Episode 20 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.

I'm thinking possibly that my little boy and my little girl

are going to have to come in our bedroom

in case the steel collapses and it bends,

cos my little boy's room's right above that.

Whether shoddy workmanship or downright lies,

cowboy builders are unscrupulous villains

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

He admitted he'd messed up, and shouldn't have put his trust

in the tradesmen he'd subcontracted to do the job properly.

-You're all right now, babe.

-SHE SOBS

They finally admit to it now!

We've got the good guys in our party to help turn these houses from hell

into heavenly homes.

Our good guys were supposed to make this place safe,

but looks like they've done a whole lot more than that.

Is this what you thought it would look like?

Yeah. Better than what we thought it would look like, yeah.

-Really?

-Yeah.

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.

On today's Cowboy Trap,

a family who fell victim to not one but two cowboy builders.

And their ill-fated extension

that we discover might have to be pulled down.

I basically touched the wall with no pressure at all,

just a tiny little bit, and the whole wall was wobbling away.

It hadn't been, er... It hadn't been joined up at all.

And we're in Wales to revisit two former soldiers and their family

who we rescued from the cowboy trap, to see how they're doing now.

-You both seem proud of this house.

-Yeah. Very much.

-Definitely.

It's exactly what we wanted for 20 years.

You know, we were... This was... This was the end goal.

Our first Cowboy Trap saga revolves around a home

in Birkenhead, Merseyside, an area famous for shipbuilding,

and, of course, a destination for the famous ferry across the Mersey.

Believe it or not, the Mersey's considered sacred to British Hindus,

who worship it in a similar way to the River Ganges.

So I suppose that goes to prove that appearances can be deceptive -

a lesson that would have saved a young couple here

from the heartache of hiring a cowboy builder.

The unlucky victims of this cowboy trap

live in a two-bed semi.

It's home to Amanda Bowen, her partner Chris Ascroft

and their young children, Aidan and Pippa.

Amanda, who's a care assistant, and Chris, who's a delivery driver,

met in a nightclub six years ago.

It was definitely love at first sight!

I fell in love with his spiky hair. SHE LAUGHS

She did play a bit hard to get, really.

She just, er... You know, it was one of them.

You had to put a bit of charming in. Took her on a few dates,

and once I'd done all that, it was all right, really.

It was so "all right", Amanda and Chris decided to live together

and start a family. First Aidan came along, then Pippa.

But Pippa's birth was far from straightforward.

She was born breech.

In intensive care for two weeks before Christmas.

Um, she was on a ventilator for the first 24 hours of her life.

They were not sure whether she was brain-damaged.

We had to wait for tests,

and got to bring her home two days before Christmas.

Thankfully, Pippa arrived home with a clean bill of health,

and now it seemed the perfect time to give the go-ahead to extending their home.

When Amanda and Chris first bought their house,

they did it with a view to doing it up and selling it on.

But as their children came along, they realised they already had their ideal family home.

It just needed to be a bit bigger. Amanda loves cooking,

and felt the kitchen was too small,

so she and Chris wanted a wall taken down to make it more open plan,

and create a dining room where their old conservatory was.

The dream for this house was a big kitchen, open-plan kitchen,

an extension on the side for a dining room

so we could have our tea in there,

and hopefully to build up again on the side of the house,

to make extra rooms.

Amanda and Chris just wanted the shell of the kitchen

and dining-room extension doing,

and would fit both out when they'd saved up enough money.

We can still use it as a functional room.

It just would've been a matter of finishing it off ourselves,

just painting and getting it rendered outside.

The couple found their builder on one of those websites

where you get to rate the tradesman you use,

and in April 2012, he came round to discuss the project.

His initial quote was £14,000.

This included removing the old conservatory.

But when Amanda and Chris explained they only had £10,000 to spend,

he reduced his quote to that, saying he could do it on the cheap.

Take a tip from me.

..and run for the hills.

Amanda and Chris gave the builder the green light.

However, they didn't ask for any references,

there was no contract in place,

and they agreed to pay £5,000 upfront.

What on earth were they thinking?

Not surprisingly, it didn't take long

for things to start going wrong - well, two days, in fact.

He come down, took half my conservatory down,

and just basic dumped all the wood on the patio.

He started building up the walls, and I come home from work

and I basically touched the wall with no pressure at all,

just a tiny little bit, and the whole wall was wobbling away.

It hadn't been, er... It hadn't been joined up at all,

you know, to the original house.

There were no wall ties - a schoolboy error.

The construction was totally unsafe.

Chris phoned the builder up to demand the £5,000 back.

With having kids, if that fell down,

then, you know, it could've been the death of my child or something.

He actually come round with the money and threw it in the porch,

and then drove off.

And he'd only returned £3,500,

so Amanda and Chris had paid £1,500,

and all they got was a wobbly wall.

They set about tracking down other builders to put things right,

and eventually found a building firm they liked.

And the boss of this company certainly said all the right things.

He said that he couldn't believe another builder could do that to us,

knowing that we've got kids and one's been ill in hospital,

and just the fact that, you know,

what state he left it in, and it being unsafe,

and he even promised me, with him being a family man himself,

that, you know, he'd put us right.

These builders might have been charming,

but after what the couple had just been through,

they made exhaustive checks on the new guys, right?

Wrong!

Again, they didn't ask for any references.

I've got a bad feeling about this!

Chris told this builder they only had £8,000 left.

He said he could do their extension for that,

as long as they paid him cash.

Now I've got a REALLY bad feeling about this.

He wanted money for the materials first,

which we handed over,

and then each week he wanted payment of 2,000.

Chris and Amanda agreed, and work began in June 2012.

Well, when I say work,

it wasn't so much a working day these builders were into -

more like a working moment.

When they were turning up late and leaving early,

and no materials were coming...

They were just using what the other guy already bought in.

They were using his skip, they was using his cement,

you know - just anything to not spend any money.

Talking of money, these fellas were prompt

when it came to demanding their £2,000 every Friday.

Funny, that! Amanda and Chris were obliged to pay it

because of the original agreement with the builder,

even though the work itself was proceeding at a snail's pace.

Take my advice. Before you green-light any building work...

That will focus the builder's attention, I can tell you!

Amanda and Chris started to spot that the little work being done

was - how can I put this? - really shoddy.

The window the builders fitted was too small for the hole they had created.

There was an ugly gas pipe left exposed in the middle of the kitchen.

The bottom of the patio doors was so high,

the children kept tripping over it, and the roof was a total mess.

He didn't even have anything on it. It was just breathable material

with batons over the joist,

and just left it where you could see daylight coming through.

But a leaking roof might be the least of their problems.

Amanda and Chris feared the extension could collapse

like a pack of cards at any moment.

The wall was cracking where the stair was on top.

They'd put the wall on top of a piece of wood on the floorboards.

The builder then waited for Chris to go to work,

announced he'd finished the job,

and demanded the rest of his money from Amanda.

He got threatening with her then, saying, "Hand over the money."

"We want our final wage. If we don't get it,

then, I'm going to basically knock your boyfriend out

and put him in a bad way." So she just felt scared,

and the fact that the kids were in the house,

she just thought, "Pay him. Get him out the way."

So the builder got his cash, but Amanda and Chris didn't get their dream extension.

And as for the work in the kitchen, there were increasingly worrying signs

that the steel support the builder put in

wasn't strong enough to support the rooms above.

The bathroom is starting to crack.

There's a crack right through the socket in my little boy's room.

I'm thinking possibly that my little boy and my little girl

are going to have to come in our bedroom with me and my partner

in case the steel collapses and it bends,

cos my little boy's room's right above that.

Chris and Amanda were left with a wreck on their hands,

and no means of sorting things out.

But, as with so many cowboy-builder stories,

the saddest thing about this one is the devastating effect

the experience has had on the couple's relationship.

Me and Chris are in a really dark time at the moment,

where it's caused arguments,

um, on the verge of splitting up.

I've packed my bags, um, basically ready to go and leave,

and, you know, with no actual clue where I was going to go,

but just the fact that I just felt like I had no other choice.

You kind of have to keep going for the sake of your kids,

but it's so difficult.

I just wanted somewhere where I could share family times,

and right now we're all just basically stuck in one room

all the time.

What a sad story! We often say on the programme

that cowboy builders wreck homes as much as houses.

Well, this is the proof.

But what is the full extent of this building bodge,

and how dangerous is the steel support?

To find out, we asked independent building surveyor Euan Elliot

to inspect the work. He's been through it with a fine-tooth comb,

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

There's a strong likelihood of this moving and collapsing.

'First on Euan's agenda is the RSJ

'sitting on top of that precarious brickwork pier.'

What's this bit of timber sticking out of?

Well, that's the other end of the lintels.

That's the brickwork pier. It should be brickwork all the way down.

Fortunately a big bulk of timber here is holding it up.

-What - timber underneath the pier?

-That's right.

The brickwork comes down and finishes on a piece of timber

across the floor joists. Instead of being carried to the ground,

-it finishes short.

-We've got compromises to the structure now.

-That's right.

-Now, elsewhere you've got a picture...

here, of an RSJ. Now, what's going on there?

There are two RSJs, one side by side,

holding up the back wall of the house.

It's fairly obvious that they're very small. They're undersized.

He's bought something that looks about right

and just put them in!

'And that's not the only thing that's undersized here.'

-This lintel here, you say it's too short.

-That's right.

It finishes there. Where should it come up to?

It should be a minimum of 100 millimetres,

150 millimetres, bearing onto the end of the brickwork here.

But it's not. It's only about 50 or 60 millimetres. Way too short.

'And this cowboy's ideas on interior design leave a lot to be desired.'

Now, a lot of people I know love to have an island,

a cooking island in the kitchen. Very fashionable now.

That is taking it a bit too far.

What on earth is this doing in the middle of the room?

It's totally unplanned. That's where the cooker was before.

Unfortunately the builder didn't bother moving it!

So the only place for the cooker was in the middle where the gas pipe is.

The gas pipe's unsupported. There's a risk of somebody kicking it,

-and we could have a gas explosion.

-'This is terrifying!'

Jobs like this must be handled by a trained specialist,

not a fly-by-night builder.

The builder just really did not care about the safety

of people living in this house, with these exposed gas pipes,

or he dared not touch it. He didn't know what to do.

Well, he's not allowed to touch it unless he's Gas Safe registered,

and if you're not, you can't touch gas appliances.

But, you know, you would've got somebody in,

because it's so obvious that it's unsafe.

And there's as much trouble outside as there is inside.

Now, going outside, go through some double doors here,

and you've got some... Well, you've got...

this strange pipe-work underneath the step,

these strange levels on the patio here...

-Again, more bodgery.

-That's right.

The door, when it was first put in, was at the wrong height.

-Oh, was it?

-This is a second go. It had to be dropped down.

They were having to, um, duck down to get out of the building.

The only advantage of ducking down when you step outside is,

you don't have to look at the pitiful roof tiles.

The tiles haven't been finished. It's open to the elements.

All the rain is just pouring in through there.

This, to me, looks like pictures you see on the news

-after a hurricane has gone through a street.

-That's right.

Same idea. It's just they haven't been put there in the first place.

But instead of a hurricane, some cowboy builder's done his work.

It hasn't been finished. The batons are too short.

They need to be lengthened

to make sure that there's something to fix the tiles onto.

And Euan doesn't pull any punches

when it comes to the dining-room extension

where the original conservatory once stood.

What can be done with this extension?

There's so much wrong with it, the easiest thing to do...

There's no point in trying to rectify it.

It's easier to take it down and start again.

Are you condemning this extension?

It... It needs to be taken down.

-Really?

-It's just... There is nothing there worth saving.

I knew this was going to be bad - but demolished?!

-What would you give it out of ten?

-It just wouldn't get a mark.

-No. It can't, can it?

-It can't,

-because there's nothing there worth giving a mark to.

-Zero?

Zero out of ten. Nothing at all.

Zero out of ten! And based on what I've just been shown,

I have to agree with him. Check out the evidence.

Trust me, there's loads to pick from.

A shoddy roof, inadequate drainage, windows and doors that don't fit,

exposed wires, holes in the floor and a lethal gas pipe,

not forgetting that extension that has to be knocked down.

All that's bad enough, but what about that potentially dangerous supporting beam,

a problem that could quite literally bring the house down?

Time to bring in our good guys.

And here's the man in charge,

hotshot builder and all-time good guy, Paul Hilton.

First task, checking out the worrying beam

with the local building-control officer, Andy Price.

The supporting beams that have been put in place

are woefully inadequate. So it's not just a case of non-compliance

with building regulations. There is a definite safety issue

that needs to be addressed.

Paul and his team waste no time getting stuck in.

So much needs doing just to make the kitchen safe, secure

and ready to be fitted out, Amanda and Chris are chipping in.

Priority number one, replacing that hazardous RSJ.

Then on to building suitable brick pillars to support it.

Now, that's what it's supposed to look like.

Next, the lintel over the rear door needs reinforcing too.

Then it's on to the dodgy electrics.

When you consider what they're faced with,

it's abundantly clear what a big rescue job this is.

DRILL WHIRRS

There's certainly no hanging around

when it comes to this bunch of good guys.

But can they put the wrongs to rights? Only time will tell.

We're in Birkenhead, where Amanda Bowen and Chris Ascroft

were left with a dangerous wreck on their hands

after hiring not one but two cowboy builders.

Well, our good guys have now finished their work,

so let's see how Chris and Amanda are getting on.

'This couple were truly at rock bottom.

'Fingers crossed, things are on the up.'

-Hello.

-Hello!

-Amanda? How are you? I'm Jonnie.

-You must be Chris.

-Yep.

-How you doing?

-All right.

-OK, yeah. Come in.

-Thank you very much!

'As soon as I step inside, I can't resist a quick peek.

'Immediately I love what I see. The good guys have played a blinder.'

This band of cowboys left a wake of destruction behind them.

But our good guys have made this once wreck of a kitchen

into a safe, functional area

ready for Amanda and Chris to make their mark.

'Now, before I take a close look inside,

'I want to find out how the couple found themselves caught up in this mighty cowboy trap.'

You found the first cowboy builder from a website.

You found the second cowboy builder...

From the same one.

I'm wondering why you went down the same route

of finding the cowboy builder that you did the first time.

It's cos they have references on the website -

you know, on this website that we went on to find him.

When they approached us, they've got references

of people what they've commented, of the work and stuff,

and how they've done.

Written references on screen are one thing.

What you need is to see the evidence of the work to back them up.

To me, it sounds like they hadn't actually built an extension,

-not a whole extension.

-Yeah.

-To do that,

you need people that know their way around construction, foundations,

engineering, electrics, plumbing.

If you don't have those, you subcontract out,

-but you have to have an understanding of it.

-Yeah.

Now, who was doing those specialist jobs? Were they doing them?

They were doing them. One was specialised in one thing...

One of them... His brother was a brickie, weren't he?

-The guy who took the job was a painter and decorator.

-Yeah.

Do you regret not doing a bit more research?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, in a way. We wasn't even going to go on this website.

We was going to do a Yellow Page jobbie, the old-fashioned way.

But you know what - websites, Yellow Pages, phone books,

advertising, glossy brochures...

They're all fine to get a telephone number.

But that's all it is. What you have to do

is look at the jobs they've done, and those jobs they've done,

-they have to be similar to the jobs you're asking them to do.

-Yeah.

-Cos, you know, painter and decorator ain't no builder.

-Yeah.

Well, thank heavens that's all in the past now,

as our boys were the real deal.

What did you think when the good guys turned up?

-Er...

-Well, they've come in...

-Great.

They've come in and they've done it brilliant, haven't they?

They've totally changed our lives, you know?

-We can plan now for the future, can't we?

-Yeah.

Well, you can't ask for more than that.

Right! Let's go and have a look at the good guys' efforts.

-HE LAUGHS

-This is a bit different, isn't it?

I mean... Well, where do you start?

Our good guys were supposed to make this place safe,

but looks like they've done a whole lot more than that.

Obviously we've got downlighters there.

Everywhere you look, it's been plastered and skimmed,

where before you just had exposed brickwork.

There were holes in the floor. But guess what's missing,

thank goodness - the cooker, the central-island cooker

with its gas pipe - a very dangerous gas pipe,

and one which our good guys were quick to sort.

That atrocious brick pier? Also sorted.

And the undersized RSJ, sorted too.

Well, these... These are bigger doors.

I think they're brand-new doors, which is a bonus.

Do you remember, there was a bit of a leap of faith?

No more. There was a big drainpipe you had to step over.

That's been moved or rerouted.

Well, it's all good when you look down,

but remember what happened when you looked up.

Now check it out!

Good. There's lead flashing...

Well, there's tiles where there were holes.

This is brilliant news. There's a whole new fascia

going along there as well.

This looks... I mean, it's how it should have looked.

This is finished, which is brilliant news.

But what about that extension, so flawed as to be destined for the scrap heap?

Well, there's even some good news here.

I'm stood in what is essentially the condemned part of the extension.

It's such a shame. But our good guy has spoken to Building Control -

shows his experience, really - and negotiated for this to be saved

and become a conservatory, which basically saves their investment

and turns this into a really useful room.

It's great news.

That's a job Chris and Amanda will need to do after we've left,

but because conservatories are exempt from building regulations,

it's a job well worth doing.

'Time to meet the man who's given them their dreams back.'

-Did you do these electrics and plasterwork?

-Yeah, yeah.

We, um... We put all new spotlights and downlights in there for them.

I've also seen that there's no holes in the roof any more.

-No, no, we're sorted. We took the roof down completely.

-Did you?

We took all that down, created a vaulted ceiling.

We then had to obviously secure the floors,

cos all the floors were all, um, unstable.

'But that's not all.'

Paul's really gone the extra mile for this young family.

You didn't have to do this extension. Why?

Purely because, well, you see the predicament that the family are in.

I'm a family man myself.

So you've done this out of the kindness of your heart?

Well, basically, yeah.

But before we embark on the grand tour with Amanda and Chris,

I'm going to chat to them about their cowboy builder.

I wanted to find out his side of the story,

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

Now, he says he told you at the outset

that the job could not be completed at the price you were able to pay.

He says you signed the contract on the basis

that he would do as much as he could for you.

-No.

-No, not at all. We've got the contract in there.

-There's stuff on that contract that hasn't even been done.

-Really?

Yeah.

When the money ran out, he says, what was he supposed to do?

He should still be able to do an extension, even if it was a shell,

at least airtight and the proper steel in, under the money we got,

and building regulations to make that safe.

We could've done the plastering ourselves.

We could've got an electrician and a plumber in.

Now, he says, you, Chris, kept moving the goalposts all the time.

All the changes you kept making to what you were doing

made it an impossible job to do.

We had a contract that he was going to take the walls down, weren't he,

-on the inside...

-Put a roof on, which he didn't do.

..put a roof on, and build an extension on the side with a roof.

And he did none of that, basically.

He says YOU were in breach of contract,

so even though he didn't want to walk off the job,

things were just getting worse and worse.

Oh! He wasn't even here half of the days!

Yeah. He was only here on payday, weren't he?

The builder also denied intimidating Amanda

with threats to Chris, saying he's a reputable tradesman

who works with charities.

But there is one thing he does admit.

When we confronted him with our surveyor's findings,

he admitted he'd messed up, and shouldn't have put his trust

in the tradesmen he'd subcontracted to do the job properly.

Er... I personally think that they are all the problems, aren't they?

They are all the... There, babe.

SHE SOBS

SHE SNIFFS They finally admit to it now!

Yeah. Finally, after all these lies,

when confronted with the black-and-white facts,

-he admits he messed up.

-Sorry!

I'm not surprised Amanda's so upset,

but whatever the whys and wherefores, one thing is for sure -

the good guys have totally transformed this place.

'It's time to find out the difference their work has made to Chris and Amanda's lives.'

Remember, we instructed the good-guy builders to make this place safe.

Sort the steels out, sort the electrics out,

and then sort your gas out. But looking around,

you know, it's, like... I saw bare brick before.

But now I see finished, plastered walls.

I see new architraving. I see new skirting boards.

I see new downlighters. You're just ready to paint here, aren't you?

-Yeah.

-Another thing about this room is,

we're talking about the kitchen, but with those new big double doors

going out into the garden, it feels like you're bringing the outside in

-at long last, doesn't it?

-It's very fresh and open.

Is this what you thought it would look like all that time ago?

-Better than what we thought it would look like, yeah.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-It definitely changed our lives for the better.

-Yeah.

-Really?

-Yeah.

So, I mean, looking around, first of all, it's safe.

Wiring, plumbing... It's not going to fall down.

That's obviously peace of mind.

But you also, to me, as a couple, you look like you've moved on.

You're planning things together.

I know you've had tough times relationship-wise.

-It looks like you're going forward together again.

-Yeah. We are.

-We're like a unit now, aren't we?

-Yeah.

We're just... We're planning things like colours,

where the kitchen's going to go,

-and we're looking further to the future now, aren't we?

-Yeah.

-It's a relief knowing it's all safe.

-You look like a unit, as well.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Arguing over colours now.

That's good, though, isn't it, right?

You know, these are the sort of tiffs you're supposed to have,

not, you know, "Is our house going to fall down?"

It's always going to have a terrible effect on your family life.

But now...you can just plan.

And with that, it's time for me to leave this young family

as they start mapping out their happy-ever-after.

Well, that couple have certainly been through it -

not one but two cowboy builders. But it was certainly the second one

that did all the emotional and physical damage to this home.

Which makes it all the more gratifying

to see what the good guys have done.

They really have gone the extra mile,

and in salvaging that investment they made, that big extension,

and turning it into a conservatory...

Well, they've got something to look forward to, to plan for.

And I think in a couple of weeks, when it's all done,

this family will be on cloud nine.

For our next Cowboy Trap saga,

we revisit a family in Treharris, Wales.

As with Amanda and Chris,

this story clearly illustrates the dangers of using the internet.

Former soldiers Russ and Donna Ryan were this cowboy's unlucky victims.

When we first met them, they'd been married for 20 years

after meeting while serving in the British Army.

Donna left the forces to bring up their three children,

Liam, Luke and Cerys, but Russ carried on.

He saw action in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

That took guts, and it was tough for Donna, too.

Living with a soldier is hard.

Um, constantly going away,

and then you've got to get back into a routine when they come home.

It is hard on the children, but they learn to adapt,

that Daddy goes away and then Daddy comes home,

and then he could go away again.

Like many forces families, the Ryans were constantly on the move

and living in military accommodation.

So when Russ retired from active duty on Christmas Day 2011,

he set his heart on finding his family

their first proper home together.

And when he did, he soon embarked on a new mission -

making it their ideal home.

We wanted a new kitchen. The kitchen, it was utilitarian.

It worked, we could cook things, but it's not what we wanted.

It's not what I wanted personally.

And outside, there was wasted space, you know?

There was an outside toilet. We're in the 21st century now.

I'm not living with an outside toilet!

Russ and Donna also wanted to change the layout

of the living and dining rooms.

The way it was laid out, it didn't quite work. It just wasn't right.

We wanted it to flow, so you went right through.

And that wasn't all.

Russ and Donna wanted to incorporate two concrete outbuildings

into the house, to create a utility room

and underfloor heating in the kitchen.

And the last piece of the jigsaw, giving the upstairs bathroom a complete makeover.

The Ryans knew this was a major project.

Quite apart from all the construction work,

there was the plumbing and electrical labour required, too.

But Russ had the lump sum he'd been given as a gratuity payment

when he'd left the army, and what better way to invest it

than making their first family home the home of their dreams?

So Russ and Donna set about finding a builder,

and posted an ad on exactly the same kind of website as the Bowens.

Several contractors replied and came out to look at the job.

Their quotes varied enormously,

so the Ryans decided to opt for the one in the middle.

So far, so good. But then the Ryans took leave of their good senses

by failing to check their builder's track record.

They should've spoken to former customers

and checked out examples of his work.

They didn't, and that left the former soldiers sitting ducks

for our old enemy, the cowboy builder.

I looked into his references, the ones that were on that website,

but what I didn't do was ring round, which I should've done...

was ring round and ask people.

But the references that he had all seemed legit. They all seemed good.

He was also - which is another mistake, I guess...

He was an ex-soldier.

Because of the military connection, Russ let his guard down.

He and Donna would live to regret it.

Take my advice.

But the Ryans went with their former soldier,

who said it would take eight weeks to complete the project

at a cost of £15,000. This was for labour only.

Russ and Donna were to provide all the materials.

The builder wanted to be paid cash in hand,

rather than do a properly invoiced job,

and, what's more, he wanted £2,000 upfront before work even started.

So, from the off, this looks dodgy,

and it went rapidly downhill from there.

The Ryans' dream, remember, was to have underfloor heating

beneath their tiled floor.

Now, a water-based setup really needs to be installed

by a specialist heating engineer,

but the electric system they opted for here is a pretty simple job.

So, that's one thing their builder did properly, right?

Wrong.

When it came to him laying the underfloor heating,

that was when alarm bells started ringing.

Um, we'd said to him that it needed to be put into a screed,

and he kept telling us, "No, it doesn't need to do that."

And then he put the tiles down as you would a patio slab,

and I'm there thinking, well, you know, I'm not a builder,

but I know that's not how you're supposed to be doing it.

What's more, Russ noticed the builder was spending most of his time on the phone,

when he should have been paying more attention to the quality of his labourers' work.

When he fitted the shower, I said, "Well, that tile's not flush."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get to that. I'll refit it."

It's still not flush.

The plastering was abysmal, and the plumbing was dreadful.

There were more leaks than you could shake a leek at.

The pipe-work in the downstairs toilet,

that's leaking to the point where we now have mould,

and it's been there less than two and a half months.

The tiling on the floor, all the grout's disappeared.

We had a leak underneath the sink.

-Um...

-SHE LAUGHS

-But I got a local number...

-It wasn't a leak under the sink.

The hot-water pipe came off.

And when it came off, the Ryans' brand-new kitchen was flooded,

and it shorted the electrics. They were wet, hungry and in the dark.

The whole ten, 12 weeks that he was here,

he promised us, virtually every week,

"If anything goes wrong, I'll come back."

"If anything goes wrong with the tiles, I'll come back and fix it."

"You know me, Russ," which was, you know, what he kept saying,

and every time he guaranteed us, "I'll come back. I'll come back."

But when the Ryans called him about the hot-water tap,

he accused them of sabotaging it.

And when they complained about the underfloor heating not working,

he said it was their fault for buying it from an auction website.

And things were about to get worse.

Russ and Donna called a local tradesman to fix some of the problems,

and he noticed the gas hob hadn't been put in right.

I've had to get yet another gas engineer to come out

and put the right fittings for my gas hob,

so I could actually use it.

Russ had looked forward to settling down

after 22 years living a nomadic existence in the army.

Not surprisingly, he was heartbroken

that his long-awaited home renovation

had turned into an unmitigated disaster.

I'm trying to make a home for my family here,

and there's people out there that'll just...

You know, they don't see it from my point of view.

And, um...it's scary.

It's... It's... It's upsetting.

That's what it is.

After over two decades serving Queen and country,

this was the last thing Russ and his family deserved.

But you know the plot. Our good guys swung into action,

led by head honcho Anthony Williams.

They set about fixing the floor, and sorted the loo, too.

Next it was time to remove those floor tiles

so they could rectify that wonky underfloor heating.

Then our knights in shining armour put it all back together

like it should have been done in the first place.

Our fellas completed their task with aplomb.

From before...

..to after, the difference was striking.

When you think of what the good guys were faced with...

..and what they left behind when they'd finished,

the Ryans were definitely back on track.

Would our good guys' efforts inspire them

to go on and complete their dream home?

Only time would tell.

Well, it's been less than a year since we first met the Ryans,

but by all accounts, what a difference a year has made to this family!

When we first met Donna and Russ, they were at their wits' end.

They couldn't see a way out of the mess they were in,

and all the stress the cowboy builder left behind

had certainly taken its toll on this once-happy family.

But now I hear things are very different,

so I can't wait to meet them.

'I'd like to say that hopefully our good guys have saved Private Ryan

'from this builder from hell, but Russ was a sergeant

'when he left the army, so never mind.'

Ah! Hello! I couldn't hear the doorbell,

so I didn't know if it was working or not. I'm Jonnie.

-Hi, Jonnie. I'm Donna.

-Hi. You must be Russ.

-Nice to meet you.

-Can I come in?

-Course you can.

-Thank you very much.

The doorbell may not be working, but as soon as I cross the threshold,

I can see that this utility room is coming in for a lot of use.

A tidy desk might show a tidy mind,

but an untidy utility room - that's fine by me.

This is, you know... This is part of what you wanted

-to make your house a home, this room.

-Exactly, yeah.

I tell you what, it certainly looks and feels lived in, doesn't it?

'Which is the whole point of a utility room, after all.'

When you look at what the cowboy left behind...

..to the transformation our good guys achieved,

and how the Ryans have now made it their own,

you can see a dream home evolving before your eyes.

What does it mean, to have this extra space for you now?

Everything's where it should be, and we can both be in the kitchen at the same time.

Well, kitchen and utility. I can stand and watch her cook.

THEY LAUGH

This is how we left the utility room,

and now it's clearly coming into its own,

and the kitchen is, too. So what else have the Ryans been up to?

I've actually finally finished decorating the rest of the house.

What a wonderful job Donna's done!

She's certainly got an artistic flair.

'And, after 22 years living in military quarters,

'Donna has clearly loved giving her home the personal touch.'

What did it feel like, decorating your own home at last?

I loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was hard work,

but it was a matter of, "Yeah, I can do this."

And she's done it beautifully. Check out the guest bedroom upstairs!

-You both seem proud of this house.

-Yeah, very much.

-Definitely.

It's exactly what we wanted for 20 years.

We were, you know... This was the end goal, you know?

All those years of fighting, and then getting to the end,

and this is what we were aiming for.

It's been a tough journey getting here.

Remember the dreadful state the cowboy left this place in?

Well, compare that to how it looks now.

You can see how much Russ and Donna's home has changed for the better.

'But have their lives changed for the better, too? Time to find out.'

In less than a year,

things have moved on physically,

but I think, from where I'm sitting, more emotionally.

People don't realise that. It might be little small things

that the builder's ripped you off on,

but immaterial of how big or small it is,

-it does put so much pressure on you.

-Yeah.

And once it's gone, it was as if somebody had picked it all up,

chucked it in the skip and taken it away,

when they'd done it all, and then it was a matter of,

"Right, well, we can get on with it now."

And who'd have thought, less than a year after this, they'd be able to?

But thanks to our fellas rectifying the cowboy's calamities,

get on with it they certainly have.

So, what lessons have they learned from the entire experience -

the good bits and the bad?

The good-guy builders turned up.

Door van opens. Are you thinking, "Here we go again"?

No, because I'd actually looked up these other guys. I was blown away.

I love the fact that you'd instantly learned from that mistake.

You know, even though we'd got the good guys in,

you thought, "Hold on a minute. Let's do a bit of research."

That's music to my ears, really.

Yep, the way to avoid building bodges like this

is rigorous research,

especially when your source of tradesmen is the internet.

And as the Ryans now realise, it's not just about letting your fingers do the walking.

Take a tip from me.

What would you do different to the first time?

I'd go and look at jobs that they've already done, and speak to the people.

I think it just requires that extra step on your behalf

-to say, "OK, you got references. Let's speak to the people."

-Yes.

There's no point being shy when it's your hard-earned cash on the line.

Anyway, thanks to our good guys' hard work

and their own after we'd left,

at long last, the Ryans have their dream home.

When your home was in turmoil,

you were probably struggling to get out of bed in the morning.

-Completely. Didn't want to get up.

-Now you're jumping out of bed

and going to work, and when you finish work, decorating.

And, you know, some people's idea of hell - mine...

THEY LAUGH

It's... You know, you as people, as a family,

just seem to be in a completely different place.

Oh, completely different and it's absolutely fabulous.

Right. Time for me to bid the Ryans a fond farewell.

Mission accomplished!

Well, if ever there was a case

of someone's frown being turned upside down, this is it.

Our good-guy builders... Well, they did a great job,

but I think their work here has helped Russ and Donna,

well, move on emotionally so far in such a short amount of time.

Now, well, they've got a family home

that after - what, 20 years of living in army accommodation,

they can be proud of and call their own. It's great.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk

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