Episode 30 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.

Mum had gone in to put the light on

and as she touched the switch,

her hand came away wet.

And there was water running down the wires

into the socket.

Whether shoddy workmanship or downright lies,

cowboy builders are unscrupulous villains

who not only destroy dreams -

they wreck lives too.

And all the time that we're being fobbed off,

he's asking for more and more of the payments.

-In cash.

-More and more of the money.

-Were you paying?

-Well, unfortunately, we were.

The builder decided he was going to break into a flue

and chose the wrong flue. Instead of blocking it up,

he put a bucket and his overalls there.

It's terrible!

We've got the Good Guys in our posse to help turn these houses from hell

into heavenly homes.

This room is absolutely amazing.

It's...it's stunning.

It's unbelievable.

It's better than I imagined.

I never thought that I would, seriously, be alive and see it finished.

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,

the sun room built as a memorial to the love of this woman's life,

which turned out a damp, dangerous disaster zone.

I looked up at the roof.

There was leaks all over the place.

I looked around and I just thought,

"Sorry, Fred. I've let you down here."

And we meet the young couple who allowed their roofer to tile their living room floors,

with distressing consequences.

The work is very, very shoddy.

It looks like a DIY job,

but he literally turned around to me and said, when I rung him,

it's the best he could do.

Our first Cowboy Trap location is in the town of Ulverston in Cumbria.

Ulverston Canal is said to be

the deepest, widest and straightest canal in the United Kingdom.

Once a vital part of the town's economy,

the waterway is no longer used for commercial purposes.

The shops and pubs on Ulverston's lovely stone-paved main street

are still going strong, though,

as is the reputation of one of Ulverston's most famous sons.

The comedian Stan Laurel was born here in Ulverston,

and as you can see from the statue beside me,

the town remain rightfully proud of him to this very day.

Now, Laurel of course went on to find world-wide fame

alongside Oliver Hardy in an enduring series of comedy films

know for their masterly use of slapstick.

Which is kind of appropriate, really,

because the work you are about to see

displays a level of buffoonery they'd both be rather proud of.

This cowboy's unlucky victim

lives in this three-bed detached farmhouse.

It's home to Avril Sweeting,

a retired education officer.

Avril's daughter, Jane, lives next door.

Avril is still coming to terms with

the abrupt death of her long-term partner, Fred, five years ago.

She was in hospital recovering from heart surgery

when she was told that he'd died at home.

The nursing staff eventually came and told me...

..he'd died.

Um...

And I didn't believe them.

But when I got home, I still could say,

"Thank you, Lord, for the 17 years that we had."

Because we were so lucky.

Avril and Fred, who was a farmer,

had many happy years together in their farmhouse.

Avril loved weaving,

and Fred liked looking out onto his land.

They often talked about building a sun room at the back of their home,

which they could enjoy in their latter years.

His dream was we would build this room...

..with a lot of light, so he could see the fields where his stock was

and I would have the light and the beautiful views

to do the weaving.

"I'll build you the room and we'll sit there together."

Fred's untimely death had a huge impact on the whole family,

but his dream lived on.

As time went by, Avril became convinced

that building the sun room that Fred had set his heart on

would be the best possible tribute

to her beloved late husband.

In the summer of 2011,

two years after Fred died,

Avril enlisted an architect to design a sun room

with a lantern roof.

The plans were approved by the local council,

so the next stage was finding someone to build it.

A local builder was recommended by someone Avril knew,

so she invited him round to discuss the project.

Very likeable,

young family man,

which I liked.

Er...

And this was going to be his flagship.

He'd built one similar.

So it was no problem to him.

Mum went about this as she does with most things.

She thought,

"Well, I'll kind of be doing him a favour as well.

"He's a local lad and he's young, and it will be a good, decent amount of work for him."

The builder wanted £45,000 to build the sun room extension

though the extensive joinery and glasswork required would cost extra.

Jane knew that the construction of the lantern roof

wasn't a simple job,

so she asked to see one the builder had done previously.

He said, "Yes, absolutely,"

but the telephone number was never quite...

given, and...

then, apparently, these people were on holiday,

so that never happened.

And with hindsight, it's easy to work out why.

Take my advice...

Don't accept excuses.

Checking out a builder's completed work is the only way

of ensuring they have the skill set they say they have.

Only then can you be confident he's not a cowboy.

Work on Avril's sun room began in January 2012,

with the builder promising the job would be completed by Easter.

A payment schedule had been put in place,

with a £5,000 deposit at the start

and staged payments after that.

But the builder asked for money more regularly than was agreed.

He would keep coming back to Mum,

not at any particular stage of...

progression.

But he would come back in and he would want

a bit more money. He would always justify it

with he needed to buy some materials or other.

And it wasn't just the builder's regular demands for cash

that caused concern.

Soon Jane and Avril began to notice he was creating a terrible mess

and his workmanship was really shoddy.

The floor didn't feel level,

the windows were full of gaps

and the doorways looked amateurish.

And that's not all.

The plastering was atrocious.

You could see where the boards were joined together

weren't correct.

"Oh, it'll be right."

That would be all you got.

"Oh, it'll be sorted. It will be right."

OK, so, perpetual demands for cash and shoddy workmanship.

What's usually number three in the Holy Trinity of cowboy building?

Oh, yeah! Falling badly behind schedule.

It just didn't seem to be progressing

as I thought

that it should have been.

No kidding!

The original finish deadline of Easter was missed.

Then a new deadline of August was missed.

Ditto October,

and by December, well, the builder refused to give an end date at all.

And if all that wasn't bad enough,

the lantern roof started leaking like a sieve.

The leaks became apparent

all over the ceiling.

I would say, "Hey, come on!

"It's a new roof.

"I shouldn't be having any leaks."

And there was just silence.

The builder was leaving the sun room

in an unsafe and potentially shocking state.

Mum had gone in to put the light on

and as she touched the switch,

her hand came away wet.

And there was water running down the wires

into the socket.

Then just when Avril and Jane thought it couldn't get any worse,

it did.

Local building control came to inspect

and they were horrified by what they saw.

They looked at the doorways,

which were condemned.

They looked at the roof,

which was condemned.

He hadn't gone by the spec

of the regulations at all,

so they had to be condemned.

Um...

And they were appalled at the workmanship of it.

By now, the builder was hardly ever to be seen.

And then, just after Christmas, he delivered his final bombshell.

He walked out, never to return.

In the end, he said, "There's no money left there for me,

"and I've got bills - I need to earn a living."

And we realised

he hasn't got any more money left.

He's virtually been paid.

He's not done the work.

And it all made sense, why he just wasn't here any more.

When the builder left, Avril had paid him over £45,000.

And all she had to show for it was a leaky, unfinished extension

which looked like a building site.

Not surprisingly, she and Jane are devastated.

We're both really struggling.

We're struggling with stress, we're struggling with upset.

I have spent all my money

on a nightmare.

It was only because the rest of the family was strong

and we're all here together

that... I honestly think that's the only reason

we've all got through it.

I can't believe anybody could do this,

could take the money, as he has...

and...

..not do what he's said.

What a shame for Avril and Jane,

because this is an absolute textbook case of a cowboy builder.

The one-man band with a smooth line in patter

who persuades a homeowner they're capable

of doing all manner of trades at a high level of skill.

Gets paid up front, and pretty much paid in full,

before disappearing off with a huge amount of work still to be done.

But how much work?

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

So while things definitely look pretty bad around here,

we'll need independent building surveyor Euan Elliott

to inspect the work before we can be sure of what we're dealing with.

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

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

It's not finished, and it's a massive bodge.

First item on the agenda - something that's very clearly beyond the pale.

There seems to be a bucket in the wall.

That's right. Unfortunately, they were going to put a fireplace

into this room, and the builder

decided he was going to break into a flue, and chose the wrong flue

and instead of blocking it up, put a bucket and his overalls there.

He's compromised some existing work there.

That's right. He could have blocked that up

so they could use the fireplace on the other side of this wall.

-Now, there's our bucket...

-Yes.

There's wires, there's another pipe... What's this pipe?

Is this another attempt at breaking into a flue?

No, that was a vent pipe from the bathroom.

What would you suggest he's venting out the bathroom?

Am I thinking smells and moisture?

-That's right.

-Whatever you're venting out the bathroom,

-is now being vented into a reception room.

-That's right.

That's lovely(!)

A bucket and overalls to patch up a busted flue

and a ventilation pipe coming in from the toilet.

I mean, it's hard to keep a straight face about this stuff.

The plastering looks like the work of a comedian too.

But there's nothing funny about the dangerous way

the electrics have been left.

And when you venture outside, it's clear why this sun room

feels more like Siberia.

Outside...

Yes, there's a problem with the way the rafters

are set over the wall plate.

They've been birdsmouthed,

but the fixings

actually miss the wall plate.

So it's only the weight of the roof actually holding the roof down.

-So it's floating?

-It is.

This is a fairly exposed house, so, high winds,

we'll have some issues.

The roof will lift.

The windows aren't finished.

It's just appallingly bad.

You've got windows and doors throughout this extension

that have been bought in - they look fine.

-But it's the fitting of them that's the issue.

-That's right.

It's relying on a foam bed. You don't want to rely on a foam bed.

We're very exposed.

Any wind or water going about

could be blown underneath there. It's just no good.

No good indeed.

As is the state the builder left things outside.

Not just an eyesore,

but completely unsafe too.

But how about that leaky roof?

To start with, there's no guttering anywhere to be seen.

This stage of the building,

you'd have thought gutters would have been put on,

just to get the water away from running down onto untreated timbers.

I think I can just see some water marks in here.

That's right. We've got a flat roof in the middle here

with this fantastic light in the middle.

It leaks!

Why is it? This is a flat roof here.

Are you going to tell me the fall is the wrong way?

The fall's the wrong way, the material's wrong.

Everything, if it could go wrong, it's going wrong here.

So we've got, pretty much, inside, out,

top to bottom,

bodges?

-That's right.

-So, how would you mark this builder's work out of ten?

I'm struggling to give it more than one.

-One?! Really?

-That's all.

The bits that are right were done by somebody else.

The bits that are wrong were done by this builder.

It's heartache for the people who live there.

One out of ten, eh?

I'm not surprised Euan's so appalled,

as on the bodge-o-meter,

this one is off the scale.

Check out the evidence.

A fundamentally useless, leaking roof,

which hasn't been tied in properly,

lousy flashing, non-existent guttering,

gaps under the windows,

dangerous doorways,

shocking electrics,

rotten plastering,

a hopelessly uneven floor,

a garden that looks like a rubbish dump...

Oh, and I mustn't forget a busted chimney flue,

repaired with the aid of a bucket.

All that, and Avril had paid this builder

getting on for £50,000.

What a mess.

But you know the plot. Time to bring in the Good Guys.

And here they are,

all set to turn this unmitigated bodge

into a first-class build.

So much needs doing just to get this sun room watertight and windproof,

Avril is chipping in.

Rain is forecast, so that leaking roof will have to wait for now.

In the meantime, the gang get to work on the windows and doors.

Oh...mind the gap!

Then it's on to the eaves,

with new timber added to make sure this part of the roof

offers proper protection from the elements.

And the floor, which needs a brand-new layer of screed

if it's to stop looking like a skateboard park.

It's a great start,

but can they bring a ray of sunshine to Avril's dreams?

Only time will tell.

I'm in Cumbria, just outside the market town of Ulverston,

where Avril Sweeting, who's in her 70s,

set her heart on building the sun room her late husband

had always dreamt of.

But the builder she employed was a cowboy,

who left her with a hopeless, leaking wreck on her hands.

Now, I know our Good Guys have been somewhat hampered by

the typical Cumbrian weather on this job,

but I'm hoping they're pretty much finished now.

So let's see how Avril and her daughter, Jane, are getting on.

-Hello, Avril.

-Hello. Come on in, Jonnie.

-Thank you very much.

I must say, it's nice weather here, for once!

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

at the extension,

and I like what I see.

Remember what it looked like before?

Well, now check it out.

They cowboy had left behind an unmitigated bodge.

But our Good Guys clearly worked wonders.

Nice one.

I bet Avril's thrilled.

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

I'd like a chat with her and Jane

about how they got themselves caught so deeply in the cowboy trap,

especially as the problems with the work

were so plain for all to see.

-The problem with him, really... I mean, he was aggressive towards the end...

-Yes.

..but most of the time, he would simply shrug his shoulders

and he'd smile, and he'd do, or try to do

the job he'd done from the beginning,

which was to be very nice through most of it.

"It's all going to be fine. It's simply not finished.

"As soon as I'm done, it'll be great."

-Was that not frustrating?

-Hugely. Hugely.

You're getting fobbed off there,

-really, in a very nice, polite way, but you're getting fobbed off.

-Yes.

And all the time that we're being fobbed off,

he's asking for more and more of the payments.

-In cash.

-More and more of the money.

-Were you paying?

Well, unfortunately, we were.

And it was a massive mistake.

And that, ladies and gentlemen,

is how so many cowboy builders manage to ply their sickening trade.

Remember, it's not just your bank balance that will suffer,

but your health and happiness too.

It got to the point where I...

was desperately worried about Mum.

Mum doesn't have the best health anyway.

She's had all sorts of heart issues over the years,

and I could see Mum was getting lower and lower about it.

Because this had all been about Fred.

It was the reason it was built.

It was why she wanted the room in the first place.

What was your lowest point throughout all of this?

Christmas Day, when I had cooked Christmas dinner for the family,

and in the afternoon, I was going to go and weave in there,

and I couldn't stay in there for 20 minutes, it was so cold.

I looked up at the roof. There was leaks all over the place.

I looked around and I just thought...

"Sorry, Fred. I've let you down here."

I'm so sorry you think that, because you really hadn't let Fred down.

Someone's let you down in this process,

and it's no-one sat around this table.

It's truly heartbreaking to hear Avril talk like this,

but the good news is this long-awaited sun room

is finally about to come into its own.

Now, before I do a grand tour with her and Jane,

I want to take a closer look at our Good Guys' handiwork.

This room is absolutely amazing!

It...it's stunning.

Even more so now the Good Guys have been here

and they've clearly put a floor in,

put some skirting board in as well.

Yeah, it looks so much better.

Oh, yeah, guess what's missing?

A bucket sticking out of the wall!

That's all been blocked up, which means they can use that flue again,

whatever's behind that wall.

Avril will now be able to finish off that fireplace

in the months to come.

But with the toilet ventilation re-routed,

the electrics made safe...

..and the doors and windows properly sealed,

she can get back to her weaving right away.

It's watertight. I know. I've got full faith in our builders

that this place is now hunky dory.

But you can still see remnants of that leaking roof before.

There's damp patches there. Obviously, this place needs decorating.

The remit for our Good Guys was make it safe and watertight.

By putting the flooring in as well,

it's starting to look more like the finished product,

which is absolutely amazing.

I tell you what, I bet Avril and Jane can't wait to move in here.

Right.

Time to look outside.

Well, the first thing I notice here

is just...

it looks quality. It looks really good.

Now, if you remember, the window had been fitted,

but it hadn't been finished.

But our Good Guys have...well, it looks like

they've used local materials, which is fantastic,

but what they've done is manage to put this windowsill in,

but it ties in with the whole look of this nice stone facade.

And it's watertight - the main thing we need to happen here.

But I think the big job here was the roof.

There was leaks, it wasn't tied in...

It was pretty much going to blow off with some bad storms.

But now, it's now got soffiting.

That's basically this boxing-in we've got here, this woodwork.

And on the side of it,

lo and behold, we've got guttering, which means

you're getting all this rainwater away

from the main body of the building,

which is exactly how it should have been in the first place.

And talking of how it should have been done in the first place,

what about that flat roof that Euan, our surveyor,

was so appalled by?

It's a good spot to have a look at this roof.

Now, let's not forget,

behind that ridge there's a flat roof

and they think that was where a lot of the problems were -

remember the leaks coming around the roof light?

But also, these ridge tiles look like they've been replaced.

I mean, if they've had to muck around with the structure of this roof,

this has turned a pretty big job into a massive job.

Time for a chat with the man who had to sort all this out -

Good Guy head honcho Alex.

He's seen with his own eyes what the cowboy

tried to hide from his unlucky victims.

So what did you have to do?

Essentially, the whole roof came off.

The whole construction of the roof was wrong.

Everything was running the wrong way,

so the water was pooling on the roof.

We had to lift the whole structure up

probably about 600mm.

Do you see that many times on stuff that's recently been finished?

No, not at all. No.

Our worst suspicions turned out to be true, then.

And without a decent lid on top of this extension,

all the internal plastering and decorating

was no more than papering over the cracks.

Sorted now, though.

And with proper guttering finally installed,

Avril can be confident that what's underneath

will remain as dry as a bone.

Right, now, before I do the grand tour with Avril and Jane,

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

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

and I can't wait to hear their responses

to his version of events.

Now, your builder has, to some extent,

held his hands up and admitted that he got things wrong.

Now, he admits

he went in too cheap with his original quote

and he says he's paying the price now.

Oh, HE's...?!

Oh, dear, my heart bleeds(!)

But remember, none of the glasswork

was anything to do with him. We paid that on top.

That's a lot of the project, that glasswork. The bi-fold doors -

they don't come cheap.

So you bought those on top of paying him nearly £50,000?

-Yes.

-Absolutely.

And he's paying the price for coming in too cheap.

I nearly lost my mother through it.

I know who's paying the price.

And I know who has, and it isn't him.

Absolutely it's not him.

-It's upsetting, isn't it?

-I am absolutely lost for words.

That he dares to look for sympathy

after what he's done...

It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable... and incomprehensible.

Not sure how you come to the conclusion

it's the customer's fault you under-quoted.

But hey, from what I've seen,

this guy is having to defend the indefensible.

He totally denies any aggressive behaviour towards you,

and says he's disappointed you've seen fit to make such an allegation.

Really? HE'S disappointed?

That's his conscience. He knows differently.

Well, whatever the whys and wherefores, one thing's for sure -

the Good Guys have totally transformed this place.

I can't wait to hear what Avril and Jane think about it.

I actually don't believe this is real.

It's stunning!

Absolutely.

And all this was what Fred used to want to sit and watch.

Yeah.

He was a farmer all his life.

What a view.

I mean, it absolutely speaks for itself.

From here, you don't see a great deal of how much work's been done,

cos the roof's on top of it.

The soffiting, yeah, OK, it's done,

and it's all been sealed.

That means it's not going to be cold and draughty and damp in there now.

I walked in there earlier on and had a sneak peek

and it was boiling in there!

I mean, that's the way it should be - it's a sun room, isn't it?

This is just cosmetic now.

The scary stuff

was trying to get a room that was going to stay there,

that was going to be solid,

that wasn't going to leak.

That was useable.

Let's go inside, shall we? Let's have a look.

Is it open? Yes, it is.

There might be a few bits left to do here -

our Good Guys were only taking down the scaffolding this morning -

but already you can see how dramatically life has changed

for these two.

I'm moving in!

THEY LAUGH

I think it's the best sun room I have ever been in.

What does it mean to both of you, really,

to be able to stand in this room...

your loom here...

..ready to be used, really?

I'm just...relieved...

we're all still here at the... towards the end of the journey.

And, um...

I'm just really pleased she's got what she deserves,

finally...finally.

And she can be happy now.

No more stress. You can just quietly

go about and do your...

do your pottery and do your weaving.

What do you think, Avril?

It's unbelievable. It's...

better than I imagined. I never thought that I would seriously

be alive and see it finished.

I'm not surprised Avril and Jane are so chuffed.

From almighty building bodge...

..to a sun room that's simply sublime.

At long last, mother and daughter have got what they dreamt of.

I don't want much from life. I just want to...

be able to quietly do my craft work...

..and look at the view.

And to think of Fred,

on that cloud over there, laughing his socks off at me,

"Told you I've always loved you, Avril.

"And I'd make it right for you."

Well, he has, hasn't he?

-Absolutely.

-That's what it is, yes.

So, thanks, Fred. Love you.

And on that note, it's time to leave Avril and Jane

to enjoy this marvellous room.

Though not without a cheeky kiss goodbye, of course!

Well,

that's quite some journey these ladies have been on.

But at long last,

thanks to the Good Guys,

they've finally got what they set out to achieve in the first place -

an amazing room.

But now...

Well, Avril can sit in that room come rain, hail or shine

in the knowledge that the roof won't blow off.

It won't be cold and draughty. It'll be glorious.

She can take in those amazing views

and have happy memories of her husband Fred.

Good news at last.

Avril and Jane learned the hard way how important it is

to get proper references before hiring a builder.

It's a lesson that could have prevented an awful lot of heartache

for this young couple in Lancashire.

We're in Skelmersdale,

a town famed for its unique road system.

There are no traffic lights here -

just supersized roundabouts like this one,

Europe's second largest.

And if you think that would drive you round the bend, so to speak,

spare a thought for the victims of our next cowboy builder -

Cathy Swift and her partner Mike Conroy,

who live in this three-bedroom terraced house.

Cathy's an insurance broker and Mike's a bus driver.

The couple met five years ago in a night club,

where Mike was working on security,

and the spark between them was instant.

I went over talking to him

and we just was chatting

and he came over when we were inside, had a drink with us,

and then we exchanged numbers and it just started from there, really.

When I first met Cathy, she was a nice girl.

Good-looking, didn't wear lots of make-up.

Didn't have fake hair or nothing like that.

So all them were good points.

And she had a good personality.

It wasn't long before this pair of lovebirds

decided to set up home together.

To begin with, the couple couldn't decide exactly where they wanted to live,

but they eventually homed in on Skelmersdale.

It was nice and close to Cathy's family,

and it was a place they knew they could get roughly what they're after for their money.

The house they ended up buying needed a lot of work,

but Cathy knew straight away it was a place she could call home.

I love the house. I feel safe here.

And I do like my garden as well.

It's really nice in the summer.

A condition of Cathy and Mike's mortgage

was that they needed to carry out remedial work to the roof,

so the first-time buyers looked at one of those websites

where you get to rate your builder

and chose a local firm with the most positive feedback.

I think we know where this one's going, don't we?

I didn't know a roofer. Mike didn't know a roofer.

So we thought, rather than just going on the Yellow Pages,

and just picking any random roofer,

we'll go on a recommended website, we'll get some feedback.

And because that feedback seemed so good,

Mike and Cathy didn't take up any proper references

or get any other quotes.

Which is a shame, because as we all know,

online feedback isn't worth the paper it ISN'T written on.

Cathy and Mike accepted their builder's quote of £1,140.

And work had hardly even started

when the couple decided they liked these guys enough

to entrust them with the job of realising one of Cathy's dreams.

I've always wanted a white gloss tiled floor.

That is the one thing that I said to Mike if we could afford

that I wanted to have done.

So we thought it may be easier just to use one builder

than have several tradesmen coming in and out.

They said you us, "If you get the flooring and you pick it, we can do it."

Which brought the grand total to £2,580.

At this point, Mike and Cathy didn't even know whether these guys

were decent roofers.

How could they, as they hadn't taken up any references?

But of course, tiling is a different skill altogether.

So if these builders weren't bringing in a specialist,

well, it's obvious, isn't it?

With building, as with anything, if you've got a Jack of all trades,

you've got a master of none.

Take a tip from me...

..or you might regret it.

As Cathy was about to find out.

Returning from work one day,

she discovered the builder in somewhat of a hurry to leave.

He just said to me, "Cathy, it's done, it's finished.

"Have you got my money?"

Went upstairs and got that,

paid it over to him, and as I did,

I looked through the door and said to him,

"It looks a mess in there, you know."

This was dreadful work.

You didn't have to be a building surveyor to see the tiles were covered in grout, as were the walls.

The builder told Cathy it would come off with a warm cloth in the morning,

so she gave him his money, and he left.

But of course, that's not how things turned out.

24 hours later when Cath went in the room,

it looked like a bomb had hit it,

but after literally about 30 hours' cleaning,

things just wasn't right.

The tiles were uneven.

There was gaps in it.

Realising the situation was hopeless,

the couple contacted the builder to get some answers.

I said to him, "I'm really not happy with this floor.

"I'm so upset."

So I said, "What are you going to do, then?"

He said, "I'm going to try to rectify the problem myself.

"Can you get me some more tiles?"

More tiles?!

He had to be joking.

That's another couple of hundred quid.

But the couple were so desperate to get the problem sorted,

they stumped up the cash.

And guess what?

He actually made things worse.

Again, I came home,

and in my opinion,

and in everyone else's opinion who's been to the house since,

the work is very, very shoddy.

You know. It doesn't look professional.

It looks like a DIY job.

It looks like something I could probably do myself.

And I'm really, really not happy with it,

but he literally turned around to me and said,

when I rung him, it's the best he could do.

The best he could do

had in total cost this young couple close to a heartbreaking £3,000.

Worse still, cracks were beginning to develop

in their relationship too.

The pressure it placed on us at the time,

it was bad, you know?

We had no savings left cos we had spent it all.

I think we argued more that week than we've ever argued before.

When you move into your own house,

it should be a joyous occasion.

I do feel for Cathy and Michael.

You might think, "Well, it's only a tiled floor,"

but of course this was a hefty chunk of money for this couple.

What's more, the whole business has overshadowed those first few months of having their first home together.

This job certainly looks shoddy on the surface,

but what is the full extent of this tiling travesty?

And while we're at it,

we should probably take a look at that roof too.

So we asked independent building expert Mathew Butterworth

to inspect the work.

Mathew's conducted a forensic examination

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

The materials they've used are fine.

It's just mainly the lack of quality, really.

To me, it appears like the job's been rushed.

The preparation's not been right.

And really, it's not been thought through.

Possibly been carried out by tradesmen

who are not really skilled in that area of work.

You've got different colour grouting in between the tiles,

which looks messy at best, doesn't it?

And then you've got the different levels as well,

which is almost a trip hazard, isn't it?

It is, really, and I think that the point of it was

that the lady specifically wanted

the grout to be suitable for washing it down.

And it appears that it's not the right kind of grout,

because it's discoloured now as she's been washing it,

and there are quite a number of the tiles that are now hollow

and, over a period of months, will just lift.

Then they will become a serious trip hazard,

because they'll need to be relaid.

The guy that did this was, to all intents and purposes, a roofer.

Well, he seems to be, yeah. From the rest of the work he's carried out,

there's various trades that he's tried to cover.

Obviously, he's not actually skilled in any one of them,

from what I can see.

That's more of a DIY attempt, that, that somebody perhaps does it once every several years, you know,

and that's not really good enough for a tradesman.

Mathew's clearly not impressed.

And something tells me he's not going to be

much of a fan of the roof work either.

We weren't called in to look at the roof,

but we might as well have a butcher's at it.

Yeah, I think in this situation,

it's been left to the builder to decide what materials they should use,

and like you said before about the tiles,

the occupant's bought the right tiles.

Here, you see an example of the tradesman's obviously

charged a rate which would be expecting proper, quality materials,

but then he's cheating the job by using substandard materials.

I think on one of the other shots,

there's some flash band being used on the back of the roof,

which... He's not flashed it in properly.

He's used a lot of mortar, which is going to absorb...

That mortar ain't staying around, is it?

It's just a temporary repair material rather than a permanent repair,

so he's tried to save money wherever he can, really.

And that means that even though the Conroys might get away with that roof for now,

it is something that will have to be redone properly

in the not-too-distant future.

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

How would you mark this out of ten?

I'd say...

one or two, really.

Simply because it's a straightforward job.

I really do believe there are DIY-ers out there

who could do a far better job.

Essentially, a waste of someone's money.

It is, cos there's nothing you can do now

than take them up and start again.

You can't correct it in any way.

In short, it's a bodge from top to bottom.

Time to bring in the Good Guys.

And here's head honcho Les Bluck.

He's a tiling specialist, thank heavens.

First things first.

Les and the gang rip up those expensive but now useless tiles

and they go on the scrapheap.

Then it's down to the proper sub-floor

before they lay the screed down - level this time.

The tiles are cut to size and positioned correctly.

It's a great start,

but can we give Cathy and Mike the floor of their dreams?

Only time will tell.

I'm in Skelmersdale in Lancashire,

where Mike Conroy and Cathy Swift had big plans to transform the living room

in their first house together.

But their dreams were shattered when they were persuaded by their roofer

to let him tile their living-room floor.

A decision they've regretted ever since.

Well, our Good Guys have now finished the work here,

so let's see how they're getting on.

-Hello, Cathy.

-Hiya! Come in.

-Thank you very much. How are you doing?

-Not too bad. You?

I'm all right, yeah.

I can't wait to see how things look

now the Good Guys have got their hands on this floor.

Well, this looks...

very different,

because they're different tiles.

Which is great to see, but...

when you think about it,

it's a sad indictment on the job that was done before

when nothing here was worth saving.

It also means a much bigger job for our good guys.

It's ripping them up, getting a skip, getting it all off site.

But...

it looks so much better, doesn't it?

Yep, loose, messy tiles with ugly grouting

all banished.

Now it's smooth lines everywhere you look.

Nice one, guys.

When you look at the job before,

remember, there was no uniform spacing.

I mean, some spaces hadn't really been used,

but everything looks parallel.

All the tiles look set off.

They look square against the walls and the skirting boards,

but every tile is on the same level, so there's no trips at all.

You know what, when you go into someone's house,

you normally comment on the tiles.

"Oh, I like your tiles" or "I like the flooring" or whatever it is.

You don't comment on the actual tiling that's been done.

And that's because

you don't notice good tiling.

You only know it's there when it's bad.

Good Guy supremo Les is going to talk me through the challenges he faced

sorting out this faulty floor.

They've not got down to the sub-floor,

so we've had to rip the tiles up.

The existing floor that was under that,

what the council normally leave in,

the old brittle vinyl tiles.

Then straighten up the hollows.

So, what...the cowboy guy had basically

laid those new tiles

over the top of an existing floor?

Over the old vinyl tiles, yeah.

It's common practice - you remove the existing floor covering

when you put a new one down, don't you?

Yeah, you get down to your sub-floor,

which is your original floor.

So why wouldn't you do that?

Laziness?

-It's a short cut.

-Yeah.

Right, time for a heart-to-heart with Cathy and Mike

to see what their cowboy builder had to say for himself.

To begin with, he denied he'd done the tiling.

But eventually he admitted he HAD done it...

as a favour to you.

-A favour?

-Yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

OK!

As far as he knew, you were happy.

When he said, "That's the best I can do," we said, "We're still not happy".

And he just said, "Well, I can't do nothing else now."

He also said that if you'd got in touch,

he'd have come round and re-done it for you.

No.

He came back the first time...

-..bought some more tiles at our expense.

-At our expense.

And we came back and there was big gaps in it.

-The grouting hadn't even been done right.

-It was awful.

And he just turned round and said, "There's nothing else I can do."

I do think Mike and Cathy have to take some of the blame

for thinking a specialist job could have been done by any old builder,

but hopefully, they've learned a valuable lesson for the future.

Can you put this behind you?

-Yeah.

-It's your first house, and it won't be your last,

so you'd keep this lesson with you

when you next get a tradesperson in, hopefully.

Definitely. Definitely.

And I wish the guys the very best of luck in the future,

but right now, it's time to find out how Mike and Cathy feel

now they've got the slick and stylish floor they dreamt of.

I tell you what, it looks totally different here now.

Beforehand, it looked like a naff, knackered old Spanish villa!

You know. But now...

it looks more like it should do, doesn't it?

It looks like a modern apartment type place.

Perfect job.

This is what we...this is the finish that we wanted.

You can see it's level, anyway.

You've had a proper tiler do it, that's why.

You can actually walk on it without your shoes on without cutting your feet to pieces!

That's hardly too much to ask in your own home.

Different now, though.

Next time, don't get a bad roofer in to do a good floor!

-Learned that lesson.

-Learned that lesson, definitely.

And on that note, it's time for me to leave Mike and Cathy

finally to enjoy their first home together.

Well...

whenever you take on a house, your first home,

it's a huge step in your life.

But then the thought of bringing in tradesmen, it's hugely daunting.

And I think maybe a cowboy builder took advantage of this.

But...well, thanks to our Good Guys,

by the sounds of it, Michael and Cathy's faith

has been somewhat restored in the building trade,

but they've also managed to achieve their dream of transforming

the living room in their very first home.

And hopefully, this will be maybe a springboard

for carrying out future jobs in this home in years to come.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd