Episode 29 Cowboy Trap

We're travelling the length and breadth of Britain on a mission

to rescue homeowners from the curse of the cowboy builder.

There's so much to put right and I feel responsible. It just hurts.

It's impossible to overestimate the damage these guys do.

Whether they're blatant amateurs or simply crooks,

cowboy builders not only mess up homes, they ruin lives too.

All of the pipes connect into one point then what happens is,

when the toilet's flushed, you get what's known as a phenomenon

called back siphonage and that causes...

-That doesn't sound pleasant.

-It's not very pleasant, no.

I just feel like crying

when I see the wall in the state it is after paying out so much money.

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

helpless homeowners into merry mortgagees.

Not only obviously do you have what you wanted, what you need,

but you've got your confidence back.

-You've found someone you know you can trust. Happy, Pam?

-Very happy.

Good, well, you look happy.

-Are you proud of it?

-I am, very.

And apparently, you can open the window now.

-That's nice, isn't it, eh?

-It is.

You know, absolutely anyone can call themselves a builder, which is

why it's crucial to know how to spot a wrong 'un,

and why the next 45 minutes

could help keep you out of the cowboy trap.

Today's Cowboy Trap is cast-iron proof of the perils of using

the internet to find your builder.

In both our stories, home owners relied entirely on online feedback

and failed to take up proper references,

with distressing consequences.

I actually feel let down by the builder,

that he's not man enough to come and sort it out.

The heartache and upset that it caused has had a lasting effect.

Later, we tell the story of a couple in Wales who

needed their house rendering after a chunk of their wall fell off,

but ended up with a cracked and soggy mess and a ruined honeymoon.

But first, a Cowboy Trap saga featuring

a house in Plymouth, Devon, a town with 1,000 yachts.

Plymouth's maritime links go back centuries up, of course,

perhaps most famously to 1620 when the Pilgrim Fathers

left Plymouth for the New World and established an English settlement

in what is now called the United States of America.

But that isn't the only thing Plymouthians have to be proud of.

The artist Beryl Cook loved Plymouth and lived here for most of her life.

Indeed, many of her best-loved paintings

were inspired by the people here,

including the locals who

frequented this pub in the city's old harbour area.

I guess it's kind of appropriate

because although the subject of this Cowboy Trap

had none of Beryl Cook's skills as a draughtsman,

when it came to shoddy workmanship, he had it down to a fine art.

This cowboy's unlucky victims live in a three-bed terrace.

It's home to Paula Coffin, her mum and dad and their parrot Annie.

Paula, who's an HR consultant,

moved back into the family home several years ago to help

care for her mum Pamela who suffers from ill health.

We've always been really close-knit,

always enjoyed each other's company

and Mum's always been like a big sister.

For Paula, coming back to live in the family home

brought back fond memories.

Very happy childhood.

This is the house that I sort of grew up in, really.

This is the place where I spent my teenage years.

It's been our home from brand-new, so, you know, nobody owned

it before us, so it's ours through and through.

Two years ago, Pamela's health took a turn for the worse.

She developed a painful ulcer under the skin of her leg

which just wouldn't heal.

The tough decision was made to amputate the limb -

and operation that would involve Pamela spending

months in hospital recuperating, but Pamela was made of stern stuff.

It didn't even affect me, when I came around and realised it

had gone, it was just a little bit of discomfort that was all.

Although it was a devastating thing, we're a very strong family

and we knew that whatever happened we would cope

and we would adapt and life would go on.

With Pamela told she'd be confined to a wheelchair

for the rest of her life, the family were left with a tough choice -

move house or make major changes to where they lived.

For Pamela, there was only one course of action.

After all, for more than 30 years, they had called this house home.

So, major changes it was

and they needed doing before Pamela came home from hospital.

The plan was to build a ground floor extension and wet room for her.

This would allow the lounge to be extended

and create space for a downstairs bedroom too and the final

piece of the jigsaw - decking outside

so Pamela could get regular fresh air when she felt well enough.

Paula got plans drawn up and found a builder on a website where

people review their builders online.

She asked him to quote and the figure he came up with was...

Because the reviews were so good, Paula didn't go

and see any of his previous work.

Shame, that.

Take my advice...

Fail to do that and you may come unstuck.

Paula and the builder agreed a start date of April 2012 -

the aim being to have the extension and decking 100% complete

by the time Pamela was well enough to come home.

We knew she'd be in hospital for a little while

and they'd also told us that we should expect six

weeks of her being in rehab at a specialised hospital unit in

Plymouth as well, so the timescales were going to fit in perfectly.

Well, that was the plan, but you won't be surprised

to hear that it didn't take long before it started to unravel.

When work got under way,

it was a case of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The builder was very friendly, which was good,

but was also very slow, which was bad, and as for the ugly,

well, that's the only word to describe the quality of his work.

Everything the builder seemed to do was really substandard

and Paula started to think he didn't know what he was doing.

The first major clue,

the builder admitted he couldn't do the foundations for the extension,

so Paula had to call in another builder to do the work.

Not a great start.

That probably put us back by about two weeks all in all.

And it put the Coffin family back another £1,800.

The cowboy also had a careless approach to health and safety.

Despite huge clouds of dust resulting from walls being

demolished between the house and the extension,

he didn't provide a face mask for his apprentice.

Within a week or so, he had a chest infection,

which just got worse and worse, to the point where he was coughing

and being sick and the next thing we heard was that he was hospitalised.

Of course,

the dust may not have been the only reason for his apprentice's

lung problems, but there can be no doubt that what happened next

showed a certain ruthlessness from his boss.

He came back to work for... it must have been just a week

and maybe two weekends that he was here and then he was sacked.

Charming(!)

After that, the progress of this rather callous cowboy's build

slowed even further.

The extension and decking work should have taken weeks,

but it was actually taking months.

Paula didn't want to worry her mum in hospital,

but she realised she had to fill her in on some of the problems.

I didn't know a great lot, only the photos they showed me,

but I just wanted to get home.

And soon Pamela would be well enough to do just that,

but her bedroom and wet room were still far from finished

and because of that, Paula was fearful about the consequences

of confronting the cowboy.

I daren't challenge him in case he walked off the job

and left us with the back of the house exposed

and we were just tiptoeing around him, basically.

By mid-June, Pamela was well enough to leave hospital,

but her home was still in disarray.

Paula had to make a heartbreaking decision.

We ended up having to put Mum into an old people's home. Initially, he

told us it would only be a couple of weeks, it turned out to be 10 weeks.

And not completed in 10 weeks, oh, no,

more like barely habitable, but because Pamela was so homesick,

she moved back in even though the work was far from finished.

The wet room still wasn't usable and we had to use a commode

for Mum and he hadn't started at the decking at that point.

And he'd also left a great big hole in the side of the house.

We'd be sat there watching the TV with our coats on or blankets

around us, but it was the security side of things that worried us more.

By December and the with the work still nowhere near completed,

the Coffin family had finally run out of patience.

They got friends round to finish some of the jobs and when

the builder turned up and saw them doing it, he flounced off in a huff.

We never saw him after that.

He never contacted us again after that date.

The builder didn't just leave a hole in the family's wall,

the left a hole in their life savings too.

The initial estimate was for 21,500 and we have

actually paid him £30,500 and it's still not complete.

"Still not complete" is putting it mildly.

For the Coffins, the extension

and decking remain a cruel waste of money.

We can only use the shower on half flow, otherwise it floods

the whole of the wet room and spills out into the hallway.

When Mum flushes the toilet,

the sewage actually comes up through the shower whole,

so we have to put disinfectant and pour boiling water down it

on a regular basis to stop it from smelling and blocking.

And if all that wasn't bad enough, the lounge walls are full

of cracks and outside, the decking is totally unsafe.

The decking isn't supported properly on one corner

and we've been told it's dangerous to actually go out on it.

All this pointed to one clear conclusion,

the builder Paula had hired simply wasn't up to the job

and his rapid departure

when he saw her friends fixing his work only confirmed that verdict.

The builder was in such a hurry to depart,

he forgot his tools and ladder.

What he also left behind was a family who were in pieces.

Because she chose the builder, Paula feels a terrible sense of guilt.

The heartache and upset that it caused, erm...

..has probably had a lasting effect.

She did her very best.

As she said, we didn't know anybody in the building trade we could ask.

There's still so much to put right...

..and I feel responsible for letting them down.

I suppose, deep down, I'm very, very hurt

that he could do such a thing.

You know, there's nothing more frustrating than a building project

that never seems to come to an end

and what a shame a project designed to make life easier

for this family has ended up a millstone round their necks.

But what's the full extent of this bungled build?

Cowboys have a habit of hiding their bodges beneath the surface, so we

asked independent building surveyor Mat Belgrove to inspect his work.

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

and is about to fill me in on what he found.

First item on the agenda, the wet room.

Mat's made a grim discovery about the pipework underneath.

All of the pipes connect into one point

and then what happens is when the toilet's flushed,

you get what's known as a phenomenon called back siphonage.

That doesn't sound pleasant.

It's not very pleasant, no, and it causes the waste to track up

to the sink and up to the shower as well.

And because of another schoolboy error,

shower water runs out of the wet room into the hallway outside.

The fall on the tiles themselves into the shower waste isn't

sufficient to allow all of the water

just to fall into the shower waste itself,

so because of the velocity of the water that comes

out of the shower head, the water then flows beyond the fall

on the tiles and runs out of the bathroom door into the hallway.

For a wet room, you have to get the fall exactly right, don't you?

And talking of falls, Mat couldn't believe his eyes

when he checked out the decking outside.

As you can see, there is a section of the deck

which isn't supported at all.

That, to my mind, is a fairly fundamental failure of construction.

'That lack of structural support indicates that builder either

'didn't know what he was doing or didn't care.

'Right, it's make-your-mind-up time for Mat.'

You've got the overhanging balcony the step into oblivion,

if you like, but most importantly,

you've got this wet room that stinks and is disgusting.

How would you mark this builder's work out of 10.

I could only give the builder three out of 10, Jonnie.

The quality of workmanship clearly is unsatisfactory

and having been told at the outset it would take seven weeks

and it ended up being seven months, I think

an additional five months is not acceptable.

In short, if this protracted tale of woe was finally to see

a happy ending, it was time to bring in the good guys.

And here's head honcho Mark Crew and his team swinging into action.

They can't fix everything so it's health and safety first -

that the grisly plumbing and that precarious decking.

First things first,

getting access to the dodgy pipework that's causing the flooding. Ugh!

Do I not like the look of that?

Because of the cowboy's bodge,

they have to dismantle the kitchen to get to the pipes.

It would have been easier getting it right first time round.

The pipework is badly joined throughout, so it's all hands

on the wet-room deck as the good guys re-pipe from scratch.

It's a big job but can our brothers get Pamela's much-needed

disabled access extension back on track?

Only time will tell.

I'm in Plymouth where Paula Coffin's plans to adapt her home

after her mum lost a leg

and was confined to a wheelchair were derailed by a cowboy builder.

Now, our good guys have finished their work,

so let's see how everyone's getting on.

'I do hope Pamela's life has been improved by our fellows' efforts.

'She's had such a tough year.'

-Hi, Paula.

-Yes, hi, Jonnie, nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you.

-How are you doing? Very well, thank you.

-Is your mum in?

-Yes, she is.

-Come on in.

-Thank you very much.

'Right, while Paula puts the kettle on,

'I want to check out our good guys' work.

'First up, the previously soaking hallway outside the wet room.'

Now, before, this was one of the problem areas.

Coming through the front door

and you'd be walking right into a very slippy part of the house,

because the wet room being behind this door, a lot of the water

from the shower was coming underneath the door and puddling.

Now, it's bone dry, which means some good work must have happened inside.

'Yep, never has a true word been said.

'Remember what a state this was in before?

'Pamela only used it because she had no choice in the matter,

'but now much improved, eh?'

Let's not beat around the bush,

let's say exactly what the problem was.

There was toilet there and when you flushed the loo, then

whatever you were flushing was coming up either in the basin

where you wash your face or in the shower where you stood.

Either way, it was an absolute disaster zone,

but there's a lot of work that must have happened here

because the soil stack is out there by the front door,

which means that in order to sort out all this pipework,

a lot of these tiles must have come up if you bring a tile up,

you can't use it again, so I'm thinking the builder's done

a great job of managing to match these tiles.

'Which would have been a real challenge

'because wet-room floor tiling is no easy matter.

'You have to work around different shapes

'and you need to get the gradient spot-on too.'

There's so many cuts

because they've not only got to fit around this drain covering,

if you like, they've also got to fit within the fall itself,

so there's little diamond cuts, there's little triangles,

it's almost an exercise in trigonometry.

Pythagoras would have liked the look of this.

'So a tiled floor that would please Pythagoras,

'but would Isambard Kingdom Brunel be satisfied the decking

'outside is now structurally sound?

'Time for me to take my life in my hands and find out.'

Well, it feels fairly sturdy, which means hopefully our good guys

have done something of a supporting job down there.

Let's go down there and have a look.

'Remember, the cowboy builder left it teetering on the brink of

'disaster, but our good guys have salvaged the situation.'

Thankfully, someone's had the foresight

and the bright idea to put some support in.

There's a lot of load now going almost perpendicular,

downward pressure going to the strongest part of this timber

and this timber now is bolted into the adjoining wall,

so this is going nowhere.

'So, thanks to our fellows, this is now a safe deck rather than

'one that could collapse like a deck of cards.

'Head good guy Mark's has come to join me on his structurally sound

'deck to discuss how he made Pamela's wet room fit for purpose.

'It turns out things were even worse than we thought.'

The shower now goes as a separate pipe to the waste.

What we did find

is when we exposed the soil pipe, it was broken

where he'd tried to connect the plastic onto clay which doesn't fit.

-You cannot drill clay.

-No.

Erm, he's broke the clay and then just filled it with cement around it

and grit-filled it.

And then covered all over in the hope that nobody would see

until he's long gone.

But then, when we exposed...

when we took up a section of the tiles, within the first five

tiles we took up, we had sewage and water under the floor.

-That does not sound like a pleasant job.

-No.

'But, luckily, for the Coffin family, our good guys were willing

'to put up with a bit of... unpleasantness to get the job done.

'Right, before I do the grand tour with Paula

'and Pamela, 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, in terms of how long it took into finish the job,

he felt he did the best job he could given the difficult circumstances.

He quoted me for a seven-week job which took nine months,

but I don't know what difficult circumstances he's on about.

'The builder also claimed he had to do the wet room like you did

'because there wasn't enough room for the pipes and that Paula

'never told him she wasn't happy with his work at the time.'

He's basically saying you never complained.

Well, I've got people at work who've see me in tears on the phone

because he's not completed things fast enough.

He knew we were up against it with Mum, but he knew I wasn't happy.

What was your lowest point throughout all of this?

Just wanted to be gone, to be quite honest,

and I thought it was all my fault.

'I'm not surprised Pamela felt so low.

'She had so much to contend with

'but the good news is our posse has come to the rescue.

'It's time to hear whether their efforts

'have changed Pamela's life for the better.

'First up, the decking.

'Remember, the cowboy left behind a 12-foot-high platform

'lacking in supports.

'Now though, anyone going on it can do so with 100% confidence.'

You know that the good guy builder, Mark,

has been under there and sorted out the structure.

He's got all the supports in place. Peace of mind for you, at least.

Yeah, definitely.

There's no doubt it's a lovely place

for Pamela to relax when the weather's nice.

This is Mum's only access to the outside world

without assistance, really.

I just wanted her to be able to come out and have a coffee

and sit and chat with her friends, maybe potter with her planted pots.

'So, a big thumbs-up for the decking.

'Next item on the agenda, the wet room

'which the cowboy builder left in an inexcusable state.

'But our good guys have worked wonders in here.'

It's just given Mum complete independence now.

She doesn't need assistance to come in here.

Everything she needs is now on this level.

Have you used it yet?

No, because they only finished it last night!

They finished it last night? It's that fresh! Right.

But it does drain, we've tested it. So, it does work.

'Looks like our Cowboy Trap rescue team has revived

'the Coffin family's faith in builders.'

You can't put a price on peace of mind

and that's exactly what Mark and his team have given us.

They really have been brilliant.

-Happy, Pam?

-I am. Very happy.

-Good, you look happy.

'And on that cheerful note,

'it's time for me to bid Pamela and Paula a fond farewell.'

Well, it seems a well-trodden path.

The people that need help the most,

the ones that are probably the most vulnerable

seem to be the ones that get preyed upon by these cowboy builders.

The good news is that our good guys have done a fantastic job.

Again, they've gone the extra mile, but the work they've done here

is something that, in a lot of ways, money can't buy.

Because what they've done is given Pam her independence back.

'Paula and Pamela found out the hard way

'it's not safe to put too much trust in online reviews of tradesmen.

'Our next victims fell into a similar trap

'with serious implications for their health and their safety.

'We are in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales.

'Before the Industrial Revolution,

'the valley consisted of isolated rural farms

'and scattered homesteads.

'But when coal was discovered in the mid-19th century,

'town started to emerge.

'The community spirit forged by the mines

'led to the growth of many male voice choirs

'and that's not the end of Rhondda's musical heritage.'

H from Steps grew up around here,

getting his first break in the local am-dram group

before going on to have a string of hits in the late '90s.

And funnily enough, when it comes to describing the building work

you're about to see, you can take your pick from Steps songs, really.

Better Best Forgotten, One For Sorrow and Tragedy -

they all pretty much do the job.

'But the cowboy builder's victims who live in this two-bedroom terrace

'certainly don't feel like singing.

'Meet John and Michelle Wilson.

'Michelle works for British Gas and John has a job in a window factory.

'They met six years ago on a blind date set up by mutual friends.

'John proposed on Christmas Day 2010 with a ring wrapped up as a present,

'a gesture which took Michelle somewhat by surprise.'

I'm the least romantic person in the world, I think.

There's no lovey-dovey with me.

I'm not saying it was love at first sight,

but you get to learn to love somebody.

'Well, lovey-dovey or not, Michelle excepted John's proposal.

'But before wedding bells could chime,

'the couple had a serious problem to contend with.

'One afternoon, a huge chunk of render

'suddenly fell off their house wall.'

I was looking out of the window thinking,

"There's something not right in the garden,"

but couldn't put my finger on it.

When I went outside, I thought,

"It's all come down," I realised what it was.

Despite the unfortunate timing,

it was clear something would have to be done.

Michelle and John were saving up for their wedding and,

as always money was hard to come by.

But they knew their wall needed fixing before it got any worse.

The couple realised that to finance the repairs,

they would have to make a major sacrifice.

The money would have to come out of their wedding fund,

that no-expense-spared honeymoon Michelle had always dreamt of

was now out of the question.

I would've loved to have gone somewhere like the Caribbean

or on a cruise, but Turkey was the last resort.

I was just thinking, "If one bit's collapsed,

"what else is going to come down?

"Let's get it done before something major goes wrong."

We just decided we had to forfeit a nice honeymoon.

Having made the tough decision,

they needed to find someone to do the work.

Michelle searched the websites

of a leading builders' trade association

and found a local company.

She did a bit more research,

but unfortunately, it wasn't the right kind.

There was reviews on his website, saying that he was a good builder.

I did do that research, but I don't think I would've...

I think I would've researched a little bit more than what I did

if I could turn back time, that's all.

Michelle had been blinded

by the builders' trade association membership, but take a tip from me.

Just because your builder's in a national trade association,

it doesn't mean you don't still need to do your research.

First, make sure he really is in the association.

Call them up and check him out.

And don't assume any such badge of approval

automatically means he isn't a cowboy.

Get at least three references from satisfied customers,

or you could live to regret it.

The Wilsons' builder quoted £2,600 for the render repair

and new guttering and drainage.

He wanted paying in cash on completion.

Paying in cash? Oh, dear.

And it wasn't long before this cowboy showed his true colours.

On the Monday morning, he turned up at eight o'clock with two young boys

and said, "I've come to do your work."

Now, if you call doing your work ripping off the old render

and then clearing off, then I guess he did.

Because, on day two, nothing happened.

On day three, nothing happened.

Then, finally, on day four, they deigned to make an appearance

but they seem to have their priorities mixed up.

The builders were more interested in tea breaks, cigarette breaks

and early finishes than actually doing a decent job.

The render looks really rushed, and, to be frank, rather rubbish.

And just like Paula Coffin's builder,

these cowboys didn't much care for health and safety.

Their scaffolding was two bits of metal and a plank of wood.

Maybe I should, but I didn't feel that it was my place to say,

"Is it safe to do what you're doing?"

They're the professionals, so they should know what they're doing.

Things went from bad to worse.

Michelle's mum spotted the builders cracking one of the pipes

on the wall when they were applying the new render.

But it didn't go down well when John mentioned it.

What he said was, "I'm the trade I know what I'm doing, you don't."

After six weeks, the builders announced that they'd finished.

But Michelle pointed out that the new guttering and drainage

that they had been quoted for hadn't been done.

After a bit of an argument,

they sorted it in the bodgiest way imaginable.

When I told them about the guttering

they just put the guttering over the old fascias

and put new fascias over the old ones.

And the dodgy guttering wasn't the only issue.

The rendering these cowboys claimed was finished

was absolutely appalling.

And when Michelle complained,

they sorted it again in the bodgiest way imaginable.

They hadn't chipped away where it was wrong.

They just put more cement over the top of it.

Despite her reservations, Michelle paid up in full

because she didn't want a big row with her wedding day weeks away.

But she soon wished she hadn't.

Large cracks started appearing in the render.

In fact, one corner of the house

had a crack running down from top to bottom.

Unbelievable.

We went out the back and noticed

it was all starting to crumble away again.

And that wasn't the only problem.

The cowboys fitted a pipe that didn't actually go into a drain.

What was that about?

And it was a different diameter to the pipe that fed into it.

Just moves up and down

where he hasn't put it on properly.

I've never seen it move like that before.

When John tried to open the kitchen window,

he discovered yet another problem.

It only opened a couple of inches

where the fascia boards have come down.

It doesn't allow the window to be open.

It opens about two or three inches and that's it.

For John, this was the most worrying bodge of the lot.

The list of problems the Wilsons discovered

in the days after the builders left went on.

Some of the fascia they'd fitted partially blocked a doorway

and John kept banging his head on it.

The cowboys left the windowsills in a mess

and the windows themselves in such a state

it was hard to see out of them.

There was cement on my windows.

Which, they came back, tried to clean off,

but they never done a proper job because it's still on the windows.

And because the render was so badly cracked,

rainwater got into the house causing serious damp problems.

It just caused dampness in my kitchen.

You can see where there's mould coming in.

John and Michelle were discovering bodge after bodge

in the build-up to their big day.

It was the last thing they needed at the time.

It caused a lot of stress, going through the year.

Especially leading up to the wedding. We argued quite a bit.

I cried quite a bit.

At the end of the day, I do feel annoyed that he has left us

in such a state that, you know,

it caused personal problems as well.

All the stress put a real dampener on the Wilsons' wedding day.

And because they'd had to spend much of what they'd saved

on the building work,

it meant that instead of the honeymoon of their dreams

in the Caribbean,

they ended up in a cheap hotel in Turkey.

It's now a little over a year later

and the damp caused by the cracked render

has spread throughout the house.

Because John has chronic asthma, which is made worse by damp spores,

Michelle has tried her utmost

to fix it with special paint, but to no avail.

The damp now, you see everywhere.

I've had a couple of asthma attacks with it.

The Wilsons now have no faith in anything the builders did,

including the render.

So they won't let their nieces play in the back yard when they visit.

I won't even let them out now.

I'm frightened it's going to come down again.

What a shame.

These guys weren't dreaming up any grand designs here,

they were simply carrying out essential repairs to their home.

Even more upsetting then, that the fallout should overshadow

what should've been the happiest day of their lives.

We're not rich. I don't think we'll ever be rich.

But, you know,

£2,600 to me and John is a lot of money.

Not surprisingly the whole episode

has had a profound emotional impact on the couple.

I just feel like crying.

It's not very nice when I have visitors in the house either.

When they see that damp, I get the bit embarrassed, thinking,

"What do you think of my house?"

I actually feel let down by the builder.

There's been a mistake and he's not man enough to come and sort it out.

But how much exactly needs sorting out?

Cowboys have a habit of hiding their bodges beneath the surface.

So what is the full extent of havoc

this guy has caused to the Wilsons' home?

To find out, we asked independent building surveyor,

Euan Elliott, to inspect his work.

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

and is about to fill me in on what he found.

Water's going to get in behind there, and frost is going to get in.

The whole lot's going to come off the face.

'First item on the agenda, well, as rendering jobs go,

'just how bad is this one?'

The problem is that the render is falling off.

It's cracked, water is getting in behind it.

It's falling away, it's not doing its job.

-Already, it's coming away?

-That's right.

There's a vertical crack all the way up there.

This is the exposed side of the building

so the wind and rain

comes along here, straight into that which goes straight

through the brickwork that's behind.

'Blimey, no wonder the Wilsons have such a problem with damp.

'What's more, because the render's been taken right down to the ground,

'they'll be affected by rising damp too.

'This is a right bodge. Even the mix is wrong.'

This render hasn't been painted

so you're seeing it in its purest form,

but there's all sorts of different colours and markings here.

The render is being affected by impurities perhaps.

It was put on when the weather was very cold.

It shouldn't have been put on when it was very cold and wet.

It's got to be put on when the weather is decent

so it's allowed to dry out properly. This will never dry out now.

So, this suggests it's a bit of a rush job,

-get it on and get onto another job.

-Looks like it.

'Yep. It's a right case of bodge it and scarper, this one.

'Just look at what he's done to the pipes.'

Instead of taking the pipes off and putting new ones on,

they've just put a larger diameter one on, just to botch up.

-These should have been replaced.

-This is really cutting corners now.

That's it. They're not supported. They going to move.

You can already see it's leaking here.

It looks like the water that's coming down the pipe

is backed up and coming over the top.

-We've got three pipes coming in here...

-Yes.

..served by one drain, but the rainwater pipe,

that misses the drain.

That's it, if we get a very heavy rain storm,

it's going straight over the yard.

It's not going to go down the gully as it's supposed to.

'Water, water everywhere. And this soil pipe contains asbestos.

'It should've been replaced,

'but at the very least the builder should have alerted the Wilsons.

'This guy had clearly never heard of the phrase, "duty of care".

'I mean, look at the window.'

So this window...

As you can see, the fascia board comes down

and stops the window opening at the top. That's as far as it can open.

We've got a kitchen there.

-You want to have the window opening properly.

-That's ridiculous.

You...you put on a fascia so low

that you can't open a window of your house. In a kitchen, of all places.

That's right. It shows there hasn't been any thought.

It would have been apparent, as soon as it went on,

before the gutters were put on.

You would've seen the window wouldn't have been able to open.

I can safely say that whoever did this job

-doesn't give a monkey's.

-I don't think so.

'Right, I think I can guess what he's going to say,

'but it's make-your-mind-up time for Euan.'

-How would you mark it out of 10?

-The whole lot's got to be done again.

-I can't give you anything out of 10.

-What, zero?

-A big, fat zero.

In short, the work of a rank amateur.

And John and Michelle had handed over

more than £2,500 of their wedding fund.

Time to bring in the good guys.

And here's head honcho, Anthony Williams,

leading his posse into the fray.

The render that been applied by the cowboy is so bad,

there's only one option. To rip it off and start again.

The good guys swing into action.

It's out with the big boy's toys,

as that sorry stonework is chipped away and chopped away.

These fellas take proper care of the pipework. That's more like it.

That badly holed pipe will need some TLC too.

This time, the rubble is bagged up and disposed of properly.

Yep, it's a great start.

But can they give the Wilsons the walls of their dreams?

Only time will tell.

I'm in Wales in the Rhondda Valley, where Michelle and John Wilson

were forced to dip into their wedding fund

to make repairs to their home,

but ended up wasting their money on a bodge job.

Well, our good guys have now finished their work here.

Let's see how things are looking.

I do hope the Wilsons now have a render to be proud of.

-Hi, Michelle?

-Yeah.

I'm Jonnie. Nice to meet you. How are you doing?

-All right?

-All right, thank you.

-Good, good.

-Come on in.

'While Michelle puts the kettle on,

'I'm going to take a look at our good guys' handiwork.'

Now, before I go outside, there was a job previously done

by the cowboy builder that was affecting the inside of the house.

And that was in the kitchen of all places,

you couldn't even open the window.

Huh! Problem solved.

'Fancy putting up a fascia which blocks a window!

'That's totally clueless.

'Our good guys are clued up, though,

'and they've sorted the problem perfectly.

'Let's see what else they've been up to.'

New downpipe, new guttering, new fascia.

'Crikey, they've been busy!

'And I haven't even checked out the render yet.

'Remember, the cowboy left behind a cracked, crumbling mess.

'Now, though, it's a totally different story.'

It's a textured finish. It'll obviously need decorating

or painting, but that wasn't within our builder's remit.

That's a job for later on.

What WAS to protect this building

while putting on a render that's going to last.

It looks like it's going to do just that.

Now, there was an issue here before insomuch that the old render,

albeit blown, was going pretty much right into to the floor here,

and that was going to cause damp problems later on.

Here, our good guy builders have done exactly

what they should have done in any rendering job.

You should see a bell drip.

That's like the profile of a bell, if you like.

It comes out slightly wide at the bottom,

which means all the rainwater will come down this rendered surface

and drip harmlessly to the floor and away from the building.

'Yep, this render's clearly been applied by people who know

'what they're doing. And that cracked pipe's been sorted out too,

'along with the soil stack.

'Head honcho, Anthony Williams

'is about to fill me in on what he found.'

We found out that we had an asbestos soil pipe.

We had that correctly taken away by professionals and, obviously,

consignment notice given.

I mean, we then replaced it in all UPVC plastic.

Much better job and at least it lasts.

Should the previous builder have sorted that out?

I mean, I personally think you couldn't have taken off the render

on this job and not noticed that there was an asbestos pipe there.

I mean, it had a big crack in it.

A great big crack in the asbestos pipe,

which was merely covered over with sand and cement and painted.

'So the cowboy's not only cracked the pipe,

'the evidence suggests they bodged an asbestos problem too.

'Unbelievable!

'They clearly weren't too hot on health and safety

'and either weren't aware or didn't care about the importance

'of weather conditions when applying a render.

'Anthony thinks that's the reason their render was so rubbish.'

Anything cement-based needs to be

above three degrees to carry out anything.

Obviously, we can't do it in rainy conditions.

It's got to be a good temperature and good, dry day.

'And guess what?

'The cowboys did their render when it was cold and wet.

'Hmm! That's taking pride in your work, isn't it(?)

'Right, time for a chat with John and Michelle

'about their builder's version of events.

'Bit of an unusual one, I must say.

'This fellow's actually admitted the job was substandard.'

Now, your builder says he's very sorry if you had any problems

and he blames the subcontractor who carried out the work.

Why was he subcontracting the work anyway?

And the end of the day, who did you pay money to?

Him, so why did he have to have a subcontractor?

Why didn't he tell us that in an email?

Why not get in contact and say,

"Sorry, you weren't happy with the subcontractor.

"Can I pop up and we'll have a chat and sort something out?"

Not just to ignore text messages, phone calls, emails.

He does admit that he probably should have come back over

-and checked the standard of work.

-Yeah, I agree.

Because he came here once. And that's it.

He also says that he is no longer using the subcontractor.

I still wouldn't use him. If he was the last builder on earth,

I wouldn't use him again.

'And who can blame her,

'bearing in mind this careless cowboy

'had such an impact on her big day.'

He ruined my wedding

because I couldn't have the honeymoon of my dreams.

Which, basically...

It takes a lot to spoil something and he definitely has.

'But the Wilsons can now get on with their lives

'in an expertly-rendered home that doesn't just look nice,

'it will also protect the walls underneath.

'And because the render is watertight,

'a dehumidifier inside the house

'will sort out the damp problems once and for all.

'It's time to check out the good guys' handiwork

'with John and Michelle.'

So this looks tidy, then, doesn't it?

-Oh, much better!

-Just a bit!

So you requested the more textured finish, did you?

Yes. It just looks better than something plain.

Yeah, I think you're right, mate.

What colour are you going to do it, then?

-That's up to the missus.

-Cream.

'Yep, important decisions like that are much better left to the boss!

'Cream, eh? Yeah, that should work.

'When the cowboy left town, this house was a neighbourhood eyesore.

'Now, though, it just needs a lick of that cream paint

'and it will look fantastic.'

-You proud of it?

-Very, very.

-I am, very.

-And apparently, you can open the window now! That's nice, eh?

-It is!

He's put all new fascias up here. New guttering.

-Looks the job, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it does.

But knowing they know what they're doing here,

you also know that any guttering they put up

is going to work properly.

-It is.

-Yeah, it's all sorted now.

'And it's such a relief for the Wilsons that the previously

'asbestos-ridden soil pipe has been successfully sorted

'by our knights in shining armour.'

-You've got peace of mind now, haven't you?

-That's right, yeah.

You'd think that any builder worth their salt would have said,

"Hold on, Michelle and John. We've got an issue here with the pipe.

"It's asbestos. It should be replaced."

-Didn't even tell you?

-No.

-No.

'And that's appalling.

'Especially bearing in mind Michelle's nieces

'often come round to play in the back garden.

'But now our good guys have salvaged the situation, the Wilsons

'are planning on building a patio

'so they can relax with the little ones.'

Well, look, if your next job is patio-ing this,

someone had better get their back into it,

-and that's not me. That's you, John!

-Yes!

I'll leave you to it. You've got lots of planning to do.

-Michelle, it was a pleasure to meet you.

-And you.

-John, likewise.

-Cheers, mate.

Good luck with this. Rather you than me!

'Yep, patio-laying is rather hard work. Good luck to them!'

Well, the last thing that Michelle and John needed

on a run-up to a wedding was more stress.

That's exactly what the cowboy builder gave them

with the bodge of a job he did.

But thanks to the good guys, well, you heard it from Michelle herself.

She's elated with the job that's been done.

And now they can start planning for the future again.

And the first job on their list, sorting out the garden

so their nieces can come and visit and play safely there.

The good thing about this,

though, is they've now finally got a guy they can trust.

And I guess I know who's going to get the call.

Our good guy builder, Anthony.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd