Episode 1 Cowboy Trap

It never ceases to amaze me

just how many cowboy builders remain at large in Great Britain today.

I was coming home and being asked for more money for this, that and the other.

Some of these guys are bodgers who don't know what they're doing

and some of them are crooks, but the one thing they have in common

is the trail of devastation they leave behind.

I tell you what, that is bad news.

But I've got the good guys in my posse to help turn these building calamities into ideal homes.

I felt worn out, exhausted and defeated.

Even the best of us forget common sense

when we are having the builders in.

So watch carefully because the next 30 minutes could well keep you out of the Cowboy Trap.

Today's Cowboy Trap is in the market town of Oswestry in Shropshire.

Since the Middle Ages, Oswestry has been a magnet for trade between

England and Wales and the locals are now in the process of restoring

its beautiful canal and historic railway to their former glory.

With all this renovation going on, it's just as well there's something

this lively little town is not short of.

Oswestry is famous for its pubs.

There are loads of them everywhere you look.

There's a pub, which is handy because I might need to pop into one

because the cowboy builder tale you are about to hear today

is enough to drive you to drink.

His unlucky victim lives in this two-bedroom cottage.

It's home to Jacqui Vaughan, a 54-year-old divorcee

who was once a fully qualified nurse but now works as a legal secretary.

Her favourite hobby is gardening with her 10-year-old grandson, Ryan.

I love having my own space to just go and potter about,

sit in the garden with a book and it's important for him

to go down there as well and help me in the garden and help grow veg.

I think it's an important thing for a child to learn to do.

Six years ago, Jacqui decided to move house.

It was time to downsize because her two daughters had left home

and she wanted to find somewhere with a nice garden

for her grandkids to play in.

Jacqui found and bought a two-bedroom cottage in a lovely area.

She knew it needed a bit of work but she didn't mind.

What mattered was its location on a quiet country lane

surrounded by fields and with this little canal just down the road.

But just like the local canal, the cottage needed restoration work

and Jacqui resolved to do it before she retired.

The first job on the list was replacing the leaking rear porch.

The lean-to that was there originally had a flat roof, which used to...

Where the flat roof met the main structure of the wall of the house,

the water used to pour through.

Jacqui realised she needed to track someone down to do the job

but being new to the area, she didn't really know where to start.

There are many ways to find a builder.

By personal recommendation, Yellow Pages, the internet.

But let's face it, they have all got their pitfalls.

But Jacqui found her builder in a most unusual way.

She met him at a bus stop.

We got chatting.

I found out he'd been in school with my two daughters.

He told me he was a builder. He gave me a card.

From that day on, Jacqui was bombarded with calls from this guy.

Boy, was he desperate to build that porch.

Worn down by the constant hassling, Jacqui finally caved in

and fixed it for the builder to come and give her a quote.

But you know what, I wish she hadn't. She should have run a mile.

Take my advice. Always beware of potential builders touting for work.

Just think, why are they so desperate for your custom?

A good builder is a busy builder and work goes to them

rather than vice versa.

If your guy has time on his hands, it's a warning sign

he could well be a cowboy on the hunt for a fresh victim.

When he came round to see Jacqui, the bus stop builder quoted £6,000.

That was to take down the existing lean-to and build a new porch

and utility area in its place.

The quote included £4,000 for the labour

and a further two grand for materials.

Work began in April 2010.

The builder said he would have the job done in six weeks

and initially, everything seemed fine.

He spent quite a lot of time digging the footings out

but then the structure started to go up and I was really happy

that I was having something that was going to be sound, safe and waterproof.

But after a few weeks, things started to go awry.

Jacqui began to realise that the work was falling behind schedule

and it wasn't surprising as the builder was never there.

She'd often come home from work and find he hadn't been,

or hear from the neighbours that when he did finally show up, late,

he'd stay for just a couple of hours before disappearing off.

Worse still, the money seemed to be spiralling out of control.

After being told that I'd paid for everything,

I was coming home to receipts on the table

from something small like £4.50, to £180 for a new pipe,

which I didn't know I needed.

Another £200 for extra lead because he hadn't ordered enough.

So I was thinking, this is getting a bit silly now.

Jacqui started to panic.

She thought she had already paid for the materials

and these additional receipts were stretching her savings to the limit.

I was starting to worry about how much money I had left.

How I was going to get this finished.

I kept asking him when it was going to be finished because that was my main priority.

I just wanted it finished after initially being so excited about having a porch built

and not getting what I wanted.

It just wasn't getting done.

The quality of what little was being done was, how can I put it?

Rubbish!

He got somebody in which he paid to do the roof, to slate the roof,

once the main wooden frame structure had gone on.

I wasn't happy with it.

It seems to go up on one side and the slates are not flush. They don't seem flush.

Three months after he started the six-week project,

the builder dropped a bombshell.

He gave me an ultimatum.

There is £250 left that you owe me.

You keep that, get somebody else to finish the job

and we'll call it quits.

So I said, there's more than £250 worth of work that needs doing left, I would have thought.

So I said, no, I want you to come back and finish this.

You started it. I want you to finish it.

But the builder had different ideas.

He left that night and never returned.

By that point, Jacqui had forked out £7,000 for a six grand job.

And the unfinished porch was still leaking.

It's one of the main reasons I had the last structure pulled down.

To be honest, I lost heart, I lost my fight, which isn't like me,

and I just had enough.

So, instead of a pretty porch,

Jacqui has got a complete mess on her hands.

Worse still, her pride and joy, that garden,

which if you remember was the reason she bought the house in the first place,

well, that's a total blot on the landscape

that she can't even bear to look at.

Not surprisingly, Jacqui's devastated by the way things have turned out.

He's taken my money and he's just taken advantage.

It's quite heartbreaking, really.

You know, this sort of thing really does my head in.

What should have been a simple bish, bash, bosh job

turns out to be a millstone around the neck.

I only wish Jacqui had got references for this guy.

It would have saved a whole lot of money and heartache.

But remember, there are plenty of good builders out there

and I've got just the team waiting in the wings.

So let's find out if we can help Jacqui out of the Cowboy Trap.

-You must be Jacqui.

-Good morning.

-I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap.

-How are you?

-Rather wet, I have to say. It's a horrible day.

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

-Yes, I have.

-Would you like to come in?

-Please, if you would, so I can have a look around.

It's nice and warm in here.

While Jacqui puts the kettle on, I'm going to inspect the damage.

So this is it.

It's compact and bijou for a start but as ever, you just look around it

and you know there's a cowboy footprint around here straightaway.

I mean, just across the header of the old window there

the plaster finish is awful.

Do I not like this.

Brown parcel tape over those trickle vents. Not a good sign.

There is no fly mesh or anything in there

to stop the creepy crawlies coming in, so they need replacing.

And that's not the only thing.

Oh! Wow! That's not clever.

That is definitely not clever. Look at the state of that.

The window board, it's a way off.

It's actually all cracked as well and come away.

I'll put that pot on there but that's not going to last long.

Somebody's already made an inspection hole into there.

Looking at the insulation, it doesn't look like it's thick enough,

so there's a possibility this whole lot is going to have to come down.

Oh, dear! There are clear signs of moisture ingress and as we all know,

water and electricity don't mix.

The socket and the pattress it's sitting on, first of all,

the pattress is broken, it's not attached to the wall

and the socket is just hanging from the 2.5 twin and earth.

The socket isn't even secured to the pattress.

But it's old, that is. That would have been from the original building.

It's just been left hanging.

This boxing, I'm guessing that there is a soil pipe in there.

It's way oversized. That's taking up way too much room.

And as for the floor, obviously the slab's gone down

but it needs screeding, it needs self levelling.

It's up and down and all over the place.

It's higgledy-piggledy, like the actual area itself.

I've seen more stable porches on a tent!

Let's see what it looks like from the outside.

Well, first of all, check this out.

Surely that can't be...

All right, so we've got the downspout here coming off the extension itself

and it seems to me, looking at these pieces of board,

I reckon that must be...

Yeah, it does.

So what he's done is, yeah, I can see that.

What he's done there is he's hidden the downspout

and yet literally a foot away is the actual drain itself.

So you've got like a little gully.

He could have fed that directly into the gully under the decking and he hasn't.

He's missed it completely.

So the rain, all the water running from the surface off the top and off the main roof as well,

is actually just going down to where the footings are.

That's going to undermine under there, without a shadow of a doubt.

There will be gallons of water going down there

and today, it's done nothing but non-stop rain.

Rain in Britain? Who would have thought it?!

Clearly, this cowboy builder didn't.

And check this out.

I mean, look at this. The render on the outside is barely thick enough.

There is no base coat.

I tell you something, because that is dusting up so much,

I'm going to guess, and again because of the colourway here,

he's probably used red sand.

The problem with that is, it's loaded with zinc

and when you're actually mixing that,

it's no good when you're doing the render

because it starts to break down the cement base and it will dust-up in no time.

That will just be pulling away.

And to be honest, it's generally quite poor.

It's generally quite poor.

Hang on a minute. Look at this as well.

Let me just shift that broom.

Now, this wall here that is on the boundary to the next neighbours,

that actually should have been anchored to the extension.

Look at that. Oh my goodness!

I can actually feel that rocking the decking.

I am not liking that. That is going to have to come down.

A wobbly wall with Jacqui's grandkids around?

That is an accident just waiting to happen. Not acceptable.

And nor is this fascia.

It's just completely untreated, that is.

The water is penetrating it.

The head across the window and the door frame,

I've said already that the quality of the windows and doors is fine but look at it.

It's completely out of line. You've got different levels.

So that's either the actual unit frames are out of line

or the soffit's out of line or both.

Dear me, it's poor.

That's poorer than Oliver Twist after Fagin's fleeced him!

Dear me!

And that roof is risible.

Look at the way it's laid for a start.

As you'll see there,

you've actually got a deflection going on so that side is sinking in.

But over that side, they are all standing up and proud.

So rain coming down, that without a shadow of a doubt, if the wind is driving as well,

is definitely going to come into the void underneath.

As you can see, the cheeks either side there, it's the flashing.

The upstands of the flashing are poor.

You've got great big gaps opening up.

Again, water is definitely going to penetrate in there

and I hate the way, up into the windowsill there,

he's used flashband.

Flashband is a temporary fix. It's no good. Absolutely useless.

The whole thing, awful.

The finish on this wall is dreadful.

You can already see that water is penetrating.

I mean, look at this timber, it's going black because it's so damp.

It's just one thing after another.

The soil stack there, you've actually got a bracket missing.

It needs an extra bracket.

And at the top, you're actually missing,

it's almost like a bird's nest vent, that should be at the top of that.

That's open so that needs changing.

It needs a bird's nest vent in the top

and it also needs an extra cowl bracket to secure it to the wall

because in the wind, that's going to be waving and blowing around like my hair.

OK, like my hair 20 years ago when I had fashionably flowing locks.

Honest!

One last thing to investigate. The garden.

A good builder is somebody that will have good housekeeping.

They wouldn't consider throwing this sort of thing into somebody's garden.

They'd have a skip ready and waiting and it would all be dumped in.

But as you can see here, there is mortar mixes

and certainly render mixes that have just been dumped over here.

We've got flagstones, we've got rocks, we've got brick ends.

You know, really, it shouldn't be like that.

It has certainly impinged on the garden and made it a right mess.

On the path, remember, Jacqui and her grandson like to come into the garden.

Well, again, you've got a right hazard here because those bricks will not be safe. Look.

And can you imagine that Jacqui's grandson is pushing and pulling

and probably wanting to climb on these things.

If they come down and collapse on him,

I tell you what, that is bad news.

Bad news indeed. I've seen enough.

Time for a heart-to-heart with Jacqui about her cowboy builder.

It's tough to go through this sort of thing

because you end up blaming yourself and you feel there's no way to turn.

-That's right.

-Have you been in a situation since then

when the grandson has come round and looked at that garden and has he reacted?

He just doesn't go down there. I don't go down there myself.

-I won't go down there. It's too depressing.

-Where are you now?

Pretty low-down confidence wise. It does knock your confidence.

It is depressing. It's got me down. And the money is a worry.

It is a worry when you've spent all your money

on something that hasn't worked out properly.

There are good guys out there.

We are going to bring in a top team of guys.

-What would you like us to do for you?

-Just to get it straight.

Just to stop the roof leaking so I can keep the house tidy,

get it how I want it and just get on with it again.

That's all I want.

And that's all I want too.

Before our good guys get cracking,

I've called in independent building surveyor, Euan Elliott,

to make sure I haven't missed anything.

Just run us through all the problems you've seen?

The problem is the water getting in through the roof.

-There are gaps in the sides of the cheeks...

-Where the dormer is.

That's it. The pitch of the roof is wrong. The render is poor.

There are electric sockets hanging off inside. The windows aren't level.

It's very, very poor.

I don't think this guy really did have the skills, to be even attempting...

Although this is a small job in real terms,

he didn't have the skills from start to finish.

Unfortunately not, it appears.

I'm sure other people would have made a better fist of it.

What sort of mark out of 10 would you give this character?

I can't give it more than two. It's appalling. Very, very poor.

It is bad.

We'll give him two perhaps for the footings and that's about your lot.

-That's the only bit we can't see!

-Exactly!

Yet, everything we can see is dreadful.

I mean, look at the state of this.

Well, I think you'll agree with me, this is a definite no-go area

and so therefore, I'm going to cordon it off

and say the only people allowed past this tape

are myself and the good guys.

And talking of which, they're just around the corner.

Here's a sight for sore eyes. Our knight in shining armour.

Stuart Cubby. I'm glad to say Mr Cubby is a man with a plan.

-To start off with, we are going to take the roof off.

-OK.

The insulation inside the roof is not adequate

so that needs replacing, or if not replacing, topping up.

We are going to alter the section of the roof where it drops in between where the window is.

We're going to take that away. We are going to put a new window in upstairs and lift it up.

-Then we'll have a continuous roof all the way across.

-Great idea.

New slates, flashing. Also, the rendering...

Where do I start?

It's an eighth of an inch thick in places. There is no base coat.

There's just nothing to it.

So my guys are coming down, they'll take all the render off

and re-render the whole of the extension.

And Stuart's going to need to sort the inside too.

So much needs doing, Jacqui's chipping in.

Stuart's squad sets about the task in hand.

It's hi-ho, hi-ho, on to the roof we go.

Old slates off.

Then, old window out.

Yep, it's out with the old and soon it will be in with the new.

Stuart's superstars have made a great start.

But can they get Jacqui's dreams back on track?

Only time will tell.

I'm back in Shropshire, close to the border of Wales in the ancient town of Oswestry,

where Jacqui Vaughan's plans for a nice new extension were ruined

by a cowboy builder who, just for good measure,

wrecked her beloved garden too.

Not surprising really, when you consider that she hired him

after meeting him at a bus stop.

Our good guys have now finished their work

and I'm here to find out if they've saved the day.

Before I do the grand tour with Jacqui,

I can't resist taking a sneaky peak.

Remember, before, the porch looked like this.

Now, check it out.

OK, the first thing to strike me, remember here,

we had that little dwarf wall that wasn't actually

tied into the extension anyway and was rocking about.

Now, we've got a nice fence.

Downspout. Remember, before, you had all of that rain going down to nowhere.

So it was not only flooding underneath this decking,

it was flooding on to the next door neighbours as well.

And if you remember, there was a little bottle gully, roughly about nine inches away.

That's been redirected into there so I'm really happy.

Of course, from the outside, I'm even loving the coach lights.

But of course, the new fascia, guttering.

I'm loving the tiled roof as well.

And what about the garden?

Before, it was an obstacle course with bricks everywhere

and a mountain of rubbish.

Not good with kids around.

Now, as you see, you've got loads of space

and they can plant out quite nicely this coming spring.

It's a project.

It's now a project for them without thinking,

we've got to navigate that pile of bricks,

we've got to navigate that set of slates, that bit of wood.

It is all now nicely cleared, ready for them to start again.

So far, so good. Time to check inside.

Remember, before, it looked like this.

Now, look at it.

This is what I'm talking about. This is how to get the job done properly.

A couple of little things to remember.

Those vents weren't right and we've got the fly mesh in now.

That has all been sorted now. I'll check on both of them. Yes.

The sills are solid. Remember before, they were rocking. That has all been done.

Plastered out, skirting, obviously the new roof

because we had loads of problems with that with leaks and whatever else.

This is now a lovely utility space for Jacqui.

Yes siree, Bob! I'm liking what I'm seeing.

Floor terrifically tiled and skirting boards beautifully boarded.

Now I've put my mind at rest,

it's time for a pow-wow with Jacqui about her cowboy builder.

I wanted to find out his side of the story

so I could hear her responses to his version of events.

Now, your builder admits that the roof wasn't up to scratch.

But he says he tried on numerous occasions to sort it out

and you refused to let him back on the property.

He came back because I phoned him to ask him to come back to sort it out.

Actually, that's when he admitted he'd had a tiler,

a bathroom tiler, to do the roof.

I didn't refuse him on to my property.

I asked him to finish the job properly.

OK.

He also says that he hadn't heard from you for so long,

he assumed that things must be OK.

He would have been happy to come back at any time

if you'd have let him know that you still had problems.

I let him know that I had problems the day he walked off

after the three month period he was here for.

His language was quite a choice.

He said, I'm not coming back here unless you give me more money.

Finally, he says as for the rubble that was left in the garden,

and there was rather a lot of it.

He says it is only still there

because you refused to pay for a skip.

When I'd gone over budget with him, he refused to come back

unless I gave him more money again for a skip.

And originally, that skip would have been in the original quote?

I would have thought so. If a builder's coming to do a job for you, you get a skip straight away.

Yes, you would have thought so, wouldn't you?

Anyway, whatever the whys and wherefores, one thing is for sure,

we've gone from a poor porch to a porch to be proud of.

Jacqui has lived with the work as it's been going on

but now I'm about to reveal the finished results in all their glory.

-Come on.

-Oh, wow! This is amazing. It's just so amazing.

How different is it?

It is totally, totally, totally different.

It's clean, it's tidy, it's light.

It's chalk and cheese. That's what it is.

It's absolutely chalk and cheese. Absolutely stunning.

-New window in.

-New window in.

-Tiles down.

I know, it's incredible. Windowsills painted.

Windowsills painted and fixed because last time they were rocking and rolling.

The whole thing painted and plastered.

-It just looks so different.

-Fantastic. It's light, it's clean.

A happy Jacqui so far, but what about the view from outside?

OK, now you can open your eyes.

-Can I swear?!

-No, you can't! You're not allowed to!

-That is incredible.

-It just looks so amazing.

-How different is that?

Oh, my goodness, I can't explain. It's just so different. It's fantastic.

It makes a massive difference, doesn't it,

because you've got the new window now up top.

I like the idea of what they've done with the slates

to match your ones on top.

And then the whole thing just looks like...

-I am loving the coach lights as well.

-The lights look fantastic. They set it off.

But the fact the roof goes straight across now instead of having that dip in it, it looks...

It's just amazing.

-It's a proper roof now.

-Thank you so much.

-Are you chuffed with it?

I'm over the moon with it. It's incredible.

And the final icing on the cake, Jacqui's new look garden.

Thank you so much. I can't explain, honestly.

I'll be able to come down here.

-I haven't been down here for two years now.

-Two years!

-Yes.

I tell you what, just seeing you smile

and seeing you happy is the most important thing.

But before I go, I've got something I just want to give you,

if you just stay there, and that's this.

How are you for green fingers?

Excellent!

You've got yourself a spade now to start digging

so I'm going to leave you to do a bit of digging. I'm so happy...

Are you sure you don't want to stay and help me? Or you're a busy man?

Yes, I'm a busy man. And look, I haven't got green fingers, have I, at all?

Yep, when it comes to spade work,

I'm more at home digging people like Jacqui out of the Cowboy Trap.

Yee-ha!

I love making people's dreams come true,

particularly when their original dreams have become nightmares like Jacqui's was.

And I so love the finish on that new extension.

But above all else, she's now got her garden back

and that'll be a wonderful future project for her and for Ryan, her grandson.

He can finally play in it at long last.

That is all due to the good guys.

And remember, there are plenty out there if you only do your research.

And as for those cowboy builders who are watching today,

I'm declaring it high noon and we're coming to get you.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd