Episode 12 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.

It was so distressing and so upsetting

to have lost all that money on a building job that was never going to be right.

Whether shoddy workmanship or downright lies,

cowboy builders are unscrupulous villains

who not only destroy dreams, they wreck lives, too.

No external doors, so it was very cold when he put them on the wrong way round and they didn't shut.

-He's a builder?!

-He put them on backwards!

We've rounded up the good guys to help turn these helpless homeowners

into merry mortgagees.

Everything here looks as it should look in a finished job.

-It's nice to see there's a good end to this story.

-Yeah. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

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.

'On today's Cowboy Trap, a phoney builder whose so-called kitchen extension

'left a young family living in chaos.'

I was a little surprised he was fitting the cabinets and the sink without putting the roof on.

'And three years after we rescued them,

'we catch up with some cowboy builder victims in Devon

'to see how they're doing now.'

-Your house looks fantastic.

-We feel indebted to the good guys.

I know how bad it looked before they started.

Our first Cowboy Trap saga revolves around a home in picturesque Barrow upon Soar in the Midlands.

The village is famous for its fossils

and a scientifically important find in 1851,

when a prehistoric plesiosaur was excavated from a lime pit here.

The specimen, known locally as "The Barrow Kipper",

is now on display at a museum in Leicester.

Plesiosaurs, of course, were giant sea reptiles

that lived at the same time as dinosaurs.

I live for the day when the scourge of the cowboy builder

is consigned to history books and museums, too!

But right now, we're on the trail of a present-day reptile

who's very much alive but whose work was a dead duck.

His victims live in this four-bed semi.

It's home to 47-year-old Natalie Mackenzie

and her four children, George, Cora, Louis and Ruby.

Oh, and we mustn't forget the real bosses round here, Jifar and Sinbad.

Five years ago, Natalie's marriage broke down

and she was forced to move out of the family home.

At the time, she was devastated.

When the relationship came to an end,

I was in quite a scary place.

I hadn't been independent in any way.

I'd been at home with a young family

and it was a little like jumping off a cliff.

These were tough times for Natalie.

As well as coping with the heartbreak of divorce,

she found herself facing life on her own with four children under 12 to support.

Her husband had always been the breadwinner,

so now, in addition to finding a new home,

she had to find work, too.

Natalie's always had a passion for cooking,

so she got a part-time job in a local cafe.

When it came to finding a new home,

she wanted somewhere nearby

to minimise disruption for her children.

So she was delighted when a small but pretty 18th-century semi

came on the market, just 50 yards from her old home.

The house was perfect, bar one thing.

The previous owner was elderly and hadn't touched it for years,

so there was an enormous amount of work to be done.

But Natalie went into it with her eyes open

and what she could see was the potential of the place.

It needed complete renovation, it needed gutting, rewiring, replastering.

It had been covered up, and things were hidden,

but it had great potential.

Natalie moved in, intending to live in just a few of the rooms

while she refurbished the others as quickly as her small budget would allow.

They made do like this for a couple of years, but there was one thing there was no getting away from.

The busy mum with a passion for cooking and a family to feed

desperately needed a proper kitchen.

Natalie decided the answer was to build an extension to make space for a kitchen diner.

A friend recommended an architect, and she had him draw up plans.

Natalie applied to extend her mortgage and got a green light.

Now all she needed was a builder.

And her architect said he knew just the man.

He said that it was well within his capabilities.

He could do a really good job. And he seemed very honest.

You might think the thumbs up from an architect

means you're on to a safe bet.

But you'd be wrong. And we see it time and time again on Cowboy Trap.

This sort of thing is no more reliable than a word of mouth recommendation

to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.

Natalie's builder quoted £8,000 for the extension

and a further £2,000 for the new kitchen and drainage,

coming to a grand total of £10,000.

He wanted a hefty down-payment in cash

which Natalie duly handed over.

The builder promised the job would be completed in six weeks and work commenced.

But his idea of a working day was a bit - how can I put it? - unconventional.

He never came before ten o'clock.

And he always left around half past one or two o'clock.

So he was never available to speak to.

It was quite difficult to communicate with him

because he worked quite a short day and I was working.

A three-and-a-half-hour day?!

That's not short, it's miniscule!

The builder put it down to problems at home.

Hmm. I've heard that one before.

He always had a major trauma with one of his stepchildren

or something was always going wrong,

why he couldn't be here, or why he had to leave early

or why he was on his own.

I began to suspect things weren't quite as he said.

Take my advice.

The builder may have been poor at time-keeping,

but he was great at asking for cash.

Soon another £3,000 had changed hands for supplies and works.

Talking of which, Natalie was worried about the order in which works were being carried out.

We didn't have a roof on the utility room.

He explained to me that the roof and the doors were to be put on later.

He was doing the internal wall for the loo

and the tiling and the sink and fitting some of the cabinets.

I was a little surprised he was fitting the cabinets and the sink without putting the roof on!

Not kidding!

Without the roof on, there was no protection for the fittings or the electrics underneath.

Madness!

And there was another worry.

As the build progressed, it became apparent that the builder wasn't following the architect's designs.

He didn't put in the window that was supposed to be on the drawings.

He had a reason. Everything had a reason why he couldn't do that.

Oh, the drawings were a bit wrong, or he couldn't do that because of this.

I did get a bit concerned at that stage that he wasn't doing exactly what had been requested.

Things came to a head in November,

a full five months after this so-called six week job got underway,

when the cowboy had a row with the building control inspector.

Shortly afterwards, he simply vanished.

Natalie could forget about the family Christmas she'd planned with a turkey cooked in her new kitchen.

Because despite call after call,

this so-called tradesman never got back to her.

Natalie's dreams were in tatters.

She can't believe the shocking state her home's been left in.

The roof leaks in five places.

The bathroom window doesn't exist.

The doors don't close.

The bubble wrap is unattractive, which is stuffed between the door and the feature wall

which was supposed to be a feature with a lovely old granite wall,

but it's just been left.

And that's not all.

The plasterwork is pathetic,

the tiling terrible

and the rendering risible.

Not surprisingly, Natalie is devastated.

She doesn't know where she'd be without her kids to take her mind off it.

They have tried to jolly me along and cheer me up

when it's got to me, and got me down,

and the rain's coming through the roof.

They have made an effort to make me feel better about the whole thing.

You know, bricks and mortar might sound a bit humdrum,

but they're the foundations of many a dream come true.

That's why it's so upsetting when you see those dreams

dashed by these rank amateurs and charlatans.

And one thing these charlatans are good at is covering their tracks.

It's often the case on Cowboy Trap that on the surface,

things don't look too bad.

But on closer inspection... Oh, dear!

That's why we asked independent building surveyor Paul Brown

to inspect the work at the Mackenzies'.

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

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

First item on the agenda, the architrave on the extension's internal door.

And Paul doesn't mince his words.

It's terrible, and it shows that the person who did this

didn't have the requisite trade skills to be doing what they're attempting to do.

And it's a very amateurish attempt

that most people would do better. It's quite poor.

A DIY-er would be gutted if they'd done this.

I can't tell what's filler and what's glue.

It's a mess, isn't it?

It doesn't line up. There are steps. It shows no finesse, no quality.

And below what is the reasonable expectation

of almost anybody who is purchasing, and that's the key thing here.

They've paid for building work to be carried out.

You expect it at a reasonable standard. And this just isn't that, is it?

And things aren't getting any better at ground level.

That skirting isn't sitting in the right place

and there are joints that aren't joined at all.

What a mess!

And when you look up, things...don't look up.

This damp, this is something to do with the flat roof, is it?

This is all to do with the roof

and this is the real major problem that this person has created.

They've started a job without the technical know-how

to fit a roof at the correct pitch.

The pitch of a roof is so key.

The materials you put on a roof will only work above a certain pitch.

This was on at about eight degrees.

That's technically a flat roof, so only certain materials can be used on it.

Now, there were tiles on this roof.

At that pitch, those tiles aren't shedding water as they should do.

Those tiles are made of concrete.

Not clever on what is practically a flat roof

because the gradient is so shallow.

Everywhere you look, there are potential causes of damp issues underneath.

The roof window they put in shouldn't be at that pitch.

It should have a minimum pitch of 15 degrees for all the flashing to work

so none of the waterproofing, including the lead flashings,

tiles, the roof window, again, are going to achieve what they should do, which is keep water out.

'Right. Into the utility room.

'Perhaps things are better in there.

'Well, what do you think?'

That looks abysmal.

Those tiles, it's...

They're going to be ruining that work surface as well.

But they look like they've been thrown on!

Very, very poor workmanship in terms of the way the tiles sit relative to one another.

They should be neat. They should have even joints which are grouted in.

It should look pristine. It's virtually new.

And the other problem we have

is we have electrical items which are relatively close to the sink.

Most builders will employ a competent electrician to do their work.

Electricians don't do this sort of thing.

This is alarming. Why have we got electrical items next to a sink?

Did that mean the builder didn't employ somebody who was competent? It's a safety issue.

'Plugs close to the sink?

'As my favourite James Bond, Sean Connery, would say,

'"That's shocking!"

'And the electrics aren't just at risk from tap water.

'Rainwater's bound to get in under the bottom sill of those external doors.

'And they're single rather than double glazed.

'That contravenes building regs as well as being draughty.'

This looks like a sinking ship!

Yes. It will just allow possibly even vermin and insects,

everything that comes around that door, ants, that sort of thing,

but most important probably water.

And that, in the long term, will cause the bottom of the door to decay.

It'll probably affect the adhesion on the tiles around the door.

It's going to fail and start to look shabby very quickly

which you can see in the photo.

'And the builder didn't put a damp proof course in.

'Natalie's going to need flippers and a snorkel at this rate!

'It's as clear as day.

'Bodge, bodge, bodge.

'And the garden path was supposed to be done, but the builder never got round to finishing it.

'Tripping hazards with kids around? Not good.

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

Someone has left a lady bringing up four children on her own in this house, in this state.

But in your professional opinion,

what would you give this builder out of ten?

I could only suggest that this is a one.

He arrived and the fact he was present for part of this work,

I'll give him one for that.

But other than that, the work itself, appalling.

It breaches every standard virtually going. So nothing beyond that.

The message to him is, "Give up your day job."

I think this isn't his day job. He should go back to what he was doing before.

'Hmm. I wonder what that was!

'Herding cattle in a Stetson and stirrups, perchance?

'Because there can be little doubt this guy's a cowboy.

'Check out the evidence.

'A wonky architrave, shambolic skirting,

'pitiful plastering, terrible tiling

'and poorly placed plugs.

'And let's not forget those dreadful doors,

'the risible rendering, the precarious path

'and that rubbish roof!'

'Having this guy in charge of a build is like having Count Dracula in charge of a blood bank.

'Bad news.'

In short, we're talking a building horror story

with only one chance of a happy ending.

Time to bring in our good guys.

And here's our head good guy honcho, the exotically named Konrad Skubala.

If anyone can sort all this out, Konrad can.

So much needs doing, Natalie is chipping in.

No hanging about. The Skubala squad swings into action.

They terminate the old tiles,

and do away with the dodgy window.

Then they cut the timber frames...

..and place the new plywood in position.

It's a great start. But can Konrad get Natalie's dreams back on track?

Only time will tell.

I'm in the Midlands, in the pretty village of Barrow upon Soar,

where busy mum Natalie Mackenzie

hoped that by building an extension,

she'd finally get the kitchen diner her family badly needed.

But her dreams turned to dust

when she hired a builder who didn't know what he was doing

and who, eventually, just vanished.

Now, instead of a disappearing trick,

with a bit of luck, our good guys have worked a different kind of magic.

Let's see how she's getting on.

-Hi, Natalie.

-Yes, that's right.

-I'm Jonnie.

-Hello, Jonnie.

-You're smiling!

-Yes, I am!

-Good news, good times?

-Yes, very good.

-Can we have a look?

-Come on in.

-Hello, cat!

'It's "Hello, cat", but is it "Goodbye flawed extension?"

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

'Remember, before, the interior was a cornucopia of catastrophe.

'Check it out now!

'And our good guys were faced with a woeful exterior

'and rank awful roof.

'Now, it's a whole new ball game.

'Before I take a closer look at the good guys' efforts,

'I want to ask Natalie how she got caught in the cowboy trap in the first place.'

When did you realise things were going wrong?

The first issues, I think, would have been in the utility area.

They were problems which seemed to escalate.

And he had a reason or an excuse every time

and I started to get a bit niggly.

He didn't put any roof on, nothing was waterproofed,

nothing was covered.

-What time of year was this?

-It was getting into autumn and it was getting late.

It was getting wet. I had exposed electrics. I was concerned about that.

He assured me that wasn't a problem.

But I was concerned and the time schedule was lapsing and lapsing and lapsing.

You've got winter fast approaching. This is a concern.

Yes. And no external doors.

So it was very cold. He told me that they would be fitted

and unfortunately he put them on the wrong way round

-and they didn't shut.

-He put them...

-Yeah.

-He's a builder!

-I know. He put them on backwards.

'He put the doors on backwards?!

'Door-fitting clearly wasn't part of his builder's skill set.

'Maybe he should have opted for a career in escapology instead!'

In early December, he told me he'd got a much bigger job on

and he was travelling to this job and it was a huge deal for him.

I accepted that and said, "As and when you can, please come back

"and give me half a day or a day to do the final bits and pieces."

He absolutely assured me that that would be the case. He would do that.

And he never did.

You've been very understanding here. Do you think you were a bit soft with him?

Yeah, I think I was very soft with him.

I think that was probably a big, big mistake.

'And an expensive mistake it was, too.

'By this point, the cowboy builder had taken Natalie for £10,000.'

He'd had the money. I couldn't afford then, on the loan I'd taken out,

to get anybody else in.

-Did you try and get him back?

-Yeah, I did.

Even though I was uncomfortable with that,

-I didn't think he was coming back.

-It's a rock and a hard place.

-You want him back, but you're uncomfortable.

-I knew he wasn't coming back. In my heart, I knew.

He had no intentions. You could see that.

-So he spent all your money.

-Uh-huh.

Left you with a...

Well, we can't call it an unfinished job. A botched job that hasn't been finished.

It's almost a blessing he didn't finish the job because there'd be more botching done!

But you must have... You'd been through a divorce, yourself,

-raising four children on your own.

-Mm-hmm.

You must have been at the end of your tether!

It was so distressing and so upsetting

to have lost all that money on a building job that was never going to be right.

I was never going to be able to afford to repair it.

It leaked everywhere, the plaster was falling off, it was a disaster zone.

'Disaster Zone with a capital D and a capital Z, too.

Looking better now, though,

and the other good news is that despite the trauma of her encounter with a cowboy builder,

Natalie is wiser for the experience.

I should have done more research.

I should have been more careful. I shouldn't have accepted these excuses,

I shouldn't have believed the stories.

I should have stopped him earlier.

I shouldn't have let him continue.

When the warning bells were ringing, I should have done something sooner, basically.

Yep, listen to those warning bells, my friends,

they could save you lots of money.

Right. Time for me to take a closer look at the good guys' handiwork.

Well, the door's not sticking, which it must have done before.

The architraving, it looks perfect.

Not a word I've used before.

Everything here looks as it should look

in a finished job.

This gap is uniform all the way down the reveals of this door.

It looks fantastic.

And the whole place feels good.

Let's think about the problems that were here before.

Remember the skirting board? It was a joke, as much as anything else.

I can't see a join, which is how it should be.

This skirting board here looks absolutely fantastic.

The walls. It's been plastered, finished. Look at the coats here.

People are using this

as part of their home.

It feels warmer. It feels like a space you'd want to use.

Now, here we go.

Here, if you remember,

there was - I don't think "dodgy tiling" does that awful job justice.

Here, you've got something that marries up with the worktop.

They've done very well. It's not botched. It looks like a finished product.

But all this was in danger of being flooded out if the roof collapsed

which, in time, it probably would have done.

But look what we've got here.

'A water-tight roof at last.

'The wet stuff is no longer penetrating.

'The evidence is clear to see.'

Consider what was here before.

There was damp all the way across the corners of the ceiling.

Now, the walls are dry, it's finished.

It's a top job.

'Top job inside. Right, onto the exterior.

'Remember the back-to-front single-glazed external doors the cowboy left behind?

'The good guys' doors are spot on.'

Well, they feel solid, they look solid.

And most importantly...

..they're double-glazed and comply with building regulations,

which, let's face it, is to look after the people who have the projects done.

This, not only does it look solid,

it's going to save heating bills in future.

And they've got draught excluders here. It looks the part.

And the smart fascia and new gutters the good guys installed are perfect.

'Let's get a better view of the roof.'

Funny, isn't it? Beforehand, there were concrete tiles on that roof.

But the concrete tiles were ones you'd put on a pitched roof.

But it's almost a flat-roof gradient on there.

Now, the builders we've had in, the good guys,

they've seen what needs to be done.

The slope of the roof is basically a flat roof,

so they've put a flat roof covering on it. Makes perfect sense.

Looks like they've also done something clever with the skylight.

I'm chuffed to bits. It looks great, doesn't it?

'And the man responsible has popped back to give me the inside track

'on the challenges he faced.'

Straightaway, you've made a decision that an experienced builder makes.

I can see a stack of concrete tiles over there.

And you thought, "We've essentially got a flat roof. Let's put a flat roof covering on it."

Exactly. When we'd stripped it off and got to where the water had collected on the felt,

there was a sink's worth of water we had to take out.

The felt is semi-permeable,

so it will leak if water's sitting on it. It's not designed for water to sit.

Hence the reason we had all the damp issues inside.

-That was a bigger problem waiting to happen.

-Exactly. Massive.

'Inside, Konrad and his team had a lot of making good to do.

'And what a great job they did.'

There were a lot of damp issues on each part of the ceiling.

We had to dig all that out and then replace and put back.

Re-done this door. Re-hung it.

It wasn't a working door. It had a big hole in the bottom

where they just cut a hole to let the cats in and out!

-What?!

-Exactly.

I shouldn't laugh, sorry. But what?!

Some strange ideas from people. Obviously all the woodwork, redecorated everywhere.

You've got almost a farmhouse feel.

-This suits what she's trying to replicate throughout the kitchen.

-Exactly.

'Yes, very tasteful.

'Before Natalie reveals what she thinks to her new utility room,

'there's a sensitive issue to discuss.

'Her cowboy builder's version of events.

'Or, to be more precise, his lawyer's.

'I kid you not.'

Now, we always give our builders the right to reply.

Your builder has declined the opportunity to give his side of the story.

-Right.

-Now, through his solicitor,

he did say he "didn't intend to waste any more time and effort on this matter."

-They were his words from his solicitor.

-OK.

How does that make you feel?

That's the strangest response.

"He didn't want..." Could you repeat that?

He said he "Did not intend to waste any more time and effort on this matter."

That's unbelievable.

That's unbelievable!

-Almost blase, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It is. It's very cold and, um, it's shocking, really.

-I think. That's quite a shocking thing to say.

-Yeah.

His solicitor also went on to say

that you "have clearly given us an inaccurate account

"of both the money and the work done."

Well, you've seen the work done

-and you can judge that for yourselves.

-Yep.

The money was exactly that.

-That was the loan.

-Yes.

-You spent the loan that you got.

-Yes.

You've been throughout this process pretty understanding.

You cut this guy some slack.

He had "trouble at home" apparently.

You let him come in after half nine and leave after lunch.

Now, knowing that he's said he doesn't want to spend any more time on this, or effort...

How does that make you feel about how much slack you cut him?

It makes me feel a bit foolish, really, to be perfectly honest.

Because I was very understanding.

And also very gullible.

Really, at the end of the day, very gullible.

But that's when you start taking the blame yourself

-when it's someone else that's ripped you off.

-Mm.

I should have seen it coming, I think.

I should have been more aware.

'Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

'But whatever the why's and wherefore's,

'one thing is for sure.

'The good guys have totally transformed this place.

'It's time for Natalie to tell me how she feels about her new kitchen extension.'

-So now we're all finished.

-Yep.

Look at it. It's...

-It's good, isn't it?

-Yes, it's all done.

This is basically your main entrance to the house, in and out, isn't it?

It is. And the animals, the dog going in and out.

And the kids coming in from school. Yes, it is.

So walking through here before,

you must have been constantly reminded of the disaster.

Absolutely. There were doors that didn't shut,

it was just, oh, just a mess, a nightmare.

-So now we're looking at straight lines.

-Yes.

-There's nothing sticking out.

Your skirting board was sticking out, your architrave was falling off.

And an external door that I can shut properly without having to wrench the key

and support it. It's brilliant. It all works, and it's how it should have been.

You look relieved and happy at the moment.

Absolutely. It was a lot of money at the time

and it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

I was only ever going to be able to do it once.

And I was hoping for this!

'Natalie's hopes have now been realised.

'Better late than never.

'What does she think to the exterior?'

-It looks very different!

-Yes, it does. It does look very different.

And the skylight is the correct skylight.

It's the correct roof covering for the fall of the roof.

The correct skylight and the kind of roof covering.

It's just what a competent good builder would do, isn't it.

It's what should have been put in place initially.

So now it's done.

-Are you sleeping at night?

-Yeah!

-Yes!

-You're grinning. You're smiling.

Definitely.

-It's nice to see that there's a good end to this story.

-Yes. It's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

'From bad guy building bodge

'to good guy building brilliance.

'What a great note to end on!

'Time to leave Natalie and the children

'to enjoy their new super-smart, highly-tasteful, damp-free home!'

Our next Cowboy Trap saga

revolves around a couple we first met three years ago.

Like Natalie's, this story features a cowboy builder

who built an execrable excuse of an extension.

His unwitting victims, Rachel Ballamy and her husband, Simon,

live in Newton Abbot in Devon with their boisterous pooches, Alfie and Molly.

In 2010, the Ballamys moved in to a new house

and were looking forward to putting their own stamp on it.

It had a really lovely sized garden. You could see a potential

in what the garden could look like.

And then a potential with the house.

To make it into a lovely home.

It had stayed in the same family.

In the same family, I believe, since when it was built.

Passed through the generations.

You could feel that.

Rachel and Simon believed they'd found their ideal home.

One they knew right away they could transform into the perfect house for them.

When I say transform, I don't mean a lick of paint here and there.

The couple had big plans for the place.

Rachel and Simon wanted to extend the bungalow

from a two-bedroom to a four-bedroom home

with two extra bathrooms, a kitchen and a utility room.

And that's not all. Their plans also included a huge decking area

across the back of the house.

This project meant a lot to the couple.

Rachel wasn't able to have children, following an operation eight years previously.

She and Simon were hoping to foster instead.

They thought a large family home and play area

would help with their application.

The lady came round and said, "Yes, you're perfect candidates.

"As soon as you get your house built,

"the red tape will be done and you can have some foster children."

Rachel and Simon found a builder

who said he'd do the job at a discounted price of £50,000.

They gave him the green light

but things didn't get off to a good start.

There was a catch. The builder didn't actually do much building.

All he seemed to do was demolish.

Knocking down walls, that's easy.

They got a jack hammer in, there was dust flying everywhere,

all the ceilings were coming down.

Windows were being pushed out.

That was great. They were having a whale of a time!

But nothing was being put back in.

The walls came down, the floors came up

and the roof came off.

But after that, there was little sign of progress.

The build may have been on a go-slow

but the builder was quick to reassure his worried clients.

He'd have the conversations and have the chat with us.

He would make it sound very good. He was very much a charmer, from that point of view.

And he made it very believable what was going to happen, what is happening.

And every time we did have a good chat with him,

things would happen for a week or so.

All of a sudden, your confidence was back. Things started to happen.

And then it would just lapse again.

Even though Rachel and Simon weren't happy with the work,

they were still handing over money left, right and centre.

That's because of the terms of the contract they'd agreed with the builder

at the start of the project.

Rachel and Simon did at least have a proper contract with their builder.

But it was absurdly in his favour.

He received £10,000 just to start the job,

then another £5,000 every two weeks throughout the build

no matter how much work he'd done.

Of course, as you've already guessed,

if this guy had been going any slower, he'd have been going in reverse!

Do I not like the sound of that contract! Take my advice.

But only if you're 100% happy with the final product.

And the Ballamys couldn't see a final product happening any time soon.

The builder kept sending young, unskilled labourers to do the job.

Except they clearly couldn't.

They didn't seem to know what they were doing.

It was taking three of them to do a single job.

They also never had any materials.

It was a case of thinking, "What are they going to do?",

because there was nothing there for them to use.

Not surprisingly, the couple decided they needed to take their minds off their flaming building project.

For three years, Rachel and Simon had been planning a tenth anniversary second honeymoon

to Florida and Jamaica to renew their wedding vows.

So now the builder made a promise of his own.

Whilst they were away for a month,

he would completely transform the project.

Of course he would(!)

Course he wouldn't.

The Ballamys couldn't believe their eyes when they returned from their hols.

We walked in. There were still no floors going towards the bathroom.

Some of the walls had been plastered.

He'd ripped one floor up that we'd agreed not to. That was to stay as it was.

The kitchen, I walked straight into the kitchen,

and I went into a state of almost shock.

Straightaway I said to Simon, the kitchen won't fit in. The door's in the wrong place.

By this point, Rachel and Simon had spent £41,000.

And because of the bungling builder's bodges,

they had no hot water, no electricity,

a rubbish roof, a flawed floor,

a kaput kitchen

and no outside deck.

And guess what? No builder, either.

He'd walked off the job.

Rachel and Simon's hopes of becoming foster parents had been dashed

by a builder who promised them a discount extension,

but delivered them a demolition job.

Instead of a safe haven for foster children,

the couple were left with a dangerous building site.

But the Ballamys weren't going to let their dream be demolished.

They hired new builders to make the inside of the house safe.

And our good guys swung into action outside.

Head honcho Matt Walker and his team

set about their task with relish.

It was out with the spades, saws and drills.

And soon the transformation was complete.

What was a rubble-strewn danger zone

became a tranquil oasis of calm.

The decking was beautifully clad in feather-edged timber

with handrails and steps to comply with building regulations.

The change from what the cowboy left behind was striking.

But with their dream back on track,

it's now over to them.

The cowboy's bodge was history.

But there was still much to do to create their perfect home.

Would Rachel and Simon finish the job?

Only time would tell.

It's been almost three years since we helped get Rachel and Simon's plans back on track.

When we left them, they were a step closer to achieving their dream of becoming foster parents.

Let's see how they're getting on.

Hopefully our good guys spurred them on to even greater things in their home.

-Hello, Rachel. How are you? Simon?

-How are you.

-Good to see you.

-You, too.

-New door?

-Yeah, we needed one.

-Yeah? It looks fantastic.

I guess our fellas revived the Ballamys' belief in builders.

Soon after they left, Simon and Rachel had a new drive laid.

And that was just the start.

Once they'd done the drive, it incentivised us to do this bit

because it was sort of different.

So what we did is, we had sleepers around before because it was makeshift.

So we've used then and now created a nice level garden in the front.

'Time to look around the back.

'Remember how the cowboy left it?

'The good guys helped bring it back to life.

'And now the Ballamys have added their personal touches. Great to see.'

-Who put these slabs down, then?

-I have to say that was Rachel.

-She did all of that.

-Been getting hands on?

I enjoy being out in the garden.

I have to say this is lovely now.

You can see why the garden's so important to you. It's beautiful.

It's greatly improved, without a doubt.

'On to our good guys' piece de resistance, the decking.

'I'm not surprised the Ballamys love to show it off.'

It's fabulous for entertaining, cos it links the three rooms.

We've had nearly 30 people on here in an evening,

with the fire pit going, and the day's heat just glowing on through to the evening.

It's very, very sociable.

'I'm not surprised the Ballamys are in the mood for throwing parties.

'The transformation from before...

'to after is striking.'

Your house looks fantastic.

We're pleased with it.

I know it's a credit to the good guys, but it's a credit to you as well.

It's lovely. Well done.

-We feel indebted, actually, to the good guys.

-Yeah.

We work out here because we love it,

but I know how hard they worked putting all this in.

I know how bad it looked before they started.

To let it go to rack and ruin would be a discredit to them and everyone that worked on it.

It was a big pick-me-up.

'Right. Let's look inside.

'Rachel and Simon used this splendid spare room to host lodgers from all around the world.

'International students coming to study English at the local college

'love staying here. I'm not surprised.'

-Students have this room.

-Yes.

-It's nicer than my hotel room!

When I was a student, I won't tell you the sort of accommodation I lived in,

but it wasn't anything like this. Amazing.

Well, we took a lot of time and effort.

'Crikey, with accommodation like this, I'm surprised the students ever want to go home!

'The transformation is astonishing.

'Remember what this place looked like after the cowboy builder left them in the lurch?

'When our good guys rode to the rescue,

'the outlook improved massively.

'Garden and decking transformed.

'But there was only so much our fellas could do

'and it looks like the Ballamys have finished the job with aplomb.

'Outside and in.

'Nice one.

'Time for a heart-to-heart with Simon and Rachel.

'As you might have guessed, they never realised their dream of becoming foster parents.

'And they're in no doubt who's to blame for that.

'The emotional impact of having cowboys in the house took its toll

'much more than they expected.'

We're really still very upset

because all the plans which we'd put in originally

for the adoption and the child side of things

that's gone now.

It's wiped four years of our life away

plus that chance

to do what we wanted to regarding this house.

You're saying the cowboy builders have influenced you so much

that you've given up on that dream of adoption?

Yes, because we couldn't put ourselves through another emotional upheaval

and the whole fostering and adoption process, emotionally is so difficult

that we would just, you know, you know in yourselves what you can and can't take.

And I think the building side of it just pushed us to a limit.

It was emotionally and financially.

We wanted to make sure we were financially stable to look after a child

and we still haven't got to that point yet.

It's so sad that the trauma of being caught out by a cowboy builder

wrecked the Ballamys' fostering dreams.

But by opening up their home to foreign students,

they've ensured there will never be a shortage of youngsters around to appreciate their transformed home.

And that's not the only positive.

The lessons Rachel and Simon had learnt

were well used when it came to contracting builders to do the drive.

We made sure that everything was written down

and the drawings were done so we knew exactly what was going on.

There weren't going to be any extras, no corners cut,

it was a case of we know what you're going to do and we'll pay you for the job you've done.

That's the perfect strategy.

Payment for results tends to focus any builder's attention.

Lastly, where do you think you would be

if the good guys and Cowboy Trap hadn't come to the rescue?

We were pretty much broken when Cowboy Trap came originally.

And I don't know where we would be if they hadn't.

Well, enjoy your house, your home.

-And good luck for the future.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

'And what a transformed home it is

'for the Ballamys and their guests from all over the world to enjoy.

'Lucky things! When I was a student, I lived in a shoebox at the end of the motorway!

'Listen to me going all Monty Python!

'Time for me to leave them all to it, eh?'

Well, what a lovely couple. What a lovely house!

It's great to see how a leg up at the right time

has given them the confidence to finally complete

their huge plans for this place.

Of course, it's a real shame they've had to give up on their dreams of becoming foster parents.

But they've managed to find other ways of making this a real family home from home.

You know what? No cowboy builder can take that away from them.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd