Episode 11 Cowboy Trap

We're travelling all over the UK to meet the homeowners

forced to live with the grim consequences

of employing a cowboy builder.

We hadn't had a toilet for three weeks.

Er...we hadn't got anywhere to eat.

We'd nowhere to wash.

With their shoddy workmanship or downright lies,

cowboy builders are unscrupulous villains

who not only destroy dreams - they wreck lives too.

He threatened to get the pick axe and knock the extension down.

-You're joking?

-No.

We've got the Good Guys in our posse

to help turn these houses from hell into heavenly homes.

It looks like it should have done. It looks really clean.

It's a very nice design, actually.

-You don't just look relived, you look happy as well.

-I am!

-I truly...

-She hasn't smiled in a long time.

You know, it's thought cowboy builders cost Britons

over £700 million each year.

So if you think you know how to spot one,

think again.

Make no mistake - the next 45 minutes could help keep you

out of the cowboy trap.

Today's Cowboy Trap -

a structurally unsound kitchen extension

which proves that size really does matter...

in more ways than one.

The bungling builder didn't stick to the plans

and built it so big it breached planning regulations.

They built it too long

and too high.

And we catch up with a cowboy builder victim in Yorkshire

to see how she's doing now, four years after we rescued her.

-It really boosted my morale to...

-Did it?

-Yeah, it really did.

I can't tell you, Jonnie. It's a feeling you can never explain.

Our first Cowboy Trap saga revolves round a home in Alfreton,

a picturesque town in the Amber Valley in Derbyshire.

During the Industrial Revolution, Alfreton was a thriving transport hub,

because it had good road links to the major Midlands cities.

Now it has a population of around 8,000 citizens,

but none as famous as a well-known figure from the past.

Alfreton is said to have been named after the revered Anglo-Saxon King,

Alfred the Great, who, according to legend,

got a good telling-off by a lowly woodcutter's wife

after he left her cakes to burn.

Now, one of the interpretations of that story

is that it's a warning about the perils of leaving a man in charge of the kitchen.

I don't know about that, but I do know that today's Cowboy Trap

is a warning about the perils of leaving a cowboy builder

in charge of the kitchen extension.

And these are the unlucky people who did just that -

retired couple Keith and Sandra Jones,

who've been married for 41 years.

Keith and Sandra met at a dance hall in Sheffield,

when Sandra was 17.

We just sort of danced and what-have-you.

He said, "Are you coming on Tuesday?"

I said, "Well, perhaps." You know how you don't give anything away

when you first meet somebody.

And then things got a bit more serious,

and eventually we got engaged and...

I think it was about three or four years before we got married.

Sadly, in recent years, the couple's health has deteriorated.

Keith struggles with severe arthritis

and Sandra has autonomic neuropathy,

which is a nerve disorder with symptoms including

digestion problems and an intolerance to heat.

I call it my thermostat's scuppered.

I'm hot,

but I don't sweat,

and yet my legs and my arms shiver.

Sandra and Keith brought up their daughter Sarah

in a three-bed semi in Sheffield.

They lived in that house for 31 years.

Although they loved their home,

Keith and Sandra had known for a long time that it desperately needed modernising.

But in 2010, when their daughter got married,

all their savings went on her big day

and their plans for a house were put on hold.

Eventually, with Sandra's condition worsening

and Keith's problems with arthritis,

they decided the time had come to sell up and buy a smaller home

closer to their family.

The Joneses found a bungalow near where their daughter lived in Alfreton.

They had lots of interest in their house,

but no-one wanted to pay the asking price.

Then they received a most unusual offer

from a local builder.

He said he'd pay £160,000 for the Joneses' house

and build them a new conservatory at their next home,

with a £2,500 discount on the usual price.

Sounds odd, but it did the trick.

So we thought, "That more or less seals the deal."

We thought, "That's really good."

The Joneses moved into their new bungalow,

which had loads of potential.

Even though they were downsizing, they couldn't wait

to make it into their dream home.

Item one on their wish list - a kitchen extension.

Sandra and Keith had originally wanted a conservatory,

and they'd been given a discount on one.

When they moved in, they had a change of heart,

realising it was almost the last thing they needed, given Sandra's intolerance to heat.

So they settled on an extension to their kitchen instead,

and as luck would have it - bad luck, that is -

their builder was willing to carry out the work.

Yep, the builder who'd bought their house

and offered £2,500 off the conservatory

was willing to transfer that discount to a kitchen extension.

It seemed too good a deal to resist,

so Keith and Sandra decided he was the man for the job.

They didn't even ask any other builders to quote.

Now, in a previous life, I was a surveyor,

and in my experience, no builder's deal is ever too good to refuse.

Take my advice...

Or you might live to regret it.

The Joneses' builder's quote for constructing the extension was

£17,000, including the discount.

This figure covered all the electrics,

plumbing and joinery,

and some pipework and tiling in the bathroom too.

And for an extra £1,000,

he said he'd re-fit the kitchen.

What our aim was, was to get all the plumbing correctly done,

all the electrics done properly

and new furniture...

so that we wouldn't have to spend any more money, because all we would have

would be our pensions.

A payment schedule was agreed -

£5,000 when the foundations were finished,

£10,000 when the roof was up

and the final £2,000 on completion.

Work started in November 2010,

but it didn't take long for the Joneses to have misgivings.

For starters, the builders just didn't seem to care about the disruption they were causing.

We've never had an extension before in our lives,

so we expected the worst,

and I think the worst we got.

It wasn't just the mess that worried Keith and Sandra.

The builder was rarely on site,

leaving his labourers to do the donkey work.

But he did turn up when a private building control company came to inspect the foundations.

They were approved, and the builder cracked on with the project...

with the emphasis on the cracking.

The tiling on the bathroom floor wasn't up to scratch.

The plumbing was poor, and the work was taking ages.

In fact, I reckon Brunel could build a bridge

faster than this bloke could build a bathroom.

Keith and Sandra's quality of life plummeted.

We hadn't had a toilet for three weeks.

Er...we hadn't got anywhere to eat.

We'd nowhere to wash.

So we had to let them just carry on.

Talking of carry on,

this bodging builder's next stunt would have put Sid James to shame.

Sandra was pottering around the garden one day

and got the shock of her life.

They hadn't brought a portable toilet with them,

and he went between the garage and the shed.

And I caught him one day there.

Having a leak behind the shed?

Now that's taking the...

biscuit.

This build was rapidly becoming a cowboy comedy of errors,

and no more so than when the time came to install the steel beams

vital to holding up the extension roof.

Trust me, Frank Spencer would have done a better job.

The builder got a brickie in to help fit the steel beam.

That's like getting a painter and decorator in

to help with the artwork for the Sistine Chapel -

somewhat unorthodox.

The reason the brickie was summoned? Three words -

bodge...bodge...bodge.

This bricklayer started building a column of house bricks

up the side.

The main builder came and he said, "With the steels, I've had to do this

"to make it safe."

Columns of bricks to make an RSJ safe?

Hmm, I don't like the sound of that.

But that wasn't the only concern.

The conservatory exterior bricks were a different style to the house bricks.

As Prince Charles would say, it looked like a carbuncle.

And because the kitchen was taking so long,

the Joneses had to live on fast food for a month.

When the fittings finally did arrive, Sandra's heart sank.

The dishwasher we'd picked -

an ordinary-sized dishwasher -

we couldn't get through into the extension.

Because these columns came out too much.

Sandra had to settle for a slimline dishwasher

that was totally unfit for purpose.

Then in late February 2011,

the builder delivered a bombshell.

They'd built it...

too long

and too high.

It now needs planning permission.

Crikey!

Without planning permission, the council could insist on pulling it down.

The builder then had the cheek to announce he'd finished

and demanded his final £2,000 payment

on top of the 15 grand he'd already been paid.

We said, "Well, you've not fully finished the job yet,"

and they just stormed off then.

The builder took the Joneses to court to get the money he said he was owed.

After a stressful legal battle,

the cost became so great for both sides

that the case was dropped.

But for the Joneses, the emotional damage was already done.

We've always had us rows,

but we row more now than we ever did.

It was just like our world had fell apart,

and she was really down about it all.

I think he feels... In fact, I don't think, I KNOW he feels

that he's let me down.

What a mess. Not only have Keith and Sandra been robbed of their dream kitchen,

but they had to go through all the stress of that court action too.

And it sounds like they've been left with a right bodge on their hands.

But the million-dollar question is,

how much of a bodge?

It's often the case on Cowboy Trap that, on the surface, things don't look too bad.

Cowboys can be cunning when it comes to covering their tracks.

So we asked independent building surveyor Paul Brown

to inspect the work at the Joneses'.

He's been through it with a fine-tooth comb

and he's about to fill me in on what he's found.

It's not about cost, even - it's just a bit sloppy.

The first item on the agenda is the brickwork of the conservatory not matching that of the house.

What's gone on here? Why do these bricks not match?

The bricks on the original building were imperial bricks,

which means they were slightly larger and they were made

before metrification, so they're in inches, whereas modern bricks

are made in centimetres or millimetres

and they're slightly smaller.

And that difference in gauge

means that when you lay them next to each other,

you get this problem where they don't match up.

It gives you these very wide joints. It all looks wrong.

Not kidding!

It looks like a completely different building.

And that mortar is bound to fail and crumble.

As the Joneses' home video footage shows,

it's been exposed to freezing temperatures when it was laid,

so the water inside it is frozen,

weakening the mortar significantly.

What on earth were they thinking?

And this photo of the patio wall doesn't look too hot either.

What you can see there is a small wall which

supports the ground behind,

so it's retaining a small amount of earth -

-about, I would say, 250mm or so.

-Yeah.

But it's constructed off the paving slabs,

so the paving slabs are forming a surface for the supporting wall.

Laying a wall on top of a paving slab

means you're using a paving slab as foundations,

but also, laying it on the edge of a paving slab,

it's going to lift the slab straight away.

That slab will lift, it will become a trip hazard, and that wall's got to do more than just stay upright.

-As you say, it's got to retain the soil behind it.

-Mmm.

And in the bathroom, the plumbing is really amateurish too.

-This pipework doesn't have the right fall, or any fall at all.

-No.

It has... It's a small waste pipe that runs from a sink.

What's happened is they've put it in

and it doesn't have the correct fall to take the waste away to the drain,

so what will happen is water will sit in it.

In fact, water obviously won't go uphill - it'll sit and create a little pool in that pipe,

and what that will mean really is that it will actually block.

Anybody putting pipes in will know that there has to be a fall, won't they,

-so again, that's kind of highlighting...?

-It's sloppy.

It's not about cost, even - it's just a bit sloppy.

Sloppy indeed.

As is the tiling on the bathroom floor.

In the kitchen, there's an even more worrying concern.

What we've got here on the wall

doesn't match the dimensions on the plans.

That's right. There was an original wall of the bungalow removed

to allow the extension to be constructed.

And when they've removed that wall,

they've obviously needed to support it, and they have installed a steel beam.

Why would the dimensions of where this pier comes out to,

why would that be different to the plans?

Well, we understand that the beam was ordered incorrectly and is the wrong size,

so it wasn't long enough.

Wrong size?

If the beam hadn't been fitted right,

the house could collapse like a pack of cards.

That needs investigating pronto.

But first, it's make your mind up time for Paul.

How would you mark what's been done here out of ten?

It's quite poor, Jonnie.

I think, given that they've got some of the finishing right

and it's not all terrible... There are some key things that are wrong.

I think it's only a three.

-I don't know any builder that would be happy with that.

-No.

Well, in a previous life, I was a surveyor

and based on what Paul's just shown me,

I'd have given this a big fat zero.

Non-matching bricks, wobbly walls,

a suspect screed and dodgy plumbing.

And a potentially lethal stunted steel girder too.

Plus, the Joneses have paid over £18,000.

Nightmare.

In short, this comedy of errors has become a tragedy,

with only one chance of a happy ending.

Time to call in our Good Guys.

Head honcho Hugh Dwyer wastes no time investigating that suspicious steel.

It's terrible news for the Joneses -

the RSJ is totally unfit for purpose.

It's far too short, and the packers in the end are not secured properly.

This totally breaks building regulations,

and quite right too - it's extremely dangerous.

No hanging about - Dwyer's dynamos swing into action.

So much work needs doing, the Joneses are chipping in.

Hugh's heroes kybosh the old kitchen.

Good riddance!

Yep, say goodbye to that sad old sink...

..and farewell to that fundamentally flawed steel beam.

Then in goes the new RSJ -

the correct length this time.

It's a great start,

but can they get Sandra and Keith's dreams back on track?

Only time will tell.

I'm in Derbyshire, in the bustling town of Alfreton,

where Keith and Sandra Jones were forced by failing health to downsize to a bungalow.

They had their heart set on building a new kitchen extension,

but £18,000 later,

they were left with a right old bodge

and a lengthy legal battle to boot.

Well, our Good Guy builders have now finished their work here,

so let's see how Keith and Sandra are getting on.

Hello! Ooh, hello!

-Sandra?

-Yes.

-Hello, I'm Jonnie.

-Hi.

You must be Keith. Hello.

-And THAT must be Treacle.

-That's right.

-Please come in.

-Thank you very much.

As soon as I cross the threshold, I can't resist a quick peek.

Check out the kitchen!

It used to be a danger to life and limb.

Now it's a sight to behold.

And where there was once dodgy pipework,

we now have a brand spanking new bathroom.

And from a shabby short wall...

..there is now a well-pointed construction.

Result.

I bet the Joneses are thrilled.

Now, before I take a closer look at our Good Guys' work,

I'd like a chat with Keith and Sandra

about how they got into this mess in the first place.

How far into the process were you

when things started to go wrong?

It was quite a way in. There was a few things wrong,

but you don't expect everything to be perfect when they're doing a big job.

And then, when it came to the kitchen fitter,

-they brought all the kitchen equipment...

-Yeah.

..and we found that I couldn't have the dishwasher that had come, a normal-sized dishwasher,

because of the way that they'd put the steels in.

Yep, because that stunted steel beam

had to be supported by big brick piers,

there was less room for the dishwasher.

But kitchen fitting issues are one thing.

A lack of planning permission

because the cowboy got the size of the extension wrong

is quite another.

You've got this massive investment

-and it contravenes planning regulations.

-That's right.

That must have been a shock to the system.

Well, yeah. Unfortunately, the more we found out, the worse it got.

-Did you bring this up with the builder?

-Yes.

-And what did he say?

-He just walked off.

How much money had you spent by then?

We'd spent £18,000.

He wanted another £2,500.

I said, "Well, the job's not finished."

And when we wouldn't give it him,

they were effing and blinding.

Threatened to get the pick axe and knock the extension down.

I said...well, I told him to go ahead and I'll ring the police.

So they effed and blinded and they went.

I think Keith and Sandra might have avoided this unhappy ending

if they'd been more assertive with their builder early on.

The moment they spotted things going wrong,

they should have piped up.

When you saw the wrong bricks going up,

you didn't say anything. You gave them the benefit of the doubt,

and throughout life, I think it's a good thing to do,

but you've invested £18,000 into your home there

-and I think there were certain missed opportunities to put the brakes on it.

-Yes, there was.

Sandra and Keith couldn't have been expected to spot

the extension wasn't the size in the architect's plans.

That was why it was such a shock

when the builder admitted it and scarpered.

Our surveyor's investigations showed it was way off.

-Your surveyor...

-Our building expert, yeah.

..he got this magnificent tool...

A ruler.

You can laugh!

He came and straight away, he knew.

Yeah, he just looked at the drawing and said, "It's nowhere near the drawing."

-It's beyond permitted development.

-Yes.

-Exactly.

But the good news is that despite that,

we've now arranged retrospective planning permission

for the extension.

Now, before I do a grand tour with the Joneses,

I want to take a close look at our Good Guys' handiwork,

starting outside.

Before, there was a problem with the mortar on the exterior wall,

because it had been laid in frozen conditions.

Looking good now, though.

It must have taken quite a lot of digging out.

They've used a pointing tool on it. It all looks uniform.

It looks tidy at least. And...

..it's not failing - it's got some longevity at last.

And what about this?

Do you remember?

This - only a short wall.

It doesn't matter how tall it is,

it should never have been built on these paving slabs.

You can even see where the bricks were laid on the edge of these paving slabs,

which would have caused a trip hazard.

Now? Well, the right thing's been done, and by that I mean

they've clearly dug foundations out,

built the wall on top of those foundations,

and left the paving slabs to do their only job -

to be paving slabs.

Right, time to look inside.

Now, first off, there were cracked tiles in the bathroom.

Ooh! There are none now,

which means whatever the problem was beneath those tiles

has now been remedied, which is excellent.

And the Good Guys did a great job fixing that dodgy plumbing.

So, bathroom and exterior both better,

but the proof of this pudding is in the kitchen.

Now, there was a specific and exacting design for this kitchen.

All the units had been bought.

All the builder had to do was join the dots, to an extent.

Now, the first thing I see here

is...

a full-width 600mm unit here,

which is supposed to house a proper dishwasher.

Lo and behold, it has got one, which means that Keith and Sandra

don't have to put up with a slimline dishwasher,

which is nothing they wanted in the first place.

So they've got that in place.

Now, because the pier came all the way to here...

Remember, that's why you had a slimline dishwasher.

So you had a gap to walk through.

But because now the Good Guy builders

have managed to take this pier back, as per the original plan,

not only have you got the walkway where it should be,

and then the proper dishwasher unit where it should be,

but also,

the rest of the plan is now coming together.

The units they'd bought now sit flush with the pier.

It looks like it should have done.

It looks really clean. It's a very nice design, actually.

But what about that stunted steel beam?

Good Guy head honcho Hugh

has come to give me the inside track

on what he thinks the cowboy tried to hide from his unlucky victims.

What did you find once you took that plaster off?

Once we exposed it for the building control to see,

we found that this side here was only on two inches,

which wasn't adequate - it should be six.

In effect, the steel beam was on two inches...

On two inches of brickwork, yeah.

So...

..the pier came out to... What, about here?

-Roughly there.

-Yeah.

-And there was a steel...

-Two steels.

-..spanning all this,

-and on top of this is the entire gable end of the property.

-Yep.

-All that weight was resting on...

-Two inches.

I wouldn't really be happy walking underneath this.

No, I wouldn't have been either.

This kitchen is now safe and sound.

In the bathroom, Hugh and his compadres discovered

the cause of the cracked tiles as soon as they lifted them up.

We found that all the screed wasn't any good underneath.

-What was wrong with it?

-It had just crumbled away and cracked,

so we took all that up,

relaid the screed, and we tiled in there.

Good for you.

Good old Hugh.

Now, before I do the grand tour with Sandra and Keith,

there's one more thing I'd like to discuss with them.

I wanted to find out their builder's side of the story,

and I can't wait to hear their responses to his version of events.

Now, firstly, with the kitchen,

he says he made the pier thicker

because he was concerned

the existing walls weren't strong enough.

I think he's making himself look an absolute charlatan.

Especially when he actually admitted to the fact

-he'd put those steels in short.

-Yes.

Now, on the brickwork...

your cowboy builder says that YOU did the brick match

and YOU supplied the bricks.

That is total rubbish.

They had their own suppliers

and they have actually physically taken the brick

to these suppliers, and they've brought the bricks.

He denies they were laid in freezing temperatures.

He said he followed correct procedures

and can't be held responsible for any drop in temperature overnight.

That is ridiculous!

We've got videotape of them actually laying bricks when it was snowing.

I don't need to say anything now, do I?

I wouldn't have thought so, no.

And he says he has a completion certificate for the works

-from a private company of building inspectors.

-That's right.

And when we had the council inspector to come,

he said, "This building should never have been passed."

Well, somehow it was,

and I can't help but wonder why

the builder wanted to use a private sector building control firm.

Take my advice...

There are good private sector companies and bad ones.

You don't have to go with the company your builder suggests.

Well, this extension has been cleared by the local authority now,

thanks to us, and I can't wait to hear

what Keith and Sandra think to it.

First up, the exterior.

The mortar there looks great - looks uniform. Looks much better.

-Yeah.

-Doesn't it just?

This had all been damaged by the frost.

Yep, it's much more frost-proof now.

And when the Good Guys secured the patio wall,

they also widened the path.

Nice.

This is wider, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Because I asked him originally to do it that way.

-You'd originally asked that to happen, and it hadn't happened?

-Yeah.

Well, it has now.

From building bodge...

to building brilliance.

At long last, the Joneses have got what they wanted.

You've gone through the fear of the house caving in,

you've gone through the court case,

and now you've got the finished product

that, in my opinion, you should have had in the first place.

How does it make you feel?

-Oh, it's brilliant!

-Brilliant.

Don't just... If you're not happy...

-I am!

-She is.

-I truly...

-She hasn't smiled in a long time.

And here's something else that's making Sandra smile -

her new kitchen.

So...

your kitchen's up and running, at long last.

How are you finding it?

-Brilliant.

-Yeah?

-Absolutely brilliant.

I've now got the kitchen

that I asked for.

And the labour-saving device -

-a full-size dishwasher.

-That's right.

This kitchen now works for you. First of all,

that fits where it's supposed to fit.

It works perfectly, doesn't it?

And Sandra and Keith can now cook and eat in here

without worrying about their roof crashing down on their heads

at any moment.

Knowing that this steel is properly supported...

-Peace of mind?

-Yeah.

-Very much so.

-Not half!

That's fantastic, that.

The difference in what it's sat on now

to what it was before...

-it's just ridiculous.

-You've seen the job done properly now.

We saw it when they took all the plaster down.

Saw it when he'd done it.

And you don't even have to be a builder to know the difference.

You could see the difference.

Not half! And, to be honest,

I'm not sure if the original guy WAS a builder.

A stunted beam? What was he thinking?!

Has a load been lifted now?

-Pardon the pun.

-Oh, I can't tell you how grateful I am to you lot.

I just cannot thank you enough.

-Me too.

-And that is the truth.

It's actually changed our lives.

It's had that much of an effect.

Well, it's no surprise that Sandra and Keith are delighted

when you compare before...

to after.

It's clear what a difference the right guys can make.

Make no mistake - by downsizing their home,

Keith and Sandra made a huge sacrifice.

But they hoped by doing so they'd make life easier for their retirement.

Unfortunately, their cowboy builder had other plans.

These guys went through hell with their building, and on top of that,

the stress of a prolonged legal battle,

which makes what our Good Guy builders have done

all the sweeter.

Sandra and Keith now have their dream kitchen,

which has finally turned this house into their dream home.

Now we're off to revisit someone we first met in 2009.

Like Keith and Sandra's,

this story revolves around a cowboy builder

who had no qualms about leaving his unwitting victim in a death trap.

Four years ago, Marie Ward from Yorkshire

thought it was time to ring the changes to her bungalow.

Her sons kept telling her it was dated,

so she decided to invest in a luxury kitchen and bathroom.

She also wanted to lighten things up,

and thought internal windows and knocking down a wall

between the kitchen and lounge would do the trick.

Add the final touch - redecorating throughout.

But as these photographs that Marie took and scribbled notes on show,

things went rapidly awry.

It was going to be my dream kitchen, my dream bathroom.

It was going to be terrific, a real wow factor.

Yep, Marie was setting her sights high.

She desperately wanted to create the home of her dreams.

This was an exciting time for Marie,

leafing through interior design magazines

to find the inspiration for the right look for her newly renovated home.

But then she made a fatal error.

She noticed a glossy-looking advertisement for a builder,

and on the basis of that, she hired him.

Big mistake.

When I looked at the glossy magazine,

I thought, "Bingo!

"Look at those photographs."

Well, Marie might have thought, "Bingo!"

but choosing her builder this way is an absolute lottery.

Take my advice...

But unfortunately, Marie went for the snazzy centrefold option

and got that builder round to quote.

He came up with a figure of £16,500.

That was to create the deluxe kitchen,

fit some internal windows

and redecorate the hall.

Marie decided to hold off on the bathroom renovation

to save cash.

She gave the builder and his compadres the green light.

So along they came,

and they seemed to be very industrious.

I thought I'd keep away, because there's nothing like,

the men keep saying, a nagging woman, so I kept away.

So Marie went off to work each day and left them to it.

But that turned out to be a mistake.

While Marie wasn't looking,

the builders were creating chaos in her home.

The hall was a total mess

and they were filling the garden with rubbish.

The standard of their work was pitifully poor.

When Marie finally did check up on their efforts,

she couldn't believe her eyes.

Remember, she decided to leave the bathroom job

until she had more money.

But the builder had different ideas.

Four weeks into the job, I was absolutely terrified.

He ripped the kitchen out

and he ripped the bathroom out.

There was no toilet, nothing.

There was just the...what I think they call the soil pipe sticking through the wall.

And it was just a pile of plaster.

All the old tiles were ripped off and in a pile

on the floor.

And the kitchen was the same.

Marie was shell-shocked.

Everywhere she looked, her house resembled a bombsite.

Marie's home had been gutted.

There wasn't so much as a toilet,

let alone that top-notch bathroom or luxury kitchen.

She was left without central heating

and with live electrical cables hanging from the walls.

And to add insult to injury,

the builder ripped out her alarm system,

leaving her feeling vulnerable and unsafe in her own home.

And the last item on this agenda from hell?

The glass the cowboys had fitted in the internal bathroom window

was dangerously thin.

If Marie had slipped and fallen into it,

she could have been really badly injured.

Goodness only knows what he thought he was doing.

By this point, Marie had paid over £10,000 to the builders

and all she had to show for it was a disaster zone.

I said to him, "I've given you thousands of pounds

"and I've got nothing except this shell to live in."

I said, "I've had enough. You've had all my money.

"I've got nothing."

Marie had hoped confronting the builder would shock him into action.

It kind of worked.

He walked out, never to return.

By now, Marie had spent a staggering £30,000 on this renovation

and there was still work to be done.

Worse still, because her builder had said he'd provide the kitchen and bathroom suites,

when he disappeared, she had to spend all her spare cash

simply to make her house habitable again.

Not surprisingly, with dreams crushed,

house practically demolished

and savings decimated,

Marie was heartbroken

and plunged into the depths of depression.

What a cruel, horrible scoundrel.

And it all seemed so above board.

Not so much above board -

more like totally underhand.

But Marie wasn't the type to let this fiendish fella off the hook lightly.

Marie tried to negotiate with her builder on many occasions

to come back and finish the work,

or at least give her some of her money back.

She phoned and she texted, but to no avail.

It was time to bring in our Good Guys.

They couldn't fix all the cowboy's bodges,

but they could certainly try to bring Marie's dreams back to life.

They decorated the horrendous hallway...

and fixed the fundamentally flawed floor.

Impressive work.

Then they fitted toughened safety glass in the bathroom window.

Yep, safety comes first.

Thanks to our posse,

Marie's bungalow had been given a new lease of life.

By the time our Good Guys had finished,

we'd left the place safe and secure and looking in great shape too.

Marie was back on track.

But would she be inspired to go on and complete her dream home

after we'd left?

Only time would tell.

Well, it's been around four years now

since we helped get Marie back on track by bringing in our Good Guy builders.

Now, when they left, she still had a great deal of work to do, so let's see how she's got on.

I can't wait to see how Marie's feeling now,

especially after the cowboy's dastardly deeds

made her feel so depressed.

-Hi, Marie. How are you?

-Hi.

'I can already see Marie's rung the changes.

'Check out this smart car-port roof.

'And as soon as I cross the threshold,

'Marie wants to tell me how our Good Guys totally changed her sense of wellbeing.'

They did all this and just made it really tidy and clean.

There were holes in the floor.

It was quite dreadful before.

There were trip hazards before.

You know, your entrance to your house is the first room everybody sees. You want it looking nice.

You certainly do.

You certainly do. I put enough money into it and came out with holes in the floor.

It was like a dungeon. And for the Cowboy Trap people to come and do this...

-It really boosted my morale.

-Did it?

Yeah, it really did. I can't tell you, Jonnie.

It's a feeling that you can never explain.

Marie has clearly moved on.

You can see that by the way she's added her personal touches.

Just compare what her hall looked like when the bad guys walked out...

..to what it looks like now.

And when you contrast the rubbish windows the cowboy put in

with what our Good Guys fitted.

If you'd seen these, that would have been a real heart-stopper.

There was no frame,

there was just a bit of glass there held in by panel pins.

That could have fallen out at any time. It's just ridiculous.

Lovin' those cats, Marie!

Even the bathroom has bags of personality now.

The floor's good, but I really like the windows.

Sometimes when I've got a moment, I just look at them and think,

"Yeah. They're not bad. They're great."

See that? "Not bad"!

-That's as good as it gets with you, isn't it?

-Not bad!

-Fantastic!

Well, Marie's smile is better than a thousand words, isn't it?

I'm not surprised. Remember, the cowboy left her with this...

When we left, the lounge was on the road to recovery,

but still a work in progress.

Four years on, it couldn't be more homely.

Look at how Marie's made it her own, with ornaments and knick-knacks.

It's hard to believe that this was the scene

of a particularly gruesome cowboy crime.

They dirtied the furniture that was in. I stuck my foot through the ceiling,

actually just over there.

You couldn't do anything with it,

so when they...

The basis of anything is the floor, so once the floor was in,

you could get some work done,

you could put carpets down

-or whatever, and you could put your furniture in.

-Yeah.

But without that, you couldn't do a thing, could you?

So our fellas' fantastic floor work

acted as springboard for Marie to design and create the lounge of her dreams.

That's remarkable,

bearing in mind how low she felt when the cowboy left her in the lurch.

Did you ever think you'd be stood in this room, showing it off like you are?

A few years ago, after those cowboys had left?

Only when the depression left,

because when you've got the depression, it takes your brain away.

You can look, but you can't see.

Well, when Marie looks now,

she can see a wonderful, transformed home.

Remember, before our Good Guys got involved,

the house looked like this.

An eyesore wherever you looked.

After our Good Guys got Marie back on track,

we left her house in a much better state -

bathroom window, hall and lounge all transformed.

And since then, Marie has pulled out all the stops

to complete the transformation.

This is the hall...

the bathroom...

and the lounge.

Great stuff!

But it's the improvements to Marie's peace of mind

that's harder to measure.

I want to talk to her about what she learned.

First question - when did she realise she'd picked a bad 'un?

When I came back from shopping one day,

the bathroom was on the drive.

My bathroom was on the drive.

Is that the first time you thought, "Hold on - things aren't going according to plan"?

Yeah.

That was the first time - you didn't have a bathroom any more?

Only a soil pipe. All the tiles, everything off,

bathroom out, you name it.

And that was only, "I might think about it."

That was as far as we got - not "Take the bathroom out".

So they took it on themselves to force you into having a new bathroom?

It was intimidation to the limit.

And that kind of cowboy builder intimidation

can have a profound effect on homeowners,

especially women like Marie, who are living on their own.

I couldn't sleep at night,

and I began to feel really quite ill.

What do you think your lowest point in this would have been?

Well, I was standing outside,

and it was warmer outside than what it was in here.

There was no electric in here,

there was no gas system -

the cowboy builders had kicked it and immobilised it.

How appalling.

It's no wonder it affected Marie so much.

So if Marie had her time again, what would she have done differently?

I would not pay a penny until after

the job was done, because it's really...

You can check up so far,

but it's very difficult to check up

on a professional criminal like that.

Wise words, Marie, wise words.

Right, on to happier topics.

When the Cowboy Trap people turned up,

they were so wonderful.

They were hard-working

and they gave me a terrific kick-start to think.

From being in a grey world, I could see the colour coming back.

And Marie's lovely home is full of colour now too.

This really has become a dream home.

When they went, I thought,

"Well, I'll just have to carry this on in their honour."

You can't expect a little bit of work to be done,

and then sit back and

just think, "Oh, well, that's that, then."

Marie, no-one could accuse you of sitting around

and thinking, "Oh, well, that's me." Look at it!

This place is a credit to you.

Marie's got her spark back, and her home has too.

Sure, we gave her a helping hand,

but the credit for this stunning transformation

must go to Marie herself.

Good for her.

Well...

that's amazing, isn't it?

I mean, the transformation, firstly of the house -

it couldn't look more different, could it? It looked amazing.

But also the transformation in Marie herself.

She's obviously a lot happier,

she's confident,

and a lot of that IS down to the Good Guy builders.

I mean, even when she talks about the small amount of time they spent here,

she even starts welling up.

And to me, well, that just says it all.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd