a half, two hours a day, I think.

Despite that, the builder continued to demand money,

even taking drastic action to get his hands on it.

So, how did it all come to a head with you and the builder,

and where it all went wrong?

Well, I received verbal threats one day on the doorstep,

that the wife said she only wanted to receive cash payments

and, more or less, God help you if you don't pay cash.

She was SO aggressive, I even said to her, "Are you going to hit me?"

I really felt that she was right in my face with aggression.

We all stood on the doorstep and had an argument,

and this is when they said to me, if you want us back to work,

you have to pay me another £1,750 in cash,

which he considered was outstanding money that he was owed.

So, I agreed to pay him, just to literally get him back to work.

So, the Thursday morning, of course, he didn't turn up to work.

So, I called in the building inspector, and he said to me,

-don't pay the builder any more money. Get onto Trading Standards.

-Wow!

To date, Lesley is £28,000 out of pocket.

She's in debt, and has very little to show for it.

-You are having to bathe in a bucket.

-Mmm. I think, I...

That is no fun for anyone. The dream's gone.

-The dream's up in smoke.

-I was planning on going to college

in September. I had to cancel it because it's just too time-consuming getting ready in the morning.

You see the effect it has on, not just your daily life?

But it's now thrown you out. You were going to go to college,

that's thrown you out.

-You've got, I would imagine, your heating bill quarter, with all of the...

-kettle boiling.

Not just that, I'm talking about the fact that you've got

great big, gaping holes round the door, through to the kitchen.

That has to be mega-stressful. How does that make you feel?

You just, you seem to be shorter tempered, really.

It creates stress with your daughter, as well. It's not been a good time.

Three months after work began,

Lesley's dream of additional bedrooms, a family bathroom,

a larger kitchen and en suite study area downstairs lies in tatters.

She's been living like this for nine months.

What could we do to start putting things right?

Well, what would make me happy is,

if I could get the wall taken down in the downstairs toilet room,

and the stairs supported,

and get that little en suite shower room that I wanted.

Who, who had a conscience, would leave someone living like that,

with no bathroom?

Well, I've identified loads of problems in this property,

and I really want to sort things out for Lesley.

But, before we do, don't just take my word for it.

Let's see what our independent chartered surveyor thinks about it.

Question as to why this has been built in the stud work.

This is bound to cause cracking. This is unbelievable.

There's no padstone that I can see

that's underneath this load-bearing beam.

You have to have something underneath the beam

to support it, to spread the load onto the brickwork.

I can't see anything.

This wall has been built on a tilt.

Estimated discrepancy of about 25 millimetres.

-Simon, how are you?

-Hi, nice to meet you.

Now, it's very important from our point of view to get an independent

surveyor's reaction to what's gone on, where cowboy builders

are concerned. What have you seen that you don't like?

The work carried out to the interior of the house is appallingly poor.

There are works that don't comply with building regulations.

There are works that are flawed, in terms of their design,

and the manner in which the work has actually been carried out.

The standards of workmanship in some instances are utterly appalling.

Give us a mark out of 10, what you think this is worth.

On average, the inside works are probably worth about 3 out of 10,

but where some works have to be demolished to put them right,

they can be given zero or one out of 10.

Zero and three is where it will stay,

and that tells me EVERYTHING about this builder.

Whether it's zero or three out of 10, either way, it's an awful score.

Well, clearly, this is unsafe, not only for an adult but particularly for a child.

So, I'm going to seal the area off. It is now a no-go zone.

And I'm going to call in the good guys.

Ray and Paul really do have their work cut out here.

And top of the list, is sorting out that worrying upstairs beam.

Boys, this is always my favourite bit, bringing in the good guys.

But, I have to say there are pockets of disaster all over this property.

I don't know where you're going to begin.

Because, you know the thing with cowboy builders,

it's not the things you can see on the surface of the job, it's what's beneath.

We've had to delve right the way back through the site visits that

the inspectors have made to uncover what mistakes this builder has done.

And they were atrocious problems.

Tell us roughly what jobs you're going to do throughout.

The most important one, above this ceiling,

there's a steel beam that's resting on this wall.

It looks a good, solid wall,

but there's only a very small concrete lintel there.

If that goes, the beam, the room above, the roof,

will all come straight down into this kitchen.

Lesley will get hurt, the child could be hurt.

well, anybody in this vicinity could be hurt,

like, we could be, right now. We don't want that to happen.

Listen, boys, great to have you on board.

Can't WAIT to see the finished result.

As the local builders strip away the plaster,

it's clear that the upstairs extension is

bearing down on a beam that is only resting on this concrete lintel.

And that's cracking under the weight.

It's obvious Lesley's builder was clueless.

The main beam's going on top of this beam here,

which was never supported properly in the first place,

as you can see it's already got a crack in it.

So we're putting this steel beam in which will support that and the beam

above it, which is supporting the top floor of the house.

To think the heartless builder could put Lesley

and Honor's life in danger like this just makes my blood boil.

There are so many faults with the work, that Lesley even had a go

at fixing the pointing in the brickwork herself!

Here at this specialist building college in Warrington,

the experts can show you how a job like this should be done.

So, Dan, you're the lecturer here. Talk us through point work.

Pointing is basically refilling the mortar joints with new mortar,

making the wall look good.

You need to rake out between 10-12 millimetres before you start

and brush any debris away from the wall,

so that the mortar actually sticks in the joint better.

So, you've got your trowel, you've got your mortar. Let's get pointing.

So, basically,

just get a little piece of mortar on the edge of the pointing trowel.

Start off with the bed joints.

so, you're doing the bed joints first, which are the long joints.

-And then do the uprights.

-Yep. As you go along.

And then you've got a finishing tool,

and that's this that you've got at the top.

Your half round jointer.

Give it a nice, smooth finish and just keep going over it

until it looks absolutely spot-on.

I tell you what, that is a bit of good work.

We're going to get your students in, to mark it,

-but I think that's 10 out of 10.

-Thanks.

Back at the house, the builder's bodges have caused Lesley

stress and heartache for too long.

So, I want to give her the chance to confront him.

I think it's high time that your builder answered some questions,

some much-needed questions, but I would like to know from you

what questions you would like to ask him.

Why did he remove my bathroom?

To remove a bathroom in somebody's house, when that is their only

facility for having a daily wash, is just out of order.

Well, I'm going to give you that chance now.

I'm going to put it on speakerphone, for you.

RINGING TONE

Hello? Recognise this voice?

I have some questions to ask you, if you don't mind,

and you have the right of reply.

One, I would like to know, on Monday 17th of May, 2010,

why did you remove my bathroom upstairs

when you had put no drainage in place?

You have left me with no bathroom in this house.

Why did you take my bathroom out?

For legal reasons, we can't broadcast the builder's voice.

But, when asked about removing the bath,

he said he was only following Lesley's instructions.

Because I asked you to?! I did not ask you.

You are in charge, as the builder.

You said to me, do you want me

to fit your bath upstairs, downstairs temporarily, and I said no.

I said, after three weeks,

I would have expected you to have had my bathroom reinstalled upstairs.

My second question is, at the same time,

why wasn't a steel beam discussed internally?

You allowed the bedroom and the roof to be built on top of the kitchen,

where no steel support had been put in, internally.

So, ten months, all of that weight was sat on a kitchen doorway

that didn't have sufficient support there.

In response to this allegation, the builder said he did want

to investigate the kitchen beam, but was told by Lesley not to.

You really don't know what you're doing as a builder, do you?

I think all you are is a painter and decorator.

Anyhow, forget it!

Oooh! Now, that was fierce!

It was fierce.

But, the interesting thing is, though, on recap,

he's constantly pushing the blame back at you.

"I didn't want this and I didn't want that!"

How would you not want an RSJ to support the upstairs floor?

Because it's not whether you want it, it's not

-whether he wants it, it's building control that actually want it.

-That's right.

So, all of these things he was trying to put back, that was tough,

that was hard, and I could feel the passion and the pain from you.

Listen, well done, Lesley. Good shout.

Back inside, the power tools are going at full throttle

to move this job along and give Lesley what she dreamed of -

a new downstairs shower room-cum-office-cum-bedroom.

But, as with all building work, it comes with a price.

Obviously, desperately hard, living in this state.

Especially now, we've got the new, competent builders in.

There's dust flying around again.

With so much upheaval downstairs, Lesley and Honor decide

to escape to a friend's house for a few days.

As they leave, Paul and Ray get on with

installing that all-important structural beam

that will stop the extension from falling down.

At the other end of the house, designer Mike Birch is busy

turning this area into a shower room to be proud of.

The first fix plumbing's being installed.

Hot and cold for the shower. The mixer's going into this position.

So, that's the majority of the first fix done now.

From here on in, the floors will be levelled up,

The subfloor, the plastic floor will be placed down.

The partition wall between the bedroom

and the en suite bathroom will be built.

And then the whole bathroom will be enclosed,

to start the plastering of the walls and then the tiling,

and then the bathroom starts to take a bit of shape.

When I first saw Lesley's house in Ashford, I was shocked.

The cowboy builder pocketed 28 grand of her money

and left behind a huge building nightmare.

But, with so many problems, we can't address them all.

So, we're tackling the most urgent, to make the house structurally safe,

and give Lesley and daughter, Honor, a much-needed place to wash

after they've been bathing in a bucket for the past nine months.

Here we are at Lesley's property.

What I want to find out is how things are getting on.

-Paul, how are you?

-OK, thanks. You?

-Yeah, not too bad.

Talk me through what you've actually done.

I can see where you've plastered and skimmed.

That's where the steel has gone in.

That's where the new steel beam went in, yes.

-So, you've done the steel beam.

-New floor, by the back door.

I noticed that. So, you got the new floor down.

And I need to get skips organised and all sorts.

-Yes, so we can get the front door cleared.

-OK, well, look.

So far, so good.

What we need to do is complete the job.

But, so far, brilliant.

It's a tough job for our team of builders,

but they've worked wonders making this house structurally safe.

Next job is to make it comfortable for Lesley and Honor.

I'm going to help by sorting out a skip,

so we can rescue Lesley's house from the clutches of this cowboy builder.

Two six-yard skips.

Come on!

Back of the net!

The boys have made excellent progress.

And now, they can get rid of the rubbish

and carry on making this property safe and secure.

Next job on the list is to sort out that dodgy back door.

Better. Rubbish gone. Skips gone.

I've got a good feeling about today.

Ray the builder, ray of light, ray of sunshine! How are you, Ray?

I'm all right. Thank you.

It's a whole heap different to the last time I was here.

Talk us through everything you've done in this kitchen.

You remember that we had the problem with the lintel?

That's now been replaced with a solid steel beam,

and that is now supporting all the upstairs,

-so there's no problems there, of any more collapsing.

-OK.

The other thing that we've done is we've made the wiring safe there.

Got no cables hanging.

No, no cables. We then gone on and we've done the plastering

and finished off the room.

We've done the floor, which has met with building control.

And the doors in. From a security point of view, the family are safe.

It looks so much better, doesn't it?

There's still a lot more to do to get the house as it should be,

but hopefully, we've gone a long way

to getting Lesley started on that process.

Now, what about in the office and in the shower area as well?

Come and have a look at that and I think you'll be surprised.

Right, this is the other room that we've done.

I tell you what. That is really bright and breezy now.

-You remember how the wall used to be across there?

-Yes?

-Well, that's all gone.

We then fixed the staircase, so that is supported,

then we've done all the plastering and everything else in here.

And the windows are in now,

so, from a security point of view, again, really important.

I tell you what, Ray, the floor looked great, mate.

Let's have a look in the shower area.

Oh, yeah, man!

That looks totally different as well, doesn't it?

Is very compact, isn't it?

The thing is, it's fit for purpose, for her, now.

She was having a bath in an old plastic tub.

Now, she's got a shower, she's got a basin, toilet, lighting, tiled.

It looks fantastic. I think she's going to love this.

She's going to love it.

It's a lesson for other customers who want extensions and that done.

They should look on the Federation of Master Builders website

to get a recommended builder, or, they should go on

the trading standards website, the Buy With Confidence.

Wise words, Ray, wise words. Good job, man.

I can't wait to show her what the good guys can do.

What a difference. That looks great. There's no need for this any more,

so I'm going to take it down.

And, first up, it's the kitchen.

Here we go!

-Lovely!

-what was it like before? Remember?

Well, we had a big trench there.

There, there was a grey block wall, wasn't there?

That the labourer built, and it wasn't even straight.

So, now, they've finished the wall off, and plastered it all.

Got the chrome lights, I really like chrome lights.

Looks really good. It looks so much brighter as well, doesn't it?

You've still got a bit of tiling, but do you know,

one of the most important things, remember about the beam?

-What was the problem?

-Oh, yes, having the beam done.

-Structurally, making the house not going to collapse, in time.

-Exactly.

That was the thing.

This is the discovery that there is every possibility that

the upstairs extension, the bedroom, could have just collapsed down.

One of the things we really hated was the fact that,

from a security point of view, the door was, there was a big opening.

-You could put your arm through it.

-You could.

So, I'm really pleased to see the door and the frame in.

-It's a magic door!

-That's right!

Everything's in.

Yeah, it's fantastic!

For you now, is this a new beginning?

Well, what I'll do now is get a nice kitchen table here

and we'll be able to start functioning again

as a family downstairs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, do you remember the bath situation?

-It was bucket bath time.

-Joke. Absolute joke.

-Indeed.

This is why I want to show you now what the office area's like,

because you wanted the office bit,

you wanted an en suite area.

-So, shall we have a look?

-Go on, then.

-Come on.

Come and have a look.

Look at this! Remember this, Honor?

Do you remember that the builder was never capable

of taking this wall down and supporting the staircase?

Yes!

Now, do you remember, Honor, looking at the electrics

and everything else, the way that the floor had been put in?

Tell us what you'll be using this for and how excited you are.

This room is going to be for my college work.

-I'm going to college, aren't I?

-Yeah.

So, it's a nice little area for you to come in, sort of concentrate, and do your work.

But it's also a lovely little escape area, too.

But of course, if you remember, we'd got huge holes all over the place.

We had no windows.

That's our fire exit window has now gone in, of course.

Now, the room, this was very cold, this room was.

I mean, I was packing the holes up with tissue paper and plastic bags.

Because, of course, we had to bath in here.

There was gaps in the walls, so yes, I needed to pack it up.

I don't know how you did it, actually.

-Neither do I, to be honest.

-I really do not know how you coped.

I think I've aged this year and become more of an alcoholic!

THEY LAUGH

Well, let's hope we can stem the tide, we don't want you doing that!

Now, do you remember what your mum had to do when you wanted a bath?

What happened?

A baby bath, then a tub.

That's right. That's right.

Because of that situation, with bathing in a tub,

I want to show you the en suite.

Come on, Honor, go and have a look in there.

Look at this!

That's fantastic, isn't it?

Obviously, in here, you've got the toilet, you've got the basin.

I love the chrome towel rail as well. You've got the extraction fan.

You've got what they call zone one lighting in here, above

the shower, which means that it's water-resistant, moisture-resistant.

Look, Honor! We can go in there and get washed up

and spruced up in about 10 minutes, instead of two hours!

Yeah, it's just brilliant now.

So, overall, now, how do you feel?

I am really, really grateful to you, really I am,

because I could never ever have done this myself.

Are we going to have a group hug? We're going to have a group hug.

-Aw, that's nice!

-Thanks very much, Clive.

It's a pleasure, it's a pleasure.

I tell you what, that's a cracking job carried out by Ray and Paul.

But it's not over yet.

I've got all the evidence here in the evidence box

to take to the nearest trading standards office

and hope they'll pick it up from there.

So, watch out, all you cowboy builders.

If you've had a problem with builders

and you'd like to tell your story on Cowboy Trap, then please call us:

Help us round up the Cowboys.

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