Episode 8 Cowboy Trap

I'm hot on the trail of cowboy builders

who have botched the jobs and ruined the dreams of unsuspecting homeowners.

Every room, there's something wrong. Wherever you walk in the house, you see a problem.

Up and down the country, cowboy builders are stalking their next victim

and they could be knocking on your door pretty soon, so watch out!

I can't stand the fact that I can't fix it.

I can't fix it, can't get it done. This is still probably to us another two or three years minimum.

I want to offer a glimmer of hope to homeowners who've been left in the lurch by cowboy builders.

That's the first moment where I just felt absolutely pig sick

and just wanted to cry. He wasn't coming back.

Along the way, I'll be offering up some top hints and tips

in the hope that you will avoid falling into the cowboy trap.

Welcome to Reading, the Berkshire town famous for the three Bs -

beer, bulbs and biscuits.

I've fitted more bulbs than I've planted

and I've had more than my fair share of beer and biscuits.

But it's another B that brings me to Reading - bungling builders!

We're in the Woodley district of Reading, home to professional ice skating coaches

Lucine and David Phillips and their family, daughters nine-year-old Sophie,

seven-year-old Emily and David's mum, Jean.

Lucine and David met and fell in love on the ice

and have been together for 20 years and married for 10.

David was Lucine's ice dancing coach and they soon became professional skating partners,

even competing against Olympic legends Torvill and Dean.

Since retiring from competitive skating,

they've been teaching at their local ice rink.

Five years ago, the couple clubbed together with David's mum to buy this 1960s semi.

A for ever home with an annexe next-door for David's mum,

a bedroom for each of the children.

David's mother Jean suffers from mild dementia

and has limited mobility, so Lucine and David wanted to look after her.

The plan was to adapt the house, creating accessible facilities

on the ground floor and they knew just the man for the job.

Lucine and David met their cowboy builder through teaching him and his children how to skate.

They even holidayed together.

He's come to our wedding.

I told my wife I loved her for the first time ever with him with us. So very good friends.

Lucine and David had no hesitation in asking their family friend

to convert their new house and create a granny annexe for mum Jean.

Lucine and David work in perfect harmony on the rink,

but they were skating on thin ice when they trusted their builder pal implicitly,

not doubting for a second his expert judgment or their long-standing friendship.

We had lots of written quotes and what have you, but we never ever actually entered a contract.

We were friends. There was no way we thought there'd ever be a problem.

The Phillips family dream was to convert a double garage

into Jean's new accommodation, including a lounge and kitchen.

On top of this granny annexe,

they wanted to extend the house to the side,

giving them a master bedroom with en suite and a bathroom for the girls.

The work also included a new kitchen, electrics, flooring and redecoration throughout.

Their builder buddy quoted an estimate of £40,000 over a 12-month schedule.

Our little joke was it would be done before Christmas. The joke being we never mentioned which Christmas.

Work got off to a promising start.

The builder made quick work of the granny annexe, so moved on to the main extension.

David and his builder pal hadn't agreed a payment schedule,

so money was flying out of his pocket left, right and centre.

We paid him some fairly substantial lump sums at the beginning.

And then ultimately, pretty much on a weekly basis,

we would be told, "I need this much, that much,"

that would pay off the various tradesmen, a couple of thousand here and there.

You'll certainly pay for your mistake if you pay this way.

Building works are a business transaction, even if you are friends with your contractor.

You know exactly what you're shelling out for and when.

Lucine and David had asked their builder to do some extra work on the house,

but they had no idea if this was included in the quote.

They were in for a nasty shock.

We asked him to do additional work,

so the cost went up on top of that and I think we got to about £60,000-£65,000 on that,

but we initially thought the actual cost included the goods and then we were asked to buy them as well.

Lucine and David are used to keeping their poise on the ice, but as far as their build was concerned,

cracks had started to show.

As costs mounted for the skaters, their schedule began to slide.

The costs had spiralled dramatically.

Over 20 grand more than their original quote.

And the builder certainly wasn't getting his skates on, as the Christmas deadline came and went.

But they trusted their builder to finish the job

and didn't think twice when he started making plans to visit the United States.

Almost exactly one year after ripping the kitchen out,

he went to America, not on holiday but to establish his house

and family in America because ultimately, he was going to emigrate.

Their comrade contractor had sent his family over to America to set up home.

He told Lucine and David he was planning to join them, once he'd finished the job.

There was still a substantial amount of work left to do,

but his promises were enough for the couple.

So when he went away again, they didn't think anything of it.

A three-week holiday soon turned into a three-month absence

and it dawned on Lucine and David that their builder wasn't coming back.

He took their money, bodged the build and left them to pick up the pieces.

In short, he made a right bolero!

He was supposed to be back in August, early September,

and three months went by and his brother turned up at our door

and asked for all of his brother's tools

that were sitting in a big lock-up on our drive,

which we were paying £35 a week for the lock-up.

It didn't make sense and it was a horrible sickening feeling of, "Oh, my God!"

Up until then, the work looked OK, but the cracks in the job were starting to show.

Panic set in and David e-mailed his friend to find out when he was coming back to finish their home.

Eventually got an e-mail and a message saying "I'm not coming back"

and according to the e-mail, he tried to set up a business in America and went bust

and had no way of coming back, didn't have enough finances, so he couldn't come back to finish the work.

That's the first moment where I just felt absolutely pig sick

and just wanted to cry. He just wasn't coming back.

Lucine and David had forked out over £60,000, 20 grand more than the original quote.

This included some extra work,

but also additional material cost they had thought were included.

Lucine and David were left in a spin with sloppy workmanship throughout.

The list of snags is never-ending,

with a leaky roof causing flooding, a broken ceiling,

flawed flooring, dangerous electrics, bodged bathrooms

and unsafe brickwork, to name but a few of their problems.

Unfortunately, we've had quite a lot of leaks

and flooding from where the room was built on to our flat roof

and we've had an awful lot of water running through there, through the house.

Our skating duo have had to put their plans on ice.

Their botched build has required a huge amount of corrective work,

for which they've paid another staggering £40,000.

The remedial work that we've done is huge

and we have had piping redone, new boiler, new tank...

We had no heating for two years.

We've had skirting done, doors done, the list is endless.

Lucine and David have had to live with the constant reminder

that someone they believed was a close friend could leave them in this state.

Every room, there's something wrong.

So wherever you walk in the house, you see a problem.

I can't stand the fact that I can't fix it. To us, this is probably another two or three years minimum.

David's mum Jean believes her son has been most upset

because he feels responsible for getting his mate involved.

It affected him as he was a friend and it's taken so long.

We've been here over five years now.

Lucine and David's daughters have spent the last three years

growing up in a building site.

But they too were charmed by the bad builder.

He was actually quite a nice man.

He was one of our mummy and daddy's friends.

The main reason behind the extension was so the girls could each have their own bedroom and a bathroom.

He was paid to like do our bathroom.

And he went off

to another country and decided to stay there.

-He hasn't done the work.

-And he took all the money.

This unlucky family have had this building burden hanging over them for far too long.

I'm here today to see what we can do to help Lucine and David get their build back on track.

-Lucine?

-Yes.

-David?

-Hello.

-I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap.

-Hi, Clive.

You've had problems with cowboy builders and I'm sorry to hear that.

-Do you mind if I have a look at the damage?

-Come on in.

-Straight on down, help yourself.

-Thanks very much.

First, I'm going straight to the double garage conversion on the side of the house.

I'm guessing this is the extension or annexe that was for mum.

You can see all the stainage there of the water.

The problem is, you imagine all these little slopes, water is going to track its way down.

You look at this light fitting, it's all dropping down on one side.

It's not because the light fitting isn't on correctly, it's because the ceiling's falling away.

Look at this.

That ceiling there, that's up and down like a rollercoaster ride.

And every time you're walking on these floors,

everywhere I'm walking, it's creaking and wobbly.

Just off the living room, we've got mum Jean's kitchen.

At least the ceiling looks... No. I was just going to say the ceiling looks more level, but it's not.

It dips down and comes back up again.

You can actually feel there... You've got a ridge here.

And that is visible.

This ridge, it goes level there and then it falls away there.

Look at that! Wow!

You know what? A quid is about all I'd have paid for this work!

Upstairs, the new master bedroom is part of the extension to the side of the house.

Ah, so this must be the master bedroom.

But once again... Oh, man! This floor's dodgy!

OK. Definite problems. Major problems with this floor.

This floor needs to come up.

Along from Lucine and David's bedroom is the new bathroom for the girls.

This is unfinished, for a start. This needs to be zonal lighting.

When it's anywhere where there's steam or moisture, it's got to have fittings that are IP rated,

which is ingress protection, stopping moisture from getting in to the actual fitting.

They also should be fire rated too. I know for sure that they're not.

Those need to be replaced. But this is just unfinished. It needs finishing off.

Finally, I need to look outside to see how the new

and old parts of the house have been secured together.

I mean, look how wide that is.

Time and time again when we've peeled stuff back like this,

we've found they're not tied in at all.

It's just a bit of mortar wedged in the gap.

And because that's so broad, that gives me suspicion that it's not been done correctly.

When you come to the top, you can see it's starting to break away.

I think I've got the picture of what's gone on.

But I want homeowner David to show me the problems that have affected the family most.

-Looking at that, you've got moisture damage.

-We've had flooding from when the steels went on the roof

and we've had water coming in, my Mum's bedroom, bathroom, spare bedroom.

I don't think we've had a room without water coming in.

I'm telling you, mate, this job is rubbish! There's no two ways about that.

I'm concerned about the construction of this building.

Very concerned. Let's get out of here. Oh, ah.

I wouldn't mind having a look in that inspection hatch.

Oh! You are having a laugh!

I don't like that at all!

This is crazy.

Got a 13 amp junction box in there that's got no top on it,

we've got bare copper cables going on...

That is not good at all.

But to see that...

If that occurs, whatever he was doing in the extension, that's a worry.

Upstairs, the extension sits just above and to the side of the granny annexe.

David and Lucine's bedroom hasn't escaped the builder's blunders.

-Here we are. This is our lovely bedroom we had made.

-OK.

This is what it was all about for us, our dream bedroom.

Right. I mean, it's uneven... Before even the carpets went down, when the flooring went in,

you must have walked on it and gone, "This feels a bit unsafe."

We were advised ultimately, by the time we got the bed on it and the furniture, it would settle down.

This is utter cobblers when it comes down to it!

When your bed's in, all of a sudden the floor's going to be good?!

The answer to that is all of a sudden, the floor is going to be downstairs!

That's eventually... That is terrible!

Next, it's the en suite.

This is our piece de resistance.

Sort of.

Right.

Wobbly floors are no good to tile on. That's the first thing I notice.

You're getting burst out there on the grout.

The grout is popping up and in no time,

you'll start to get tiles cracking. Looks like the floor's on a slope.

Oh, come on! That's a monster bath!

-Yep.

-That's a tremendous weight.

-Yep.

That's got to be on a really solid structure. What are we sitting on?

-Thick plywood, as far as I know. Very thick.

-It'd need to be.

The real truth is this is not fit for purpose.

David's calling on another tradesman chum to help out.

I've got a friend who's a sparky and he's going to be putting it right for me.

He's a knight in shining armour.

Did you think originally your builder was a knight in shining armour and a good friend?

Do you want the truth? I think he still is. I still think he is.

Call me a mug.

Your heart is massive!

That is why these people have got away with what they have been doing.

Seriously, mate. I promise you.

-I don't want to make it any tougher. I'm not pulling any punches.

-That's fine. Just give me a sec.

Come on, onwards and upwards now.

David and Lucine have spent an absolute fortune and have been left with so many problems.

It's no wonder they've hit breaking point.

Their daughters were promised a gorgeous girly bathroom. Instead, they've ended up with a botched job.

-So this section here, about a metre, is your new bit.

-Yeah.

This was originally the landing. We've pushed the bathroom out, so they've got a bit more room,

can have a beautiful shower put in here, new bath.

Eventually get it tiled, so they're not living in a building site.

How important would it be to get this bathroom done?

Well, my little girl's seven, my eldest is nine,

Sophie and Emily have been living in a building site all that time, since they've lived here.

Emily knows nothing other than building site, almost.

This will be their special place, they can bring their friends, be proud.

I think it would be huge, if we can get this done for the girls. It would make a big difference.

Later, it's judgment time for the bad builder's work,

when I call in an independent chartered surveyor.

It's an ongoing list. The more you look, the more you find.

And Lucine and David discover some shocking news.

Now we've found out that there's nothing at Building Control.

-They've got no paperwork.

-We found that out this week.

Lucine and David's dream was for a home fit for three generations of their family.

The renovation comprised a double garage conversion for mum Jean

and an extension so the girls could have their own bathroom.

The job also included a kitchen, en suite bathroom, windows, electrics, flooring and redecoration.

The builder fled to America after taking around £60,000 from the unsuspecting family.

They were left with a huge list of snags, including a leaking roof,

faulty flooring, dangerous electrics and bodged bathrooms.

They've had to do 40 grand's worth of remedial work,

so they've run out of money and the end is nowhere in sight.

It's time for me to find out how they ended up in such a bind.

When did you start to realise that maybe the work

that your friend was carrying out wasn't right?

Initially, he went to Florida for a holiday and I at that point

started getting very concerned that he wasn't coming back.

And then, he did come back. And he carried on doing the work.

But the pace seemed to slow down and then he came

and spoke to David just before he went to Florida the second time.

He even said to us, "You must be scared witless I'm not coming back. I tell you know I'm coming back."

How did you go about paying him? I'm really afraid now about what you're about to say.

You just know it would be £1,000 here, £1,500 there.

Ultimately, there was only between £700-£900 left in the pot.

-What?! Out of 68 grand?!

-Yeah.

And I don't even believe to this moment now that you think

-that this guy's done you wrong. Do you?

-No.

I think he hit hard times in America, like he told me, and he's gone bust and we're just victims.

That's the straight honest truth. That's what I think he did.

David was and still is convinced his builder pal is a good guy.

But even his faith has been tested this week.

Three years after the bad builder ran out,

they found out that a man who inspected their property

and who their builder led them to believe was a building inspector

wasn't from the local building control office at all.

Throughout the work, the same person kept turning up.

We answered the door to him, "Hi, I'm from Building Control, come to inspect what's been done,"

so at that point we're thinking,

"He's from Building Control and we don't need to do anything

"until we come to completing, when we'll then get in contact with them

"and say there's been more work done."

So you found out very recently that there was no building regs applied for, so we don't even know

whether any of this work meets building regs.

Now we've found out that there's nothing at Building Control.

-They've got no paperwork.

-We found that out this week.

Have you any idea who he might have been? He wasn't from Building Control.

-No.

-Absolutely no idea.

-We thought he was an inspector from Building Control.

I'm concerned about your safety right now with the work that's been carried out.

The reason I want to paint the picture black is because I don't want to give you any false hope.

We need to get it inspected at some stage.

You need to make sure it's inspected for peace of mind.

It's very, very important. This has hurt big style.

Lucine and David have been badly burned,

so if you're having any work done on your property, take my advice.

Even if your builder or project manager

is organising it for you, you're still accountable.

It could even result in demolition.

The worst thing for the Phillips family

is that their so-called friend has left them in possible danger.

We need to rectify some of those builder wrongs to get them started on the long road to recovery.

What could we do that would help you?

Look after our little girls.

What can we do to make life even happier for them?

The bathroom's a building site and they need that finishing off,

so they can have their friends over and go in there

and it's not all plaster and paint and horrible and bits hanging off the walls.

So make it a little dream area for them.

They all lived happily ever after type thing.

-To go with their bedrooms.

-So we agree on that?

Eh, listen, I know it's tough, but we're here to help.

I'm keen to have this work assessed, so I've called in independent chartered surveyor Chris Harkin

to cast his professional eye over the job.

-Ah, Chris. This is where I find you. How are you, sir?

-Very good.

You've had a good look around,

so if you could pick out some major faults, what would they be?

Well, looking through my copious notes,

we've got leaks appearing everywhere, uneven floors, springy floors,

which has therefore broken the tiles.

We've got wholesale incomplete areas such as this bathroom,

and other items unfinished on the outside.

There's beam supports, which are cracking the brickwork.

We know planning permission had been applied for but there's no paperwork

to suggest anything's been done in terms of building regulations.

If there's no calculations been supplied to building regulations, it won't comply.

Wow! Now that means BIG trouble.

This is the problem, for anybody watching at home,

it's not just about applying for planning application.

It's about building regs as well.

Could it have been builder notice they put in

or was it official plans that had gone in?

If anything, it would have been building notice.

So they went in on building notice, which is completely different.

'Building notice is an alternative to full planning permission.

It's designed to enable some types of work to start quickly,

but it's best suited to smaller jobs.

It's cheaper and faster,

as you only have to submit basic rather than detailed plans.

However, these basic building notice plans will not be checked

to make sure they comply with building regulations.

This can mean work having to be altered during the build,

therefore increasing costs.

My advice for any major work is apply for full planning permission

so you know you're on the right path from the start.

Now in the bathroom area, which is what we're going to focus on, what problems have you found?

This bathroom area is just incomplete.

There are things which need to be done.

Finishing off the walls, finishing off the decorations.

These light fittings are inappropriate for this environment.

We're dealing with water so they have to be steam proof.

-Anything else?

-There's lots of unfinished items of work.

There's finishes that were done, which are fading.

That's premature failure. Something's making that happen.

There are roof leaks from where the new steelworks were put in,

where steelwork has damaged the roof.

-The more you look, the more you find.

-Is this work of a cowboy builder?

Would you say that the work has been carried out here is substandard?

I think he's overstretched himself, bitten off more than he can chew.

especially coupled with dealing with various local authority regulation,

he's really just taken on far too much.

As far as Lucine and David are concerned,

they used to get maximum scores quite a lot of the time

when they were ice dancing.

In terms of the builder's work,

if you were to give him a mark out of ten, what would it be?

It's quite a poor job already and it's little more than complete,

a little more than halfway complete, shall I say,

so I can only give it a little over half marks, so six out of ten.

-Thank you, Chris.

-Pleasure.

-Nice to see you.

I think six out of ten is a generous mark.

The score for the overall work in the house would be much lower.

Before I bring in our Good Guys, Sophie and Emily have ideas of their own about their dream bathroom.

We'd actually really like a bath

like our mummy and daddy's

and sparkly things in our room like our mummy and daddy have.

We would like kind of like a border

of, like, sparkles in either black or blue.

There you have it.

This is certainly an area that's unfinished

but I think it's also unsafe for Sophie and Emily to use as a bathroom.

So I'm going to cordon the area off.

It's no-go zone for them

and the only people that can now pass this tape

is me and the Good Guys.

Sophie and Emily's bathroom needs a thorough revamp.

Lucine and David think the girls have suffered enough of this bathroom building site

so they're contributing to the material costs of the makeover.

Our team of local builders, headed up by Mark, is raring to go.

What is the plan? What are you going to do for us?

Going to put a nice shower cubicle in the corner, OK.

Take these tops off, remove all the tiling,

get rid of this horrendous sort of plastic trim window stuff

he's bodged up and put on there.

-That is horrible, I agree.

-Remove this bath and put a nice whirlpool.

-Whirlpool bath!

-That'll be nice for them.

-That will be nice.

-In terms of the tiles, you're going to whip all them off.

-Whip 'em all off.

-Floor tiles?

When we tile them we'll use nice big format tiles and have it completely tiled through.

-Underfloor heating will be nice.

-Wow! Yeah.

-That'll be good.

-We're having some of that!

-Having some of that.

From a safety point of view, I'm not happy with the downlighters

cos first of all I don't think they're IP rated.

-We will change all lighting through and put shower lighting all the way through.

-Fantastico.

We'll have to put an extract fan in for regs anyway,

and we'll put it over in that corner above the shower.

Erm, change the basin because it's a little bit small, isn't it?

-It's sort of a kiddy thing.

-Yeah.

I think you'll have noticed there's a theme around here

in terms of the girls.

It's sort of escapism. It's a fairy story, if you like.

I think what we're hoping to do with this bathroom is to create that.

I can't wait to see the finished result so boys,

thank you for your time.

-I'll let you carry on. Cheers, fellas.

-Thank you.

Coming up, I can't wait to show the girls their sparkling new bathroom.

I love it!

In Reading, Lucine and David's builder buddy took £60,000

to create a dream home for all three generations to share.

But instead of a gorgeous granny annexe and elegant extension,

the Phillips family were left with a snagging list including

a leaky roof, botched bathrooms,

bumpy flooring, dangerous electrics and a £40,000 bill

for remedial work on top.

Mark and his team are hard at it making Sophie

and Emily's bathroom fit for a pair of princesses.

And hopefully giving Lucine and David some respite

from the rest of their builder bodges.

The tiles we've gone for are nice Porcelanosa.

Sort of a shiny mosaic effect.

They should glisten with the light in.

So it should give them that little sparkly feel that they wanted.

I'm hoping!

They've only just started work and guess what?

Mark's already come across a few nasty surprises.

We found loads of little horrors

which are obviously going to take time to put right and everything.

Erm, there's pipes in walls, which are not going nowhere

but they're still holding water.

When you drain down the hole, water.

They've got to be gone, rectified.

Erm, the plaster ceiling, we touched that

and basically that falls away. We've got to replaster.

The ceiling areas as well.

We did find a few things that are a bit of no-no in a bathroom.

We found live cables under the bath, not capped off and permanently live,

which is a bit dangerous really.

To say the least. And it, you know, would've killed.

The Phillips family were not just left with a wrecked home but were also broken-hearted

when their so-called builder buddy abused their friendship.

Our team has received no response to our emails

and his numbers are disconnected.

With no address in America, he's become untraceable,

so I want to help Lucine and David offload all their unanswered questions.

At this stage I'd be saying,

"You've got an opportunity to speak to him on the phone.

"Would you like to take it?"

We know he's now gone to Florida and he's completely uncontactable.

If you did have the opportunity to speak to him,

what would you have liked to have asked him?

I would just like for him to tell me truthfully, face-to-face,

if he went to America and went bust,

and that was why we were left as we were,

erm, why perhaps we've never ever got the plans.

And what are we supposed to be doing with the building people

at the council to find out what exactly they want.

And if you could have a question you could line up to him?

I'd quite like to know whether or not he knew he was doing a bad job

but I don't suppose he'd answer that question honestly anyway.

No he'd probably suggest maybe he believed he was doing a good job.

Say he came back from Florida and you just happened to be

walking down the street, what do you think his response would be?

Do you think he'd run off?

Or do you think he'd make a bee-line for you? What would you say?

Wow, d'you know, I think he'd come and have a cup of tea.

-I do!

-You think he would?

I don't know about Lucine but I think he'd come for a cup of tea.

I think he'd walk past us like we weren't there

and I think he'd be one of these, like you see like when you catch the bloke,

-One of these "get the camera out of my face" kind of reactions.

-Yeah.

I think that's what you'd get.

Maybe you'll never find out, but there's always a possibility.

His roots are here so hopefully he will have a conscience

and one day call and say sorry. That's the minimum.

The Phillips family have come a real cropper,

trusting their cowboy builder.

But thankfully, Mark has been working wonders with his top team.

I want to take a look at how they're getting on.

-Hey! What a difference a few days make, eh?

-Better, innit?

-I tell you what!

-A bit better!

-This looks so different.

-It just looks sort of so, I dunno, so "wow"!

-Yeah.

-I think that's the tiles, isn't it? Giving it that glittery effect.

-Yeah.

-What the girls wanted.

-So shower cubicle.

-Another shower cubicle in there.

-Yeah.

-Nice two head shower unit.

-Yep. The spa bath.

-Spa bath.

-Looks spectacular.

-Yeah.

-You boys have played an absolute blinder.

-Well played, son. Brilliant job.

-Not a problem.

-Loving it!

-See you later.

-No probs.

-Cheers.

I'm never happier than when the Good Guys are on the job.

It just goes to show that there's plenty of good 'uns out there if you just do your research.

So while Mark and the guys add those finishing touches

to Sophie and Emily's bathroom, I've come to this building college

in Warrington where they train the next generation of Good Guys.

It's an ideal place to show you how to fix one of the most common

washroom whinges, those leaky taps.

Phil, this is a problem that you'll come across in lots of houses,

where they'll leave the tap dripping, they don't understand why.

They've really cranked it up to shut it down but it's still dripping.

Is there a simple way, simple exercise,

that you can do at home to sort this out?

If you want to give it a go,

there are some basic steps you can use for changing a washer.

-Little tip, put your plug in.

-Why?

If you do drop anything, it's in the sink. Does not go down the plug hole.

-Good shout.

-Make sure your water's off.

-Go to your isolation valve, switch it off half a turn.

-OK.

Screwdriver. Undo.

-Take your top off. Unscrews.

-OK.

Then you get the wrench out?

Get your wrench out. Start to undo it.

-Might need a little bit of force. Take your tap out.

-Take that off.

Again, you can find these washers down your DIY stores,

builders' merchants, whatever.

-Pop your new one on.

-It's on. Job's a good 'un.

Tighten up.

Again, tighten it up, put your resistance on it,

on goes the housing, on goes the top.

Tighten up.

And all you've got to do, whether it's for the hot or cold tap,

red or the blue,

put your selector on.

-How about that?

-How's about that? Turn our water on.

-Look at that.

-There we go.

-I tell you what, well played, Phil. Nice one.

-Thanks very much.

Back at the house, I'm looking forward to showing Lucine and David

their brilliant bathroom and hopefully giving them

a bit of relief from their renovation wrongs.

Their bad builder friend had taken over 60 grand

and left them in a shambles,

but Mark and his team have done a great job!

So I'm going to grab one last peek before I show the family.

Now, this is great!

What a difference!

Unbelievable!

Twin-headed shower.

Ooh, yeah, I like that as well! We've now got an extractor fan

and a zone one light fitting.

So, not only have you got the light and it's IP rated as well,

so it's protected against the steam, but also, you've got a fan

that works at source, so it's taking the steam straight out.

New light fittings. Again, they're going to be fire-rated, I'm sure.

Crown towel rail - that's different. It looks fantastic.

Jacuzzi bath as well! I'm going to switch that on!

JACUZZI BLASTS

Now that's bubbleicious!

I'm loving the tiles.

I mean, the black and the white, it just looks superb.

And I'm loving the actual definition.

You've got some real nice definition on that tile,

and I think that'll reflect a lot with the light,

because these are halogen, and you'll get some great reflection.

You've got sparkly bits all over the place, which is great for the girls too.

It's just a really, sort of, contemporary bathroom,

so as the girls grow older, it doesn't need to be changed.

But I think they'll just love the magic of it. It's amazing!

Hey, do you like the Hollywood glamour light-mirror?

Oh, look at that!

Who is that handsome beast?

Do you know what? It's a cracking job. I can't wait to show the guys.

I'm going to go get 'em right now.

I think they're going to love it!

For the last three years,

Lucine and David have been feeling guilty that their daughters

have been growing up in a building site.

Our top team has achieved an amazing finish,

and I can't wait for the girls to see their brand new bathroom.

But I want Lucine and David to see what can be done

when you get the good guys on the job.

Just hold it right there on the landing, just for a second or two, before we go in,

because I want to know from you guys,

what it was like before we arrived.

It was a mess.

It was some tiles, some carpet,

plaster on the walls, no shower.

Old-fashioned bath, old sink,

manky taps, illegal lighting.

Yeah, illegal lighting!

No extractor!

What was the dream? What did you want to happen in there?

Just to have a nice bathroom for the girls, something they'll like now

-and still like when they're teenagers.

-Yeah.

-Something to grow into, bit of sparkle.

-Contemporary...

-Yeah.

-A bit more up to date.

Something they can show their friends and be proud of.

-Let's check it out. After you, Lucine.

-OK.

Here we go!

Right.

-OK.

-Come on, then, let's have a look.

-Oh, wow!

-Wow!

Wow!

-Oh, it's fabulous, isn't it?

-Oh, wow! They're going to love it.

They're going to absolutely love this.

And the shower! It's fabulous! Look at that!

They've got sparkly handles.

Oh, cool!

-Do you like that?

-Yeah, that's great!

Look at the bath. Check out that.

That's the mini version of ours.

They've got a new loo?

Oh, yeah!

-But how amazing does this look now?

-Oh, it's brilliant!

-Million times.

-Absolutely fabulous.

What a difference!

-You'd never have thought this could be so nice.

-Watch this!

Abracadabra!

Wow!

Fabulous!

Lucine and David seem chuffed to bits,

but this is the girls' bathroom,

so I want Sophie and Emily to take a peek!

-What do you think?

-SOPHIE:

-I love it!

You love it?

Is it fit for princesses?

Brilliant!

What do you think of this?

Brand new tap.

Yeah!

Go on, you can turn it on.

Woo!

Emily!

Ah-h-h!

-JACUZZI BLASTS

-Yeah!

What about the other one?

-So is that a big thumbs-up from everyone?

-Like this.

Yay!

Lucine and David have still got lots to do, but in future,

they'll be guided by a genuine building control inspector.

We accomplished our goal of giving them a bit of respite

from their bungling builder-botches.

What's more, Sophie and Emily

have got a bathroom they can enjoy

and show off when their friends come over to visit.

Ah, you can't beat a happy ending!

You guys all look after yourself.

It's time for me to disappear, but it's been great to see you.

-What do you say to Clive?

-Absolutely top!

-Thank you!

-Bye!

-God bless you, Clive.

-Pleasure! Absolute pleasure!

-I think we do more than that girls, don't we? Come on!

-Big hugs! Yay!

Well, I hope you'll agree that that bathroom is a real cracker

and the girls are going to have so much fun in there.

And we've turned that area of this nightmare part of the property

into a real fairytale.

I do hope it has a Happy Ever After too,

but it's all a case of "watch this space."

So remember, if you're having building work done,

do your research and that way you won't go falling

into the cowboy trap.

If you've had a problem with builders and you would like to

tell your story on Cowboy Trap, then please call us.

Or you can send us an e-mail.

Help us round-up the cowboys!

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