Episode 2 Cowboy Trap

We're on a mission to run Britain's cowboy builders right out of town.

These unscrupulous jacks of no trades

who turn dreams to dust.

I'm sleeping in a damp, wet room.

Every month, I get a chest infection.

Bodged building work not only ruins homes, it ruins lives too.

Ohh! Look at the bottom there.

That's actually ingressed right into the actual cabinet itself.

I've rounded up the good guys to turn these shoddy specimens

into ideal homes.

Isn't it bad enough that she's in a wheelchair all the time

and she's living in a pigsty?

Take a tip from me - the next 30 minutes

could keep you out of the Cowboy Trap.

'Today, Cowboy Trap is in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan,

'less than seven miles from Cardiff.'

'Barry is a seaside town with several stunning beaches.'

'Its name derives from the Welsh for "hill", which is "barr".'

'You learn something new every day.'

'I thought it was named after Barry Manilow.'

The town played a major role

in the popular sitcom Gavin & Stacey

and Nessa worked the slots here on Barry Island.

But today's Cowboy Trap story

is as far removed from the cheery world of Gavin & Stacey

as it's possible to get.

'This is a grim tale of a cowboy builder

'whose unwitting victims have had to endure a six-year soggy saga

'in this three-bedroom semi.'

'It's home to 71-year-old Jan Newman

'and 42-year-old daughter Sally, who suffers from multiple sclerosis.'

'Up until eight years ago, Sally lived in her own flat

'and was in fine health with the world at her feet.'

Sally could cheer anybody up,

she used to go to the gym three times a week,

go walking, she had a good job,

the people just loved her.

'But one weekend in 1995, whilst on a course in Chester,

'Sally's life changed for ever.'

We were staying for three days...

..and I had the most awful,

really bad headache,

which I'd never experienced in my life.

'Sally started to shake uncontrollably

'and her vision rapidly deteriorated.'

'She went to the doctor's and, after a series of tests,

'was diagnosed with a severe form of MS.'

It's a very, very cruel... illness

and we never, for one minute,

expected, erm...

the illness to take over her life

as quickly as it has.

'It soon became impossible

'for Sally to live in her own second-floor flat,

'so she moved into her mum's house.'

'Sally's occupational therapist

'suggested she apply for a disability grant

'to continue living at home.'

'Jan proposed building an extension

'with a self-contained appartment for Sally.'

'Their application was successful

'and Sally sensed she was about to get some of her independence back.'

Having my own front door

was always,... always...

something I thought I'd never get again.

I couldn't contain myself, I was so happy,

it was really, really good.

'The council's rules required the job to be put out to tender

'and four builders applied.'

We did ask if we could employ our own builder,

but they said "No, that is not possible."

The way that it's done is through tenders.

'Jan is adamant that she was never given the chance

'to influence the choice of builder,

'but take a tip from me -

'Government guidelines on Disabled Facilities Grants

'say you can pick your builder if you want,

'though it may end up costing more.'

'Just because a builder is on a council-approved list

'doesn't necessarily mean they'll do a good job.'

'Remember, as always,

'get references and check your builder's credentials.'

'In Jan and Sally's case,

'the agent appointed to oversee the project

'chose a builder who had quoted £43,446.'

'That was to demolish the garage

'and build an extension with a bedroom, sitting room and wet room.'

'It also included fitting a new kitchen with disabled access.'

'The council grant covered £39,946 of the total.'

'The rest came from Sally's savings.'

I had... wonderful dreams for it.

I wanted the best of everything.

'Work began in October 2005.'

'Jan soon started to worry about the builder's inconsiderate attitude.'

'She needed to park close to her house to get Sally in and out,

'but the builders didn't seem to care.'

We couldn't pull our cars onto the drives

because they... all their vans and cars would be across the drive.

And then I had to move my car

and put it down the road.

Reversed back in and as I reversed back in, I crashed my car

because they had a skip there and I didn't realise.

'And if that sounds thoughtless and rude,

'you ain't heard nothing yet.'

One night, Sally and Jan became aware

of a loud noise coming from the new extension,

so they went to investigate and they were perplexed.

And fair enough - why would anybody

leave two huge fans on full blast from their mains

without them knowing about it?

'Can you imagine the impact two massive fan heaters, on all weekend,

'would have on Jan's leccy bill?'

'Ouch.'

'The builder said the project was running behind

'and the fan heaters were there to dry the wet floor screed.'

'In the end, it appears he lost patience

'and laid the lino on the wet floor.'

Lino cannot breathe

and I was thinking maybe it should have been left a bit longer,

but that never crossed my mind

that... there was water underneath.

'The builder left in March 2006

'and Jan and Sally were presented with a certificate

'from the local Building Control

'saying it had been done correctly.'

'Sally was thrilled to move into her new home,

'but it soon became apparent the apartment was riddled with damp.'

'It was so bad, Sally's clothes started to rot

'and she had to throw out her mildewed shoes.'

'Not surprisingly, her health deteriorated dramatically.'

All along the skirting boards,

there was black.

The radiator pipes were going green,

then the wardrobes, the mould in the wardrobes,

started appearing.

It was wet.

Went into a wardrobe six months down the line,

her shoes were all mouldy, green.

I'm sleeping in a damp, wet room.

Every month,

I get a chest infection.

(TEARFULLY) She's been so brave,

but it's really got to her now.

'It's now six years since the extension was built.'

'It's cold, damp and costing a fortune to heat.'

'Not surprisingly, Sally's health is suffering as a result.'

'Jan complained to the builder and he blamed the architect,

'so she called the council, who came out to inspect.'

They said, according to Jan, that it was just a condensation problem,

but the council refutes that they ever said that.

But, whoever's to blame in this case is irrelevant

because the bottom line is this -

Sally saw that extension as a lifeline

and now she's going downhill.

How dreadful.

I'm very upset - all this has been done

and things have been taken... away from me.

Isn't it bad enough that she's in a wheelchair full time?

And now she's suffering with chest infections

and she's living in a pigsty!

Just when I think I've seen it all on Cowboy Trap,

something like this comes along.

It's one of the most distressing stories we've had to deal with.

'But I'm determined to help Jan and Sally

'in any way I can.'

'Yep, the good guys are in town.'

-Ah, outwards. You must be Jan.

-How are you?

-I'm well.

-Nice to meet you.

Lovely to meet you too. I tell you what, though,

this door is actually catching on this pathway.

There's a problem straight away.

'While Jan puts the kettle on,

'I'm going to see if I can find any other problems.'

As you go around these buildings,

you always recognise certain things and features and this is one.

This is the damp course there.

Normally, the damp course is about 150 mil,

that's two courses of brick.

There it's three courses.

The eco drain's in position,

but around the corner, it goes to four courses.

Now, the higher that is,

that means that any damp ingress on those four courses

could easily get into the property.

'And that's putting it mildly.'

'I'm also unhappy about the fibreglass roof -

'it has no venting at all.'

'Without venting, you're trapping water vapour in

'and what does that lead to? You've got it - horrible humidity

'and dreadful damp.'

'Everywhere I look, there are signs of sloppiness.'

I don't like that fascia.

Look...

I don't like that at all. That is rubbish -

the way it's been cut, the way it's been trimmed - it's not clever.

This is efflorescence.

You've got the damp spores here that have got into the mortar.

You've got all this efflorescence around it,

down there in particular.

And believe it or not,

that is right below the damp-course line that's come around the back,

so there's definitely a moisture-build-up problem.

'Time to go inside.'

'I'm worried I might need a snorkel and a pair of flippers.'

'And it doesn't take long for my heart to sink.'

That timber there is soaking.

Now, you can see that with your very own eyes and so can I,

but I have a fancy little tool.

These are easy to get hold of at the DIY sheds.

You can also get them with varying degrees of read-out

of how much moisture actually is in the brickwork

or timber or whatever.

But this also gives you a variation of probe in terms of noise,

so what I'll show you is -

back of your hand, there shouldn't be any moisture, maybe a bit...

-DEVICE BUZZES

-Yeah, there's a bit in there.

The most moisture's on your palm.

-DEVICE WHINES

-So there's your higher pitch.

-Lower pitch.

-BUZZES

-Then...

-WHINES

OK, no messing now.

So we get down to the timber.

-If I press on that...

-HIGH-PITCHED WHINE

Ooh! That's high-pitched!

'That pitch is higher than the Bee Gees in a helium balloon.'

'Onto Sally's bedroom now, where she spends most of her time.'

There's almost a damp feel in here.

And it's a place where... It's a sanctuary, really.

It's her bedroom, she's got the hoist there to get her out of bed.

The humidity level is quite high,

but, from a damp point of view, you can definitely honk it.

'And close inspection of the skirting board

'yields more tell-tale signs of damp.'

These are the black damp spores.

It's obvious. I'll probe it anyway.

-DEVICE BUZZES, THEN WHINES

-Bit further on,

-it's not so obvious.

-LOWER WHINE

It's still there, damp's coming in.

And, in fact,

I wouldn't be surprised... I'm going to open the wardrobe.

Ohh! Look at the bottom there!

That's actually ingressed right into the actual cabinet itself,

into the wardrobe unit.

And you'll notice... Look at this.

These are those little... damp traps.

They're everywhere.

'Yep, moisture traps everywhere

'and clear-cut signs of a Cowboy Trap too.'

We've got plasterboard on here that's been placed on.

The one thing you're supposed to have is at least 50 mil clearance

from the floor level onto the wall,

so there's no way damp could rise through it.

You've got no chance - this is touching ground level,

so any damp that's coming through the floor

will travel up the plasterboard.

'The brickwork in this inspection hole is wet through.'

'I reckon this "builder" has got the damp-proofing all wrong.'

This is MDF, used as a skirting board.

Once that's got damp,

look...

That's just useless.

Absolutely useless.

Shoo... And if it was Smell-O-Vision... That stinks.

'Well, I've seen enough.'

'Time for a heart-to-heart with Jan and Sally about their living hell.'

What are them dark times like when you take stock

and think "there's nowhere to turn"?

Well, it's a dead end,

you can't see light at the end of the tunnel.

It got me so wound up and ill

that I was determined

that I just didn't want to be here any more.

You just didn't want to be in this room... in this area?

-No, I didn't want to live.

-She didn't want to live any more.

How do you react to that?

W... Well,...

..I could understand where she was coming from

because nobody was willing to help us.

I'd written to MPs,

erm, local council,

erm, I thought I'd gone through every single person

that I thought could help us.

Sally there, with MS,

she's ready to throw in the towel.

I'm her mother and I'm trying to battle with this every day.

And I've got nobody to turn to

and it was just...

I mean, she didn't deserve it,

why couldn't... Why couldn't they help her?

What I'm here to do now, with my team,

is to try and lift your spirit

and make you feel... happy again.

I'd like that too.

'I don't need to tell you

'this is one of our most important good-guy missions ever.'

'To make sure I haven't missed anything,

'I've asked independent surveyor Tony Owen for a second opinion.'

If we start from the ground up,

we've got a floor slab with a waterproof membrane under it,

which should tie in with the one

in the wall. That's not the case.

We've got water coming in, either below damp-proof-course level

or we've got a drain leaking in the floor screed.

What'd bother me there is, particular with water pipes,

if they haven't protected them, they will corrode.

So obviously we've got all the problems here with the floor itself,

cos the screed isn't a good finish.

No, when we took it up, it was saturated, it was like powder,

you could break it up with your hands, it's been wet for so long.

-Anything else that's not to your liking?

-Yeah, a couple of items.

The roof - they've got glass fibre on here

and the industry standard guarantee is 25, 30 years.

They've patched it up with mineral felt, which is a ten-year life span.

-It shouldn't be happening.

-In terms of your mark out of ten,

what would you give the guy that's actually done this work?

This is one of the worst - the floor, walls and roof are wrong.

There's not much left, so zero.

'Zero out of ten - I think this cowboy's lucky to get that.'

'Poor Sally's been living in a damp dump for six years

'and despite Jan's dogged determination,

'no-one's done anything about it.'

'We need those good guys in and we need them pronto.'

'And talk of the devil - here they are, led by Anthony Williams.'

'I'm glad to say Anthony is a man with a plan.'

We're going to put a new damp-proof membrane in

and we're going to tank the floor

with an apoxy damp-proof coating, so double the protection.

Then we're going to re-insulate, re-screed,

but we're going to use an SVR fibre screed,

-which will help the damp problem.

-And it's better than this.

-It'll be ten times better.

-It's poor at best.

And then we've got the problems that's arose

from not having the Visqueen in place.

Just simple things should've been put into place.

Laying the Visqueen, not just around the edges, but over the whole floor,

would've prevented these problems.

You know why these guys, cowboy builders in particular,

just do it around the perimeter?

-No.

-It's because when Building Control come in

and they can see it, looks like they've done it.

And yet really, it takes longer to actually do that

-than it does...

-Just roll it up, then you're done.

'This cowboy was cutting corners left, right and centre,

'even when it made no sense!'

'It's just bonkers!'

'But the good guys are here now - phewee!'

'So much needs doing, the Newmans are chipping in.'

'Anthony's army waste no time getting started.'

'They lift the floors, take down the walls

'and get dehumidifiers in to dry the extension.'

'Next - work on the electrics and extensive refits.'

'It's a promising start,

'but can Anthony and his compadres save the day for Jan and Sally?'

'Well, I'm pretty confident.'

I'm back in Wales, where Jan Newman hoped that a new extension

would give her daughter Sally a self-contained apartment

that she so desperately needed.

But in one of the worst cases I've ever seen in my time on Cowboy Trap,

Sally, who suffers with multiple sclerosis,

was left in a wet and soggy living hell.

'Look at the state of this.'

'Well, our good guys have now finished trying to put right

'what the cowboy builder did wrong

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

It's exciting, because I don't know what's been going on inside,

but outside, we've got the French drain in

and that's going away to a soakaway.

Ooh, and a new door!

That's definitely a new door. Let's see if it opens out properly.

Here we go.

Lovely, lovely, lovely Jan!

-How are you?

-Nice to see you again.

And you. Hey, the door opens!

Yes, it does. This is a new door.

-I could tell it was a new door.

-Fab, innit?

-Can I come in?

-Yeah, come in and have a look around.

'Sally's been living in her new apartment for a few days.'

'Before I see it, I want a chat with her and Jan about their builder.'

'I wanted to hear his side of the story

'so I could hear their responses to his version.'

'But that's proved easier said than done.'

He's failed to respond to our requests to have a chat with him

and has put the matter in the hands of the solicitors.

However, we did speak to the local council.

Now, they say that, as the council,

they didn't employ the builder.

It had no powers at all to force him to rectify the work.

The council deny that they were in any way negligent

and they refuse the allegation that council staff

suggested the damp was caused by condensation.

I remember you telling me, Jan, that they did come in

-and say it was caused by condensation.

-Yes.

We had them out on numerous occasions.

I think it was just six months down the line

when the extension was... had been built

and we noticed how cold it was

and how damp it was.

They came out, the builder came out,

and we had a... local company out as well

and, erm, the three of them together,

they just said, to us, "condensation".

They say that Building Control carried out inspections

a number of times and gave the builder guidance.

And if that advice had been followed,

the work would have complied with building regulations.

Now, I just want to ask you this -

did you get Building Control sign off?

Yes.

'Unbelievable.'

'How this damp disaster got signed off is beyond me.'

'I've seen drier swamps!'

Whatever the whys and wherefores of this case,

one thing still baffles me -

how on earth did such a catastrophe of a job

ever get a completion certificate from Building Control?

It's a question that I wanted to put to the local council.

Unfortunately, they declined our offer of an interview.

'Anyway, on a brighter note,

'Sally might have already seen most of her new apartment, but I haven't

'and I can't wait for the grand tour.'

'First up - the kitchen.'

Straight away, looking around, this sliding door,

-that's a new door.

-It is.

-It's got the kick panel on the bottom of it as well.

-Absolutely.

That is the new front door.

That works absolutely fabulous now.

The old one dropped and you had a job to sort of open it,

-whereas this one now is absolutely perfect.

-Yeah.

'And those skew-whiff kitchen units are now as straight as a die,

'painted beautifully, real quality.'

'And the tiles have been sorted too.'

'Nice one, guys.'

'No wonder Sally's chuffed.'

It is absolutely brilliant.

I've never seen Sally so... happy

since she's come back

because, erm, everything is all new,

it's made her life completely different.

-And that's what we wanted.

-Yes, absolutely.

'Excellent!'

'Next destination - the bedroom.'

'Before, you needed water wings just to stay afloat, it was so damp.'

'Now check it out.'

'And with widened doors, this place is much more accessible too.'

It's given Sally a new quality of life...

-And that is important, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Go on, you're OK.

-These doorways look much wider.

Yeah, they have widened them as much as they can.

Fab. How do you like this, then, Clive?

I am loving it. Sally, it is so Sally,

-if you don't mind me saying.

-Lovely.

'Oh, yes, new wardrobes and carpet.'

'Bye-bye, damp spots and spores.'

'Sally's health has already benefited.'

Since I have been back,

I have no longer been struggling to breathe,

I have had... no chest infections.

-What a bonus.

-What an absolute bonus that is.

'Bonus indeed,

'and finally, a surprise for Sally too.'

'She hasn't seen her new living room yet.'

'Remember, before, it looked like this.'

'Time for us both to find out what the good guys have done.'

-Look at this.

-Well, the floor... I can't believe it.

-Beautiful floor.

-Beautiful.

-Absolutely beautiful.

-Come on in.

Come on in.

Oh, my cabinet's been done.

Oh, gosh...

Oh, look at that light!

Oh, isn't that fab?!

'Looks like we have a happy customer

'and because it's now insulated, it's much cheaper to heat too.'

'Plus the drainage has been sorted outside.'

'Result!'

For five years, Sally's life was hell.

But now,... she is...

a completely different person.

To see where you are now, the pair of you,

well, my heart's singing.

-And I'm chuffed with the work.

-I am chuffed as well.

'Well, that's the perfect note to leave on.'

'The Newmans probably won't ever get anyone to take responsibility

'for the bodged build.'

'But we've got them well and truly back on track.'

That's what I'm talking about - Sally has got the home she wanted

rather than the sopping mess she'd resigned herself to before we came.

The real scandal is it took our intervention

to get this sorry saga sorted.

It's often very emotional, lifting people out of the Cowboy Trap

and I was particularly moved by this one.

But the result is the job is a good 'un, that's for sure.

And for all you cowboy builders - you carry on doing the bad work

and I'll carry on telling the world.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd