Episode 5 Cowboy Trap

Guess what? I'm back on the road again for Cowboy Trap,

on the hunt for unscrupulous builders who will take your money, but leave you in a complete mess.

It just seems to have been sheer luck that there hasn't been a serious injury.

It was sinister the way they demolished the house and didn't put it together very well.

Today, I'll show you some real building blunders. You will not believe your eyes.

They're just playing with people's lives. It's not just about being bad builders. They're taking risks.

And on the way, I'm going to give you loads of top tips, hints and advice.

Hopefully, by the time you need a builder, you'll know the pitfalls and how to avoid those dodgy ones.

He said a lot of lovely words and they were all the right words, but his actions were terrible.

It's time to tell you how to avoid falling into the cowboy trap.

I'm in a cracking little village between Manchester and Liverpool.

It's called Newton-le-Willows.

'Deep in the heart of this small market town in Lancashire,

'this house is home to Caroline Collier and family friend Jo Murray.

'The 250-year-old property has been at the heart of their life for decades

'and holds fond family memories.'

Golborne Dale Cottage was bought by my mum and dad in the 1960s. They came from Wigan.

They were escaping here from the urban life

to have babies. She had me and my sister in the bedroom upstairs, delivered at home.

Although my mum didn't have a career in the workplace, she did love this house.

She looked after us in this house, she looked after the garden, she made jam.

She worked really hard. This house was like another child to her.

'Sadly, in 2007, Caroline's mother died, followed quickly by her sister.

'The double tragedy was a cruel blow for Caroline and Jo,

'made worse by Caroline developing multiple sclerosis.

'Her limited mobility meant she couldn't get up the stairs,

'so she desperately needed wheelchair access around the ground floor.

'Thanks to Caroline's mother,

'Jo was allowed to live permanently in the house,

'so there was an urgent need to modernise it for both of them.'

Jo came to live with my mum and dad when I was about three or four or perhaps even younger.

My mum spent a lot of time on her own, so Jo was a companion for her. To me, she's like another mother.

She looked after my mum when she was ill, she nursed my mum through her illness,

so she had as much right to live here

and my mum left in her will a proviso that she was allowed to live here for as long as she wanted to.

'Caroline buried her mother's ashes in her beloved garden.

'In a bid to overcome this tragedy, she set about trying to restore the family home

'to its former glory.'

Caroline had some life savings, so decided to spend it on this old property

by having a new bathroom and widening the doors to make it more wheelchair-friendly.

The reality is she's now ten grand out of pocket and the job is still unfinished.

Something somewhere has gone very, very wrong.

'Caroline needed help with the renovations,

'but Jo was still too upset from the family loss to project-manage the work.

'And Caroline herself had to cope with her debilitating MS,

'so she turned to the only other person she trusted.'

Unfortunately, I didn't really have anybody to help me do the arranging of that work.

Life's much more difficult because of my mobility which means I can't go out and see everything

to know what work needed doing, to getting suppliers in and tradesmen in to do the work.

It all started when her financial adviser, who she really trusted with her finance,

offered to project-manage the work.

'Her financial adviser surveyed the property and came up with a list of works

'which included sealing and waterproofing a rotting beam in the cellar,

'replacing the garage doors...

'..widening the entrance way downstairs to improve wheelchair access

'and doing up the bathroom and toilet.

'Initially, he quoted around £20,000.

'But after changes to the plan,

'Caroline got the quote down to just ten grand.'

The job was going to take two to four weeks

and that sounded.... well, it sounded liveable for Jo.

It sounded great. All my worries would be over in four weeks.

Little did I know.

'In fact, Caroline was pretty much in the dark.

'Her illness confined her to downstairs, so she couldn't get up to see things for herself.

'And it was in the bathroom and toilet that much of the work was being carried out.

'Later, an independent surveyor gives us his verdict

'on the mess this cowboy builder has left behind.'

It doesn't look like a qualified builder has undertaken the work.

It looks as though a cowboy has undertaken it.

'And I get my first glimpse of this cowboy's building disaster.' This is bad news.

-BELL RINGS

-'I've come to meet Caroline

'and family friend Jo to try and get to the bottom of what's been going on here.'

-Hello there. Are you Jo?

-Yes.

-Hi, I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap. How are you?

-I'm shaking, but OK.

-Don't shake. Never shake. Can I come in?

-Yes.

-Thank you.

-Come in.

Now then, Jo, I hear you've had problems with cowboy builders.

Could you point me in the direction of where the worst of it is?

If we start upstairs in the bathroom which is through that door there...

This is a really old place.

Let's go and have a look at that damage.

'Before I can work out how we can help Caroline and Jo,

'I need to see the state of the botched work for myself.'

I mean, for a start, as you come through the door,

look at that for flooring.

This is floating. There's no way that's solid. That's horrible.

It just in general looks a mess.

This is bad news. The workmanship does not look good at all.

Take a look at this. It is awful. Rather than using proper spacers, they've used bits of cardboard.

There you've got a mil or two, then in others, you've got a hair's breadth.

You wouldn't even be able to get any grout into those gaps in the first place. It would be impossible to do.

They haven't thought it out or planned.

And the panelling that's hiding probably damp...

This is an old property. It won't have any cavity.

Rather than treating the damp, just looking around, they've just tried to cover it up which is no good.

The tiling is an absolute disgrace. They certainly have no skills when it comes to tiling.

They have no skills when it comes to flooring, but look at this trim.

They've used angle that is aluminium and that is so sharp.

You'll catch clothes on that, you'll catch skin on that.

Just generally, it's a poor job.

'And I do not like the look of the electrics.'

Here's another problem, but this is something from years ago.

This is a fan heater that's been wall-mounted, but we've got a switch fuse spur.

The problem with that is if you've got wet hands or steam in the room, it's a bathroom,

and you try to switch that off, if it arced, you could get a shock.

'These cowboy builders should have removed this fan straight away and what about this electric shower?

'Alarm bells are really ringing now. A quick look under the bath and I spot another problem.'

The other thing I can't see here under the bath panel is there's no earth bonding and that is critical

because where water and electric are, they don't make good bedfellows.

And the thing is, touching things like those taps which are metal, this exposed pipe...

And check this out. As you look down here,

you've got an earth cable there that should be earthing the towel rail,

but has just been completely left off.

It's dangerous. These guys are, you know...

They're playing with people's lives.

It's not just about being bad builders or bad, shoddy workmen.

They're taking risks.

'It's time for my top tip on the perils of mixing water and electricity.

'Here at this college in Warrington, they teach all the fundamental building skills.

'It's an ideal place to come and show you how these jobs really should be done.'

In Caroline's house, there was no earth bonding to the towel rail.

That was critical and I'm here to talk to Phil

-to see how his plumbers would deal with it. Hi, Phil.

-Hi, Clive.

Earthing is there for a reason, particularly when it comes to a wet system.

If you get a short in your electrical cables, the live connects to anything round the heating system

or any of the metalwork, that all will become live and it could give you a new hairstyle.

-Worst of all, it can be fatal. We've got pipework strapped up here now.

-Yeah.

All the pipework for the installation is connected via this earth strap

and that's so any stray sparks or current of electricity has got a route back to the safe earth.

It's a route back to ground or, in this case, into the best earth back at the fuseboard.

If the plumber is going to disconnect some of this, he must make sure he puts it back.

If there isn't any there, it's his job to make sure the customer is aware of it

and they must get someone competent to make sure the house is earthed.

Look out for earth bonding straps and green-yellow cable.

Anything that's metal has got to be earth-bonded.

'Back at Caroline and Jo's house in Newton-le-Willows,

'I've seen the botched job their cowboy builders have made of their bathroom.

'Surely the toilet can't be any worse.'

Oh, this is crazy! They've actually put skirting on top of skirting.

There's no way that's going to sit back and be flush.

Anybody at home now that was going to do a DIY job,

are you telling me, even doing a botch like that, you'll stand back and be proud of it?

You could not possibly be proud of that. It is dire!

I tell you what - they're having a laugh.

At the bottom here as the base of the actual toilet pan itself,

they've used an old toilet seat.

Check that out.

It's just madness.

I mean, look at this as well.

I just don't get it.

'I've only been here five minutes

'and already I've seen unsuitable flooring, cheap materials and poor workmanship.

'In my opinion, this is certainly the work of a cowboy builder,

'so how did it come to this?

'I really need Jo to give me the lowdown.'

Talk to me about what you know has gone wrong.

Nobody that I know ever asks for laminate

because it's totally unsuitable.

Well, the right laminate can be good, it can be fine if it's fitted correctly.

-This isn't the sort of house that requires something like that.

-Exactly. A real wood floor maybe.

'Here's an important tip for you.

'If you do decide to lay laminate flooring in the bathroom,

'make sure it's greenbacked which means it's water-resistant.'

-They said they would do a laminate floor?

-They didn't tell me anything.

They must have said to Caroline, "We're putting laminate down." Did she agree?

You'd have to ask Caroline what exactly they specified to her.

She had a trust in the builder who was supposedly project-managing this.

Do you think the builders realised that Caroline probably wouldn't even get up here to see it?

-I'm quite sure.

-They thought they could get away with anything. They obviously have.

It's a shoddy job, full stop.

I've already described this as being something that a cowboy builder would be ashamed of.

It is poor at best.

It is so bad, everything you see, the tiles...

They were trying to say to you, "You keep out of it. It's nothing to do with you."

Yet you were supposed to be keeping an eye on it on behalf of Caroline.

They've got no skill. They've got no skill in the woodworking, they've got no skill in any carpentry.

They've got no skill in the tiling.

When they were tiling, I looked at it and I said, "Why aren't you using tiling spacers?"

They said, "We always use this technique," which is folded-up bits of cardboard stuck in!

And in particular, in the toilet in there,

-they've used this seat base...

-From the old toilet.

-..from the old toilet for the base of the toilet.

How did that come about? Surely, when somebody mentioned that, you must have mentioned it?

No, it was just done.

I'm really sorry that they actually dominated you,

but as the home owner or somebody looking after the property, you are in charge.

If you don't like it, you've got to put a halt to the job straight away.

If in doubt, kick 'em out.

I tried at stage one. After two days, I said, "Stop the job now."

But I was told to keep my nose out of it because I wasn't the client.

Everywhere, right, is, as far as I'm concerned, just far worse than before they began.

It's rather unfortunate. They've taken advantage of you

and they've certainly taken advantage of Caroline

because they knew full well that she wouldn't get up here to see it.

But I think we've seen enough.

It's time to find out what's gone on and how we got to this stage of employing them in the first place.

-So let's go back downstairs, Jo.

-Right.

'If you have any doubts about the work your builders are doing,

'put it on hold and get an independent expert to check it out.

'It's a real sorry story and the mess in the bathroom and toilet is only half of it.

'Downstairs, the cowboy builders have left more problems for Caroline and Jo to deal with.'

Caroline, the remit, or one of them from your builders

was to make sure that this opening here was easy wheelchair access and it should have been 850mm wide.

I've measured it and it's about 770 at its widest point.

Looking at it, I'll be lucky if we can get me through it, so let's have a look and see how we go.

-If I was having to try and do this on my own...

-You'll rap your knuckles.

It's very difficult. I couldn't really do it.

-There's not enough space there.

-No.

-It's safe to say these guys did not have a clue.

-No.

-Anyway, let's go for a spin down the high street.

'So, remember, if you need to widen any doors in your home

'for easy wheelchair access,

'they should be a minimum width of 850 millimetres.

'Anything less and the wheelchair user won't have enough elbow room

'to push themselves through.

'And the problems don't stop there.

'The cowboy builders were asked to replace the garage doors, but look at this. The doors don't fit.

'And they were meant to treat this rotting timber beam in the cellar, but they've only done half a job.

'Like the rest of their work, it's rotten.

'All this work was done by builders employed by a property company, run by Caroline's financial adviser.

'She paid him a massive £10,000

'and because she is almost entirely wheelchair-bound,

'she trusted him to manage the building work on her behalf.'

It seems weird, a financial adviser/builder.

The two don't normally marry in that respect,

but he didn't do any building himself, did he?

He had properties of his own.

He said he had a team who he knew, who he used to do that

and he would employ the same team to come here and do the work,

so I assumed he knew the people were qualified and he kept telling me this builder had 30 years' experience,

so I assumed that he realised that the job had to be done properly by professionals.

So I paid him. First of all, it was about £8,000.

-Of the ten?

-Of the ten.

-Up front?

-Yeah.

-Before any work's carried out?

-Yeah.

-Did he say what that was for?

Well, he said he needed it for materials and things.

So here's our first alarm bell in a way

and that is a good, bona fide builder will have cash flow

and they'll have accounts with builders' merchants.

Not just one, probably two or three. And they pay on 30 days, so that's a rolling system.

They shouldn't need to take money off anyone to buy materials.

'Beware the builder who wants money up front.

'A good builder will have cash flow or a credit arrangement

'which should be enough to get the job under way.'

So in terms of the bathroom, what did you want doing in there?

He didn't talk to me about the details. I hoped he was talking to Jo about what was going to happen here.

I'll never use the bathroom. I don't think I'll ever see the bathroom.

I was hoping that him and Jo were talking together to come up with the design for the bathroom.

When it came to the laminate flooring, for instance, did you want laminate flooring?

We never discussed the flooring. I hoped that he would be talking to Jo about the flooring.

It was only when Jo said, "No, they've already ordered this..."

I thought Jo would be choosing the bathroom suite with them and the flooring,

but he'd just gone out and bought these things.

-Cheapest that he could buy.

-Yes.

-A breakdown in communication?

-There was no communication between them.

He was quite menacing because he kept saying she didn't have any power

because I had the purse, he would only do what I said.

So it really undermined Jo's sort of say in any of the work.

I wanted her to actually be working with him,

but Jo was in shock, she didn't particularly want the change,

-so she was phoning me up with all these problems, but not really coming up with a rational solution.

-Yeah.

He said a lot of lovely words and they were all the right words, but his actions were terrible.

It was like a complete fantasy world.

I got Jo with the nightmare and him with the fantasy and Jo with the nightmare was more honest.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when David next door

who is a businessman and who knows the family well, has had a lot of work done,

phoned me up and said, "Caroline, a six-year-old could have done a better job."

-He's right.

-"You've got to stop." So I phoned up...

He was meant to come on the Monday and I told him on the Friday not to bother coming back.

'Relations between Caroline and her financial adviser had clearly become strained.

'And the stress was beginning to take its toll on Caroline's already deteriorating health.

'She was thousands of pounds out of pocket

'and had a bathroom and toilet that should be condemned.

'Thanks to neighbour Dave Pennington, Caroline finally realised she had to halt the works.'

-David, you're the neighbour to Caroline.

-Yeah.

Tell us about what was going on and how you discovered all the problems.

Basically, my wife comes over

on a daily basis, like, really.

The first couple of days, obviously, they were stripping it out.

Then we got, like, into three or four days...

It might have been a week, a week and a half. She said, "You'd better go round and have a look."

So I came over and I couldn't believe it.

There was a hardwood floor that they put down.

It looked like someone had bit it off. It hadn't been cut.

Just really, really bad workmanship.

They'd cut it with, I don't know, a chopper or something. It was so rough.

-An axe. Axed it off.

-Yeah.

There were gaps from like an inch to a quarter of an inch, you know.

I said to Jo, "You'd better give me Caroline's number."

So I rang Caroline up and she didn't really want to listen at first.

What was her reaction? You rang her, you said to her, what, "There's a problem going on?"

I said, "You've not paid for it? Have you paid for this? Whatever you've paid, it's too dear."

So I didn't know how much she'd paid,

but I just said, "As a friend, you can either listen to me or not,

"but you've been ripped off."

I can't believe how bad some of this work is, but don't take my word for it.

I want our independent chartered surveyor Neil Heyes to take a look and give us his verdict.

'And it didn't take long for Neil to spot what the cowboy builders had been up to.'

The workmanship on the tiles...

..is not to the standard I would have expected off a reputable builder.

Look at that! That's laminate flooring on a vanity unit.

A toilet seat on the floor. Unbelievable!

Unbelievable!

It's truly a bodged job.

OK...

-Neil, come out of that bathroom, son. How are you?

-Not too bad.

You've had a good look around it.

It doesn't look like a qualified builder has undertaken the work.

It looks as though, like we say, a cowboy has undertaken it.

And I would probably give it a one out of ten.

That might seem low, but that's a factual opinion.

-Let me tell you something, Neil. That "one", I think, is generous.

-I think so as well.

Thanks, sir. It's so important to get your input

and I can't wait to get stuck in and get that sorted.

Well, it doesn't get much worse than that - one out of ten.

I'm going to declare this whole area a crime scene.

All that's missing is a chalk outline on the floor.

I'm going to tape this off now,

so nobody can get in here until the good guys arrive and I think it's time to go get 'em.

'Now the cowboys are out and Stuart and his team are in.

'Stuart has 20 years' experience in the building trade.

'He and his team are here to put right all those wrongs

'and they've got a big job on their hands.'

What's your opinion on the work carried out?

They may as well not have turned up. They've just made a mess.

They've made it more difficult.

Everything's just got to go.

Every ounce of work needs to go.

In terms of the dodgy electrics in here, what's your thoughts?

It's catastrophic. Someone could get electrocuted in here. It's very unsafe.

With Caroline suffering with MS, she can't physically get up into the bathroom.

If she could have been able to in the first place, she would have stopped this from happening.

To make Caroline feel a bit better,

my dad suffered from MS, I know all about it.

My dad was a builder.

And, you know, I just hope we can rectify any problems that she could face.

'As well as poor tiling, shoddy carpentry and unsuitable flooring,

'these cowboy builders have left this bathroom a potential death trap.

'They haven't earthed the electrics on the towel rail, failed to make safe this old fan heater

'and didn't spot the electric cable to the shower isn't protected.

'And we all know water and electricity just don't mix.

'There are loads of things that need putting right in this house.

'Our builders can't rectify them all, but they'll sort out this disastrous bathroom and toilet.

'And already they've uncovered more horrors.

'I've come up to take a look.'

You've wasted no time, no time at all, son. I'm loving it.

You've started, but what have you found?

Obviously, they've stuck the tiles on other tiles, and as you can see, you've got damp adhesive.

It's never had a chance to set.

'This job is turning out to be just one botch after another.'

We have plasterboard on to bonding which doesn't actually take to the wall.

So, obviously, that whole panel was floating.

And potentially, as we said before, the tiles could have come off near the bath.

Also at the top, it could have dropped clean down. The whole wall was gone.

Not only would you have had the original tiles,

you'd have had all these crashing down on you in the bath as well.

How can anyone leave Caroline and Jo in such a mess?

After all, it's not about bricks and mortar to them. This is their home.

It's been in their family for generations.

This builder has caused them untold worry and stress

when all they wanted to do was enjoy and live in this wonderful old property.

MS sufferer Caroline gave her financial adviser £8,000 up front

to project-manage the renovations to her house.

After just three weeks and warnings from her neighbour, Caroline put a stop to the work,

even though the project was still unfinished.

Whilst Stuart and the guys are putting things right,

we've contacted Caroline's cowboy builder on her behalf.

He has refused to answer our calls,

but he has given us a written reply, so we now have his take on this project.

We've already been asking him questions and there are one or two I just want to...

The reply that he has sent to us,

"We were never given the opportunity to complete any of the works they were there to do effectively.

"They were ordered off, having worked under very disturbing," as they call it, "conditions."

What's your reply to that?

I just can't understand the arrogance of him not to actually see

that none of the jobs were completed and the quality of his work...

He didn't see the work. If he'd seen the work, I don't think he'd have it done in his house.

They were very good at demolishing things, but I didn't see any quality putting things back.

No, I fully agree with you.

I just want to pick out one more regarding the bathroom and the toilet, the questions we asked him.

And he's saying again, "These were not finished.

"The frames were being built for a wooden effect,

"sympathetic to the building and the character and the style approved by Mrs Collier.

"However, after putting most of it in, you had asked for it to be ripped out again

"and put wooden cladding up.

"The vanity unit and the tiling were not finished and this is the same for the toilet.

"When it was left, there were wooden frames and cladding that had got to go on at that stage."

Almost like the job was never finished because they were never allowed to finish it.

What I'd say to that is I don't think a piece of wood ever went into that bathroom.

He doesn't even know what he's talking about

because I think he came twice to the house.

I don't think he even saw the work that was being done.

As far as I'm concerned, I have never sat down with him and talked through what I wanted doing.

There was never any clear brief. He never talked about what he would do.

I thought I could trust him. He said he had a property business.

I needed somebody to help me manage this work that needed doing here, so I trusted him.

A lot of words were said, but the words and actions didn't match up.

-There was no combination of the two?

-No.

-What would you say to him?

I trusted him and can he understand

how he has abused that trust?

At any time, he could have stopped the devastation that was happening at the house.

He knew my mother. He had known me for a long time.

I thought he would have more respect.

And I'm just devastated with the mess that he has caused.

Whether he'll get back to us is another thing. You've had a cowboy builder operating in your property.

What about lessons learned?

The first thing I would do is if it was a building job like this,

I'd get an expert in who's independent,

so it's making sure you get the right people in at the beginning who know about the job.

I was in too much of a hurry to get it done.

And it was a bad time.

I was grieving. I'd lost two members of my family.

I knew that Jo was grieving and had this massive responsibility.

With my mobility problem, the opportunity for me just to go around and check out...

Even getting into a house, usually there's a step.

-It's very difficult for me, so I wanted to get somebody to do it on my behalf.

-Yes.

That's why I was hoping my financial adviser would be able to do it.

He just seemed to take it as an opportunity to get him and his mates a job.

'So here's a valuable tip.

'Ask family and friends to have a look at a builder's previous jobs

'if you can't get to see them for yourself.

'Even ask them to take photographs or video,

'so you can make a more considered judgment.

'This 250-year-old house needed lots of renovation work and when Caroline's mother and sister died,

'she wanted to modernise the house for her and family friend Jo.

'Because Caroline suffers from MS, she asked her financial adviser to project-manage the work,

'but his cowboy builders botched the job big-time,

'so we got Stuart and his team in to put things right.

'The cowboy builders left problems all around the house,

'but we only have time to focus on the bathroom and toilet.

'It's taken Stuart and his team four days to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

'So far, Caroline and Jo have no idea what they've been up to.'

I'm feeling obviously still a bit anxious,

also a bit excited because it would be good to see the work finished.

I'm a little bit madder at the contractor who was responsible for doing the bad work.

But I'm holding up OK, I think.

Something positive and constructive is being done.

It's not just a matter of destroying the house and not putting it back together. That was worrying me.

'Steve and his team have had their work cut out, hacking off the old tiles,

'replacing that dodgy laminate floor, and what about those lethal electrics?

'This job was real Bodgeville,

'but our guys have wasted no time putting things right.'

-You're not packing up?

-All finished.

-You're finished already?

-Yes.

-What's it looking like in there?

-I'd like to think it looks nice.

-It does. A lot different.

-I bet it looks a lot better than nice because it looked horrible originally.

-It did.

-That's for sure.

Thanks for all your help. I'm sure it will be brilliant up there.

-Good luck. Thank you once again.

-No problem.

-Cheers, guys.

-Thank you.

'Before I show Caroline and Jo what Stuart and his team have done,

'I want to take a sneaky peek.'

I tell you what, just looking at it straight away,

this is no longer a cowboy builder crime scene, so we can take the tape down.

So we'll just take this down.

Ho ho ho ho!

It looks great to start off with.

Fantastic, clean lines.

Remember the bendy tiles all over the place? They've now gone and been replaced with some classic tiles.

It looks much better straight away. Look at the basin and pedestal too.

That horrible boxing that was in before, that has gone.

Wonderful streamlines on the bath.

The actual shower looks fabulous

and you've now got the shower screen in place which looks good.

The way it's been painted up, it looks so much fresher.

But you will notice

that dangerous situation we had here with the open element fan

and the switch fuse spur that shouldn't have been there, that has now gone.

And although we've kept the towel rail because it's useful,

it's now been disconnected and made safe.

Love it, love it, love it. I'm just going to do my hair(!)

I'm going to check out the toilet now.

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Straight away, as you're looking at it,

the loo seat and the lid is in the correct place.

Last time, the lid was under the toilet. That's all gone. You've got linoleum down as well.

It looks so much better and again super-clean lines.

I'm really enjoying that. It looks a whole heap different.

We've got a fully usable bathroom and toilet. No worries, as far as I'm concerned.

Before I get the ladies up here for the big reveal,

there's just time for me to give you another top DIY tip.

If you've ever tried to drill a tile before

and you've got your drill and it's rolling all round this tile because it's highly glazed,

I've got a couple of super tips for you on how you can drill a tile.

You need tungsten carbide-tipped... They're like a masonry bit.

Tungsten carbide-tipped, nice and strong, to get through the glaze.

I've made sure it's nice and level, lined it up and made two marker holes.

The other thing you've got to do and you can use a bradawl

or you can use an electrician's screwdriver with a sharp tip on it

and all you've got to do is get close to the marker

and just groove a little mark, so you're breaking the glaze.

Can you hear that? I've broken the glaze already.

And be gentle. Just scuff it.

You can use masking tape. That also allows easy grip for the drill bit.

But the critical thing now, when you're drilling, is to take your time,

so get yourself poised, you'll feel it starts to bite and just gently turn the drill.

And once it starts to bite...

If I take that drill bit out, be careful where the tip is cos it's quite warm, a bit like myself.

'I'm really excited to see what Caroline and Jo make of their new bathroom and toilet.

'Just days ago, it looked like this after cowboy builders left the place like a no-go zone.

'Caroline's financial adviser was sadly lacking as a project manager,

'but that didn't stop him leaving her thousands of pounds out of pocket.

'Up until now, she hasn't been able to get upstairs to see the work for herself,

'but our knight in shining armour, Stuart the builder, has come to lend a hand.'

-Caroline, the good guys have been in.

-Yeah.

-They've done the work for you.

Before we go and check it out, remind me what it was like.

I know you didn't get to physically look at it, but you've seen photographs.

Just describe what it was like.

Terrible tiling.

The doors were off. The floor was a mess and wasn't finished.

It was an electrical nightmare. Anybody could have gone in there and got an electric shock.

-There were sharp edges.

-I'll show you something I hope you'll love.

-OK.

A cracking, usable bathroom and toilet.

-We're going to get to the point...

-I may have to stop here.

-We can go no further.

-That's fine.

-I'll let you...

-Oh, wow!

-You can have a quick peek.

-At the toilet, yeah. Wow!

-No toilet lid now.

-The toilet seat's gone.

-From underneath the toilet.

-What a shame(!) Do you want it back?

-I thought it was a feature(!)

-Yeah, it's fantastic.

-I'm glad it's gone. Are you?

-Yeah.

Tell me when you want the sticks.

Oh, goodness me!

It's not the same bathroom. Oh, it's lovely!

-So clean and fresh.

-You've got your new basin and pedestal there.

-And they turn on the right way.

-They do.

-How about that?

-That's wonderful.

-I know you wanted carpet.

-Yeah.

-But we put vinyl down. I think it's far easier to keep clean as well.

But looking around,

you've got a beautiful bath now, a shower.

-Very posh.

-You've also got your screen, your shower screen.

-That's lovely.

-Doesn't it look great?

-Yeah, the cabinet, it looks really...

-Nice piece of wood as well.

-You've got a new light which is regulations standard.

-You can see it in the mirror. It's lovely.

-Look - Beauty and the Beast!

-But what about that tiling job?

-It's just beautiful.

The fact it comes all the way out here, it looks so beautiful.

You can see it really is well done.

-In general, how do you feel now?

-Oh, it's 100% better.

Very, very... Thank you so much. It is a massive improvement.

-It just shows you what the good guys can do.

-Yeah.

I tell you what, Caroline. I think it's time to fetch Jo to have a look. Do you?

She's been here through all the dirt and the dust. She needs to see it.

I couldn't agree more. I'll go and get her.

Wow!

'I'm going to leave Caroline and Jo to make the most of their new facilities

'and it sounds like we've gone from one out of ten to a ten out of ten.'

It looks as though it's been done properly.

The tiles are beautifully grouted and a sink I can actually get my feet under!

It's not hidden in a laminate coffin!

And the floor as well, it makes the whole room look bigger.

-It's got a door that closes, Jo.

-It was off its hinges the last time I saw it... True.

It's just so clean and, um...

Everything seems to sort of fit.

And it's all beautifully sealed around the edge.

It is.

No, it looks...

No, that looks like a real... you know, super job.

It's not just 100% better.

It's thousands of percent better than it was!

There is still a lot of work to be done to rectify the mess the cowboy builders have left behind.

But now we've put Caroline back on the right track.

She won't be falling into the cowboy trap again.

I think Caroline and Jo are far happier now that the good guys have been in to complete the work

and our job is almost over.

But I've got all the evidence here that we've gathered on this builder that I'll take to Trading Standards,

so they can get an officer to investigate still further,

but let this be a warning to all cowboy builders out there -

your days of conning people and ruining their lives will soon be at an end.

If you've had a problem with builders and you want to tell your story on Cowboy Trap,

then please call us on this number.

Or you can send us an email.

Help us round up the cowboys.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2012