Episode 11 Cowboy Trap

Welcome to Cowboy Trap

and my tough quest to rid this land of dodgy builders

and the stress that they cause to people who let them into their homes.

It's destroyed me.

It's punched me up and down, really up and down everywhere.

You see, these builders don't care about you,

your home or the work they carry out.

In fact, the only thing they care about

is getting their hands on your hard-earned cash.

It invokes a lot of anger in me, but pure disgust as a human being

that you can treat other people like that, and thinks he can get away with it.

Well, here we go again.

I'm about to see some awful building work

undertaken by cowboy builders once again,

but I'm hoping to shed a little bit of light

at the end of the tunnel for those who have been their victims.

They sneakily pretend to be nice and then just run off.

But listen up and take note, all you cowboy builders out there.

We are fighting back.

We're not in it on our own now. I think that's what we're thinking.

-Somebody's helping us.

-Finally, someone's listening.

I'm about to reveal some of the tricks and techniques

you cowboy builders use on unsuspecting homeowners,

and prevent others from falling into your trap.

Today, I'm in Whiston on Merseyside,

where you're about to witness some real dodgy building work

that not only stretched the homeowners' finances

to breaking point, but their relationship too.

I've been very concerned about our marriage.

I thought it was the end.

Today, we're going to meet the Wood family.

Janet works as a student support officer

and Andy works as a driving instructor,

and they also have a 12-year-old son called Luke.

Janet and Andy purchased their home some 13 years ago

when they fell in love with its quiet location and lovely garden.

As Luke grows up, they wanted to give him more space.

The Woods' dream was to convert it from a two-bed into a three-bed home

so that Luke could have a larger bedroom and dad Andy could have a study.

Our dream home as we planned

would've been to have a nice, open-plan living area

at the back of the house to overlook the garden,

it would be nice in the summer, have friends round, bit of entertaining,

and a new bedroom for Luke because his old room's getting too small,

just to make it a better quality of life for us.

The extension was designed to make the living space more accommodating

so that Andy could run his driving school business from a study

rather than have all the paperwork out on the dining room table.

It made total sense.

Janet and Andy hired an architect to draw up the plans,

and when he suggested a local builder, they thought they'd be in safe hands.

We chose the builder because he was recommended the architect,

so we thought we could trust him.

We didn't think anything would go wrong.

The Wood family wanted a two-storey extension at the back of their house.

This would provide an extra room upstairs,

and by removing an internal wall downstairs,

it would also give them a large,

open-plan kitchen-cum-dining and living space.

The builder gave Janet and Andy a quote for a six-week job, costing...

They handed over an initial payment of £7,500

and agreed to pay the rest in instalments.

The work got off to a flying start.

-He started December, mid-December.

-2009, yes.

-With this build at the back.

-He got it done very quickly. Within a week...

-Like a space rocket going off.

-It was quick, fast.

The steelwork was going and it was like, "domph."

As Christmas approached, the work slowed,

but despite making little progress,

the builder still asked for more money,

and unfortunately, the couple agreed.

After more cash changed hands, work came to a complete stop,

and the Woods began to realise

that their dream family home was far from turning into a reality.

When the builder didn't come back after the Christmas break when he said he'd seal up the house,

that's when we started thinking, "Something's not right here."

Janet and Andy had paid more than two thirds of the original quote,

and the builder was nowhere to be seen.

They were left with drainage and structural problems,

not to mention a partially-built and leaky roof.

Financially, this was a huge project,

so the Woods had to re-mortgage their home just to get work started,

but their dream has been shattered.

All they've been left with is an unfinished extension

and a home they can barely live in.

This cowboy conman hasn't just wreaked havoc in their home,

he's damaged their relationship too.

It's destroyed me.

It's punched me up and down everywhere.

It came to the stage where me and Janet

had been fighting so much over petty things.

It affects the whole family.

As a relationship, you both stress in different ways.

You take it out on each other.

The distress and strain of this situation

has been felt by all the family.

I think it's affected Luke, but he's kept a lot back.

He's not been able to play in the garden with his friends.

It's been like a builders' yard.

It's definitely affected him.

And with seeing our relationship not being good,

that's affected him as well.

For two summers now, 12-year-old Luke has been stuck inside

because the garden is in no fit state to play in.

It's annoying getting up in the morning

and just looking at an extension that is incompleted.

It's very messy. The garden looks very scruffy.

They've also missed out on quality family time together.

Before we had this problem, Sunday used to be family day out.

We would go out somewhere as a treat.

Now my dad has to do bits on the house.

He has to use his own time up on a Sunday to do the house,

and that's the only day he gets to do it a week.

The Wood family was left in chaos,

and just heard excuse after excuse from the builder.

'I want to meet them, to assess the state he's left them in

'and find out how it all went wrong.'

-Hello.

-By my reckoning, it's got to be Andy and Janet.

How are you? Are you all right?

Take me in. Let's have a look.

-Come through. Come through.

-Thank you very much.

I'll wipe my big boots.

Don't worry about that. We'll clean up after.

-This is all part of the original property?

-This is the original.

This is where the mess starts. It's from here.

You can see that's been done, and out at the back.

They've broken through the concrete lintel. You can see the gap.

-I can see.

-He broke straight through there looking for the ceiling.

Wow! That is unusual because now, that lintel has just been patched up.

Over time, under weight bear, that'll start bearing down.

What's with the leaflets? Is that in case you want something to read?

That was to pad it out to keep us warm, I think.

-It was freezing.

-Makeshift draft exclusion, OK.

'With a little help from his friends,

'Andy's carried out some essential remedial work,

'putting on the roof and filling in holes around the house.'

-Is this how the builder has left it?

-We put the ceiling in.

-OK.

We put the roof on.

I'm not 100% happy with the way that this return's been done.

It's all been filled with offcuts of block.

'Andy's dabbled with the electrics. Naughty!'

-I put the actual plastic one in.

-Yeah?

There's some sort of web inside it.

No, that's TRS. That's a protected, tough, rubber-sheathed cable.

-Which is good. Internally, fine.

-Yeah.

Externally, what's in the ground, cable-wise?

That is actually tucked up against the fence, just below ground level.

If you've put cable in like that,

and someone comes along after you've sold the house,

and they've got their fork or spade and they go straight through it

and they get curly hair, they can come back to you for it.

Desperate times can call for desperate measures. Take note.

What's more...

When your electrician comes in and finishes off,

you can put a bit of steel wire on, terminate it off with a gland

into a proper IP-rated outdoor socket,

and I think that'd be better for you.

Obviously, you've got a qualified electrician that's coming in at the moment.

-No. I've done all this.

-Andy, stop! Stop!

You can't do this, please. I'm asking you nicely. Don't do it.

But I've had to do this, Clive.

Listen, son, I know you have. What I'm saying to you is, don't do it any more.

Electrician-wise, we'll get someone in to check it all over.

We'll work it out, what we'll do from there.

'Outside, through the gaping hole in their house, the problems continue.'

-Just describe what you have had trouble with.

-We had no roof on.

It was just a wishy-washy, almost-constructed frame.

-Was all the framework in?

-No.

-So it was just an open void?

-Yeah.

'I've spotted another problem around the side of the house.'

-That feeds what?

-That's the sewer going back. It's combined.

Oh, dear. No. No, no, no.

You've got a soil stack intersection there that's open.

You're covering it with a bit of old conservatory roof.

That's not good enough, because all the germs and bacteria in that

are exposed into the soil, into all these pipes that are around.

The intersection needs to be capped off.

So that you're stopping any potential germs coming out.

They're all over the place at the moment.

-That's been like that for over 12 months.

-Shut that again.

That is awful. That is real dire.

The Woods have a young son, Luke, who uses this garden,

which makes this germ-ridden hazard even more dangerous.

These careless cowboy bodge jobs horrify me,

and I'm going to tell you why.

We had the inspection chamber that was just sitting on the land

outside their new extension. That was just no good.

Where the extension had happened, underneath,

that was a combined sewer, which had foul water and top water.

So that was the waste from the toilet going into it

and all the rainwater as well.

This was put in by the so-called builder, but left on the surface.

I think there was about that much showing, and no top lid.

Going into this, he had the toilets, sink, washing machine, dishwasher,

and he also had the rainwater going in here, too.

The problem is with no lid on it, imagine this,

we're in Great Britain, whoosh, down comes the rain.

Someone's using the toilet, maybe the washing machine,

the dishwasher's on.

Once that all gets flooded, and we're talking raw sewage in there.

The moment that happens,

the sewage is going to come up and over the top, on to the land,

right next to the house.

That's going to cause vermin to be attracted,

lots of bacteria there as well.

And to be fair, the thing was, for me personally,

that was an area of complete danger in terms of the germs

that they could have contracted by just being around this open area.

It needed a lid on. It needed seating properly.

But I don't think the builder had a clue.

'Back at the house, the Wood family wanted the extension

'to provide an extra room and create more space for their son, Luke.

'But over a year later, he's still not reaping the benefit.

You've done lots of remedial work simply because you've had to.

We've had to seal it up and make it watertight because there was nothing here,

just half the roof hanging off.

Luke's still stuck in his old bedroom,

which is even worse than it was.

Gaps between the new extension wall, the new roof and his old window

left water leaking into his room.

So this is our son's room, what he's been sleeping in for ages.

-Get a take on this!

-With this.

Right.

'Andy has had to replace the window, seal the roof and fill the holes

'to prevent any further damage.'

When they built the upstairs part of the blockwork here,

they left that window in,

pulled the blockwork all the way up to the window itself.

You see, that's also caused you grief, damp-wise.

-Water ran through here.

-Unbelievable!

-It ran into the property.

'I can't believe that Janet and Andy have had to live

'in this virtual building site for over a year.'

So you can tell this place is a total disgrace.

It's a real shambles, and it's impinged on family life

and just general living in the property.

I can see their dream, but I can also see the damage.

I mean, just take a look at this.

This lintel, huge as it is, it's ma-hoosive,

but they've gone straight through it, therefore weakened it.

The one beauty is now that the steel is in, you feel far safer.

I mean, I'm not going to go through every defect.

We've been through it with the family, but, I mean,

if you look around in general,

you can just tell it's a poor build, full stop.

This concrete pad,

it's up and all over the place.

As they've tamped it down,

they've just got no decent level on it whatsoever.

I'm really shocked at how anyone could leave a family in such a mess.

Just to recap - generally dodgy construction for one,

and then you've got problems with the open to the elements aspect,

of all the rain coming in. That's two.

And three, and I think worst of all, is that open sewerage.

That's raw sewage passing through there,

and the dangers for health and safety are apparent for all to see.

My aim is to get the Woods back on track,

and I really hope I can do that.

Later, I'll be calling in an independent chartered builder

to hear her verdict on the quality of this work.

Problem with that is water comes in, is soaked up by these porous blocks.

It'll travel through this insulation and come out this side, which is going to cause us damp.

And there's another twist to Janet and Andy's shocking story.

You didn't see him after that?

Oh, we didn't see him after that.

-Oh, no!

-Yep.

Janet and Andy's dream was to give their son Luke

some extra space by extending their home.

Removing an internal wall would also give them

an open-plan area to entertain.

They handed over £23,500 to their heartless builder,

who left them with dodgy drainage,

and an unliveable, incomplete extension.

Andy did some remedial work,

but it's vital they get those electrics fixed, and fast!

They must get the downstairs area watertight,

and Luke's room needs attention too.

But first, I want to find out how they ended up in this pickle.

-Did the architect have any connection with the builder?

-Not known to us.

He recommended him.

-Ah-h-h!

-Later.

We got other builders to come in to have a look and give us quotes.

-They were way over.

-And they were...

-Significantly over.

..significantly over.

-OK.

-As in 15,000.

-And then we said, "Well, we've done this drawing here,

"you told us we could bring it in for budget from where we borrowed."

He said, "I know someone that could do it for it. I recommend this guy."

-So the guys turned up.

-Bang on budget.

-Bang on budget.

He spent two minutes in his van...

How strange! Bang on budget.

Bang on. Exactly!

Because they'd had a chinwag to themselves,

and the builder's thinking, "I'll cut a few corners here,

"there and everywhere, and I'll make sure that I still make myself

"a handsome profit, but we're going to take the maximum out of it."

This should've been the first warning sign, so listen up.

Sadly, Janet and Andy had put their faith in their architect,

and so they trusted his recommendation.

So everything's hunky-dory again. You've breathed a sigh of relief.

-When's the next alarm bell?

-The guy turned round and said,

"Look, I want to see that you're in for Christmas."

And we went, "Ooh, nice."

He said, "However, because I'm going to take the lads in

"and really get stuck into the job, I want another payment."

-To move it on quick.

-To move it on quick.

The builder promised to get their home watertight for Christmas

as an incentive to get more money from Janet and Andy.

So here's another tip -

The extra pressure of having your house ready for weddings, Christmas

or family visits can encourage rash decisions

as the deadline approaches.

Despite the slow progress,

Janet and Andy were too busy thinking about jingle bells

when they should've been hearing alarm bells.

Especially when their builder asked for more cash.

We were thinking, "Hang on, this guy's taken a few bob here.

"He's taken some."

And we turned round and said, "We can't get that money in one go."

He said, "Well, draw us out £6,250 on the Friday,

"I'll come back Monday morning."

"Draw it out?" "Draw it out?" What? Not in pound notes?

-At a building society, yeah.

-Oh, yeah, in cash!

Oh, no, no, no! Not in cash!

So you're tootling off to the building society,

you're handing him over cash, and so that's what you did, another 6,500?

That's what we did, unfortunately.

On the Friday, and £6,250 again on the Monday.

This shameless scoundrel asked for £12,500,

and once the Woods had handed over the cash,

they were in for a nasty shock.

It was literally a case of, "The guys are on their way, where's the rest of the money?"

Took it, and the guys never turned up.

Somebody walked away with our money in one clean swoop

-just before Christmas.

-Hang on a minute, whoa!

You didn't see him after that?

Oh, we didn't see him after that.

-Oh, no!

-Yep.

Worse still, he then disappeared for three whole months.

When he finally dared to show his face again,

this conniving cowboy had one last trick up his sleeve.

He made a big apology to us, didn't he? He said, "Your money's gone.

"However, we're going to raise the monies through remortgaging

"a family home."

Cos we were so far in, he said, "Give me a bit more money to get the lads back on-site

"and get it running again."

He wanted more money?

And you said?

And we did it.

You gave him more money?

-Mm-hmm.

-Not a lot.

How much?

-Two?

-Three and a half.

-Oh, three, wasn't it?

Wow!

He knew you were a soft touch, I'm telling you now.

All in all, the family had shelled out £23,500 to their brazen builder.

Now I've seen and heard the full extent

of the Woods' house of horrors,

I need to find out how we can help.

What could we do that would bring you a bit more brightness?

What could we do for you?

The main part, well, for me, anyway, is down here.

Because you can't use it or anything like that.

It's still not even sealed up to the elements, you know?

It's still a shell, isn't it?

-We'll be grateful for anything.

-Anything, yeah.

I know that! I can tell!

Before I call in our team of builders,

I want to get some expert advice from independent chartered builder

Chrissi McCarthy.

-Hi, Clive!

-How are you, Chrissi? Good to see you again.

-Good to see you again. Are you well?

-Well, I'm OK.

I'm never happy, though, when we come into situations like this

where cowboy builders have laid their prints.

You've had a good chance to have a look around.

A couple of things you've picked out that you're not happy with?

Let's see what we've got. In here, we see where...

One, we should really have an air gap.

In a cavity, we usually have 50mm insulation.

50mm air gap, 100mm cavity.

Here, the cavity fills the whole span.

The problem with that is water comes in,

gets soaked up by these lovely porous blocks.

It'll travel through this insulation and come out this side,

which is going to cause us damp.

But secondly, as well, we've got our slots here

which is basically the mortar that falls inside the cavity.

-Yeah, bridging.

-Exactly.

-Horrible.

So, one for cold, two, also again for the damp. It gives water a nice easy route to get into the building.

Anything else that's jumped out at you?

We've got drainage over there. I'm worried about the levels of it.

There appears to be a bit of a backflow, but I can't quite establish,

because it's been a while since the works have gone on,

whether that's happened as it's been left for a while,

and it's crept down, or whether, you know, they put the drainage in originally with a backflow.

But also, it's a foul drain and they've left that open.

And I don't have to explain to anyone why it's not a nice thing

-to have an open foul drain.

-The bacteria, germs, everything else.

So what we're saying is it's pretty bad.

Now, this is the crucial bit for me.

Chrissi, what is your mark out of ten

for the work these guys have carried out?

Here, I'd go zero or minus,

because I think a lot of work they've done is actually damaging to the property,

and it's just nowhere near any sort of standard.

So you've got to make the decision, is it zero or minus?

I'll go with minus a half.

Minus a half! Well, it's still below zero! Chrissi, brilliant.

-Thanks very much.

-Pleasure always, Clive. Take care!

So, X marks the spot.

I think it's time to bring on the good guys!

Head builder Paul and I need to come up with a plan of action

to put the Wood family back on the right track.

And a less smelly one at that!

How are you, Paul? I'm not going to shake your hand now!

-No, you're all right, mate!

-Not after digging in there!

-Different hand, mate!

You ever seen owt like that before?

No, no, and to be honest with you,

I was just a bit concerned that it's been left in that state for so long.

Plus, I'm a bit concerned about all this top-water.

It's coming back against the flow, you see.

If you do get a heavy downpour, and that gushing into there,

and you do flush the toilet, you're going to get a big surge...

-Kickback.

-..in there, yeah.

-You are.

-Exactly.

But can you believe this? This is from the washing machine, right?

Now, it's been cut back, but this has just been pouring out

onto the topsoil and just washing it away!

Yeah, yeah.

It's just a complete health trap, really.

I'd love you to be able to address this problem.

Yeah, we can sort that out, y'know?

What is your remedial action on this?

Well, first of all, we're going to get this manhole capped off

and up and running.

Maybe realign those topwaters there

to pick up further down the line on the other side of the building.

-So you won't get that potential kickback?

-No, no.

Let's have a look at what we can do as regards the extension aspect.

-Yeah, yeah, no problem.

-Let's go.

Just talk to us about what's got to crack off in here.

We're going to put new doors in here.

-Yeah.

-Erm, plaster it out.

Again, check the electrics and make sure everything's fine.

Insulate there.

Remove those doors there and obviously make that through to a...

-Neaten that off, tidy it.

-Tidy it all up, yeah.

'Upstairs, the priority's getting Luke into his new room.'

OK, Paul, what's going to happen in Luke's room?

This is potentially going to be his new bedroom.

We're going to re-address a few issues with the electrics.

Mainly just little issues like no grommets in the back boxes and things like that.

Obviously a full set of tests in due course.

And apart from all the obvious problems with the windows

and obviously all the finish and the plasterwork

and the skirts and that, you know,

and obviously we'll get smoke alarms and get them back in here quick.

Yeah, that would be really good. Absolutely fab if we can do that.

When checking over Andy's remedial works,

Paul's discovered another problem.

The electrical system is outdated and potentially dangerous.

That can't be the only fuse board.

It is. It's a re-wireable one, and probably about 12, 13...

I reckon it's earlier than that.

It is a good while since that's been anywhere near looked at.

Look at the size of the tails and everything on it. No, no, no.

Wow, that was on Noah's boat, that was. That needs addressing.

Look at the state of that. We're going to put a nice new fuse board in there.

-Yeah, yeah. Sort that out. OK.

-Great.

So where do I begin?

The main thing is we're going to sort out all the major problems.

We're going to sort out the drainage system,

the electrics, we're going to take that wall down in the kitchen,

put those doors in the opening of the extension

so it makes it nice and watertight.

We're going to plaster those walls, plaster board up downstairs as well

and make sure everything is spot-on and safe.

Coming up, Andy demands answers from his builder.

I'd like to know what you've got to say. There's questions I want to ask you.

And I can't wait to show the Wood family what happens

when you put the right people on the job.

That is amazing, Clive. Ah, it's brilliant.

In Whiston, Merseyside,

Janet and Andy Wood fell into the cowboy trap

when they employed a builder to extend their home so their son could have a bigger room.

After taking over 23 grand, this swindling scoundrel scarpered,

leaving the family with an unfinished structure,

a leaking roof and drainage issues.

Head builder Paul and his guys are doing their utmost

to turn Janet and Andy's dream of a wondrous and watertight home back into reality.

The family have learned a harsh lesson

and will be more wary of potential cowboys in future.

Definitely we've learned quite a lot. Don't trust people at face value.

Even from a recommendation. We should've checked things out.

In hindsight, I wish we'd checked out background information

on both the builder, the architect, other things that were going on.

But it just makes you sit back and think, when you see other people going through this,

you don't think it's going to happen to you, but it can do.

There's a long list of jobs to fix,

but our guys have made excellent progress.

So far, we've put the lateral restraints on the floor joists there.

We've extended the floor joists to carry the ceiling beams over there.

We've started boarding all this out in anticipation of the doors coming.

We've still got the electrics to do,

but obviously, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day.

It's not only electrical safety that's important.

Luke's new bedroom has other potential hazards that need fixing fast.

The glass is due on site any time.

So as soon as that's done, that glass can be changed to safety glass

with the restrictor on, and that's fine.

One of the main priorities

was securing the joists between the old and new parts of the house.

This is the top view of the girder,

and that is the girder, and you can see where the two ends of the joists meet,

and we're supporting it with that steel girder that's in the floor,

and obviously that's the top of it there.

Paul's going to be busy, but he's got the right team on the job,

and homeowner Andy is already dreaming

of making the most of the new space.

What we're looking for is to be living, rather than this room we're in at the moment...

is being able to go and spend our time in the evenings

and the weekends in the back of the garden, do the garden up,

and just sit there and chill out and enjoy our place.

-Bring on a good summer.

-HE LAUGHS

Luke's convinced that finally getting the work done

will be a real boost for his parents.

They're going to feel a lot better and relax more,

we'll have our Sunday back again

and my friends can go in the garden and see the new extension.

While our top team of builders crack on with the job,

I want to help Janet and Andy to try and get some answers to those questions

that have been running through their minds

for the last 18 months.

If you had an opportunity to speak to him right now,

if you could think of two or three major questions, what would they be?

Why he's took the money off us and not completed the build.

Why he's left us in such a mess.

If those were questions that you could pitch to him now on the phone,

cos I'm going to give you that opportunity.

-Please.

-Would you feel up to making that call?

-There's every possibility it's...

-Bring it on.

-You feel OK about that?

-Yeah.

-Are we ready?

-Count to ten.

-VOICEMAIL:

-'..after the tone.

'When you've left your message, just hang up,

'or for more options, press one at any time.'

-BEEP

-Andy Wood in Whiston.

I believe you've got some form of right to reply,

and I'd like to hear your answers, please, so if you can contact us,

I'd like to know what you've got to say, there's questions I want to ask you.

How do you feel now? It's difficult, just leaving him a message.

Do you think he'll get back to us?

No.

We later made contact with the builder,

who claimed that ill health and unforeseen circumstances

prevented him from completing the job.

I know what the opinion of your mum and dad is

about the cowboy builder. How do you feel about him?

He's sneaky.

Very sneaky, and he pretends to be nice and then just runs off.

He pretends to be nice and gives you a good offer

and then he just runs off.

Once he's taken the money.

Once he's taken the money, so he goes from good to bad.

Trading Standards are on to Janet and Andy's case,

so hopefully this shameful builder will think twice

before he tries to scam another unsuspecting family.

As for the architect who recommended him,

the Woods haven't heard from him since.

Now, then, head builder Paul and his guys are almost finished.

'So it's time for me to check out their good work.'

Wow! Straight away, first of all, the rubbish has gone.

It was all over the place.

Now, of course, we've got some flagstone paving as well,

so easy access down the side of the house.

Most importantly, remember before we had that open manhole

with germs and bacteria coming out of it?

This has all now been finished off beautifully.

Just looking at it now, it's chalk and cheese. It's amazing.

Brilliant. Let's go and have a look inside.

'But the real wow factor is inside.'

Wow. Straight away, what a difference.

All boarded out, all plastered up,

and this is what you call a plaster finish.

That's beautiful. Great.

We've got skirtings on, sockets are on now as well.

These have been changed now.

The actual units, the glass units, are now safety glass, which is really important,

especially in a kid's room, or in anyone's room.

Here we've got the safety catch as well, which is brilliant, too.

When we need to get out in case of emergency,

we can open that really quite wide.

This is the important thing, If you've got a child in here,

watch when I shut the window now

and when open it again, they can't go any further than that.

Safety in mind, perfect. Loving it.

OK, let's go downstairs.

'Downstairs is going to be the biggest transformation for Janet.'

Oh, wow. What a difference! Can't believe it.

Remember before, we had a wall here and a bit of a serving hatch thing going on?

That's all been opened out now, into the dining area,

that was all exposed, all the brickwork, everything looked a mess,

now, it just looks, just totally different.

-HE LAUGHS

-Night and day. Absolute night and day. No mistake.

Remember, all this whole area here was open to the elements.

These are the stars of the show without a shadow of a doubt.

We've got ourselves the quad-fold doors they dreamed of.

And the versatility, look at this.

You don't have to open the whole thing.

You can actually just open the one door,

or if you wanted to, just by moving these clips, you can open two doors.

If you want the whole lot to slide back, you've got this arm here,

and that's exactly what they do, just push on that, they glide along,

the mechanism is really beautiful.

Once that slides back, this brings the outside in, it is so beautiful.

I mean, the view, fantastic.

The exterior still needs rendering to make it fully watertight,

but we've got the family well on the way to getting their life back on track.

I can't wait to show Janet, Andy and Luke their newly revamped home,

but first, I need to check if Paul's nearly done and dusted.

-Finishing touches, Paul?

-Yeah, Clive.

-How are you, son? Good to see you again.

I tell you what, what a difference compared to when we were first here.

-It's amazing, isn't it?

-There's a vast difference now.

A lot safer and a lot healthier too, Clive.

We've took about three and a half skips of rubbish from here,

and we've got probably a vanload to go yet.

Talk us through what you've done.

Take us right from the top first of all, if you would.

We completely plastered it.

We replaced the glass for safety glass.

Just generally finished it with some skirt and arc.

The outdated electrical system along with Andy's remedial work

meant this property was extremely dangerous.

The fuse board, tell us about that.

We had to upgrade the consumer unit.

In the process of doing that,

we found none of the house had been bonded back to the fuse board.

Neither the gas nor the electric.

-We'd got no earth bonding in the property at all?

-None whatsoever.

Earth bonding protects you from electric shocks

by providing an alternative conductor to pass through.

It forces the circuit breaker or fuse to switch off

and cut the electrical current.

Without this, there could be deadly consequences.

Unsafe electrical installations cause more than 12,000 fires

in homes each year, so take my advice...

It tests the electrics in your home and safeguards your family's safety.

Paul's qualified electrician has carried out a thorough check

and fixed any faults he's found so that the Wood family will be safe.

Coming through here,

major surgery in the dining area there, for the dining-kitchen area.

-Tell us you did there.

-We knocked the walls out and installed an RSJ.

-OK.

-Then we just studded it all out

and re-plastered everything that was in there.

And then the real business end, I mean, quad-folders, nice doors.

-That's really what they wanted.

-Those are. Such effortlessly to glide across.

Fantastic. Talking about the drainage,

you've done things that we now can't see,

but of course where the open sewage was, that's all been dealt with now.

The manhole was re-aligned, then we just capped it off.

I tell you what, mate, all they need to do is get paint brushes out

and things like that, decorating to do and finishing off themselves.

The majority has been cracked and I think it's been a cracking job.

As ever, Paul, brilliant, mate.

-Thanks very much, I'll let you carry on finishing off.

-Pleasure, Clive.

While Paul sorts the last couple of bits left inside,

it's time to get the family back to see the terrific transformation

that's occurred outside.

Hey! How are you?

-Hello!

-Good to see you, Andy.

-And yourself.

-Straight away, Luke's focusing...

-I know, me too.

-Exactly.

-I tell you what, shall we go and take a closer look?

-Oh, yes, please.

-Come on, let's go and have a look.

-Wow, what a difference.

-Amazing.

That was horrendous before. That looks brilliant now.

-It was all sealed off, so now...

-Now it's safe, isn't it?

-It's safe, it looks a whole heap better.

-Yes.

-So, we're happy so far with what we've seen?

-Oh, much better.

What I want to do now is to go inside

and have a look quickly in Luke's room, if that's OK.

Looking forward to that, Luke?

In fact, you stay close to me, let's go and have a look.

Let's go and see what's happening.

Wow.

Oh, that's great, isn't it? How much better does that look now?

-ANDY APPLAUDS

-Fantastic. I'll applaud with you, Andy. I'll applaud with you.

You'll be sleeping here soon, won't you?

Just coming over to the window for a second, Luke, cos this is important.

-We didn't have safety glass in here.

-That's right.

Now, you'll see the kite mark down there,

it's now safety glass units have been put in,

but more importantly, you've got this security, look.

When you open that window now, it only will push that far out.

-Oh, that's good.

-He's not going to fall out.

-You won't end up in the pond.

-Shall we head on back down?

-Yes.

-Lead the way again, then, Luke.

Go on, you guys.

(OK, come through.)

God. Different, isn't it? Flipping 'eck.

-So obviously now, the kitchen nice and open.

-We've got the space now.

It's much, much better. It's great.

-You're happy so far with what you've seen?

-Much better. Great, yes.

Before we go into the extension, briefly tell me what it was like.

-Gravelly mess. Dull, dreary.

-Dusty.

-Open to the elements?

-Open to the elements.

Boarded up at the back as well.

OK, guys, let's come up to this area here.

It's all been sealed off, and this is where you and I

are going to have a bit of fun in a minute.

-So, are you suitably excited?

-Yes.

-Yes?

So you and I are going to pull this back.

So if you grab that ready to pull back, I'm going to take the top bit,

you pull back, you can say "three, two, one" and we'll go for it.

Three, two, one, and...

-Wow.

-Look at that!

-Look at that!

APPLAUSE Oh, great. Wow. The difference with that.

-How fantastic is that?

-It's like a different place. We're living in the garden,

-but we're secure in the garden.

-How are you feeling, Andy?

-Shock, I think.

-Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.

-If it's summer and it's boiling hot, you can just open the doors.

-Brilliant.

You could have your breakfast in here.

-With the doors open.

-Yes, and just chill.

-Oh, wow.

Let me just show you how these doors work.

So if you want to, you can have just one open, right?

Or of course you can have the two doors, like that,

but here's the real big deal.

This handle here, if you just turn it halfway and push...

-then look at this.

-Yes. That is brilliant, isn't it? How good is that, Luke?

-Wow.

I think he's going to give you a mega high-five now.

A mega high-ten! That's what we want.

Come in, Margaret and Pat, have a look at this.

'Luke's nans have both come to take a peek at this radical revamp.'

-Huge.

-It's massive.

So it's a big thumbs up?

-Yay!

-Big thumbs up.

-Definitely.

More than a year later than planned,

Luke is finally looking forward to moving into his new room.

I love my new room. It's amazing.

It's not that much bigger than the other one,

but it's a different shape

and you can get much more in it,

set the speakers up in the corner of the room

and have a computer desk, maybe, in this sort of area here.

-It's going to be wonderful for him.

-Yes.

Aye. You can see him smiling, can't you?

When I invite my friends, I think they'll be amazed.

So, yeah, it will be a surprise for them,

cos the last time one of my mates came was a while ago.

I've put together all the evidence we've gathered on the Woods' builder

and I'm going to pass it on to the local Trading Standards office.

He may think he's got away with it, but I've got news for him

and all cowboy builders out there, we are hot on your trail.

If you've had a problem with builders

and would like to tell your story on Cowboy Trap, please call us...

Or you can send us an e-mail...

Help us round up the cowboys.

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