Episode 4 Cowboy Trap

All over the country,

cowboy builders are riding roughshod over people's dreams.

We arrived back and opened the door and saw...

literally nothing being done in the house. And my heart sank.

No job too big or too small for these jacks of no trades.

Heating bills go through the roof,

while it's left in that sort of condition.

I'm riding into town with the good guys in my posse,

aiming to turn these botched builds into ideal homes.

I put my trust in this person, I didn't have any doubts.

My guard was probably down.

And as always, I'll be revealing the cowboy tricks of the trade,

which is why the next 30 minutes

could well keep you out of the Cowboy Trap.

Today, Cowboy Trap is a stone's throw from Glasgow,

an exuberant and trendy city,

brimming with great architecture, shopping and restaurants.

It's not surprising Glasgow was once dubbed

the UK's coolest city and that's not because of its weather,

though it does seem to get more than its fair share of rain here.

A short drive from Glasgow is the magnificent scenery

of the Trossachs National Park.

Here behind me is Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain

and immortalised in song, of course.

Back in the 18th century, it was home to the outlaw Rob Roy,

a folk hero known as the Scottish Robin Hood.

Sadly, a bandit of the less romantic variety

has been operating around these parts,

a cowboy builder, who so far has gotten away scot-free.

I'm sure some of you will have spotted

that Loch Lomond's not a lake, it's a loch,

but whatever you call it, there's an abundance of water out there.

There's plenty of cowboy builders around these parts, too,

and one of them targeted this three-bedroom semi

in the Glasgow suburb of East Kilbride.

It's home to Carole and Tommy Cairns

and their children, Caitlin and Tommy Jr.

Carole is a nursery nurse and Tommy Snr works as a driving instructor.

The couple met through a mutual friend

when they were living in the East End of Glasgow.

Tommy was a keen weightlifter and Carole knew someone at his gym.

I met Carole through the actual coach of the weightlifting.

His wife at the time, Carole was a mutual friend of her.

He's active, he's fit, he's passionate about his weightlifting,

what he's doing and I thought, "Yeah, he's a nice guy."

When Carole and Tommy decided to buy their first property together,

they opted for East Kilbride because Tommy had a job offer there.

They moved to this semi, not far from Glasgow, in 2002.

Life hasn't been easy for the Cairns.

Young Tommy was diagnosed with autism when he was four years old

and caring for him has proved challenging.

Kids change your life, because it all suddenly becomes about them,

rather than about my life and what I want.

I think every parent is working towards

giving the best life for their kids as they can.

With the kids growing up, Carole and Tommy needed more space,

because it wouldn't be long before Caitlin was a teenager

and she and her brother had shared bunk beds in their small bedroom.

A situation that already wasn't ideal, given his condition.

So, the couple, like most people in this current economic climate,

decided rather than buy a new property,

they'd build an extension.

We'll just extend and stay where the children know,

stay where they're happy and extend the house and just live here

and hopefully this is the forever house.

Tommy and Carole's dream

was to have a master bedroom with en suite upstairs

and a playroom and kitchen extension downstairs.

The next step - find a builder to bring that dream to life.

Tommy, who still trains regularly at the gym,

mentioned his plans to some of his mates there

and one of them recommended a local builder.

He said he'd known him for 30 years and what's more,

he lived just around the corner from the couple.

Now, on the basis of that recommendation

and that recommendation alone, he got the gig!

Tommy and Carole felt it was a safe bet.

But this being Cowboy Trap, it would prove their undoing.

I'm looking for somebody that I could trust

and you should be able to trust a recommendation.

Here's some words of wisdom.

The Cairns' builder came round for a look and quoted £46,000.

This was to build the extension, creating a utility room,

bedroom and playroom.

French doors were to be installed in the existing kitchen,

built through into the extension.

The Cairns realised this was a big investment,

so they got a couple of other builders in to quote, too.

A second builder visited the property and quoted the Cairns £40,000,

which was six grand less than they'd been quoted by the first builder,

who promptly agreed to drop his price by £6,000, to match the second quote.

Tommy and Carole agreed, but there was no written quotation

or contract drawn up, which was a big mistake.

I put my trust in this person, I didn't have any doubts,

guard was probably down. He lived close to me.

How could I go wrong?

Planning permission was granted in May 2011,

and the builder began work, assuring them

it'd be finished in 12 weeks.

At first, things seemed fine, although the builder did insist

that payments were to be made in cash and the Cairns never got receipts.

Oops!

In July, Carole and Tommy paid the builder

the final instalment of £4,000, before heading off to Florida

with the children on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.

The builder promised that the work would be finished

while they were away and the kids spent the holiday

planning what they wanted to do with their new bedrooms on their return.

But when the family got home, they were in for a terrible shock.

We arrived back and opened the door and saw...

literally nothing being done in the house. And my heart sank.

I really felt let down...

very disappointed and angry.

Carole and Tommy couldn't believe their eyes.

The walls had been taken down and there was dust everywhere!

They had no heating or hot water and there were no cooking facilities

because the kitchen hadn't been fitted.

The house was in such a mess, the entire family

had to sleep in one bedroom.

My boy asked me why were the builders doing this to us.

I think that says it all.

Things were so bad, the Cairns decided to move into a caravan

in their friend's back garden while the builder finished the job.

When Carole and Tommy returned home to check on the work,

they noticed a distinct change in the builder's attitude,

now he'd got his final payment.

I was trying to get relations back on course,

when they were fitting the kitchen and stuff like that,

but it was clear they weren't interested after that.

The kitchen fitting was part of his quote,

but the builder's heart just wasn't in it.

He was opening the boxes, telling me he hates doing them,

but I kind of just laughed that off a wee bit

and said, "Do your magic" at the time,

hopefully that he would just kind of put the effort in

and fit the kitchen that he was paid for.

By this point, the Cairns had paid £39,200.

The build was way behind schedule, the builder's attitude was terrible,

and to make things even worse, the quality of his work was shocking.

You could see the faults were really bad in the kitchen,

at that point, there was still quite a bit to do.

There was still a lot of snagging to do, we couldn't put down our floor,

we still couldn't really paint...

y'know, the house was still not properly livable in.

There's still no proper cooking facilities.

The Cairns were forced to eat at a nearby supermarket cafe

and shower in the local sports centre.

Poor Carole was at the end of her tether.

Trying to get the children to do their homework

while they're sitting in a supermarket cafe,

and then going down to the sports centre

to get a shower to come home to go to bed

and then, you know, you've got to plan for the next day,

trying to get packed lunches ready for school,

trying to get everybody ready for work and then getting up,

basically get out for work, up and out, within 15 minutes

so that you're not hanging about in a freezing cold house.

In September 2011, the builder said he was taking a two-week break.

Two weeks became three...

then four, then five...

but the builder didn't come back.

In fact, he had the cheek to post a bill through the Cairns' door,

demanding £725 for extras.

To date, with materials and repair work added in,

Carole and Tommy have spent a staggering 48 grand

to better their home for the sake of their children.

How shameful, then, that things turned out the way they did.

Carole and Tommy have had to spend more money

refitting the kitchen, replastering the walls

and replacing the dodgy doorways.

Tommy Jr and Caitlin are still sharing a room

because the new bedroom is unusable.

Tommy was really let down.

Tommy wanted the room to have his friends up for his birthday.

That obviously never happened.

Understandably, the emotional impact on the Cairns has been significant.

I eventually had to be off work.

I was diagnosed with depression and on medication...

..and I really just didn't see the point in carrying on.

If it had just been Tommy and I, I don't think we'd have been together.

But we have commitments, we have a family,

we have to be strong, for the family.

We were at the point where we needed to see an end to all of this,

we needed to put this behind us.

It's a horrible mess, isn't it? And it's a real reminder

of the devastating consequences of allowing a cowboy builder

into your home can be.

Carole and Tommy deserve some help to get their dream back on track.

-A-ha, you must be Carole.

-Yes, I am.

-I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap. You must be Tommy.

-How you doing?

-I'm good, I'm good.

I say I'm good, but when I approach people's houses I'm not so good,

especially what I can see from the outside.

I know you've had cowboy builder problems,

what I'm going to say to you is, it's chilly willy at the moment,

you stay inside, keep warm and if you don't mind,

I'll have a wander around the outside of the house

-and I'll come and see you later if that's all right.

-OK.

Lovely, nice to see you anyway. Catch you in a little while.

See, straightaway when I was walking up to the house,

you know, it's always the same.

You get ideas in your head and you think, "Oh, no, that's such a mess!"

Come take a look, first of all.

As you look at the property, you'll see where this sort of extension is,

sort of porch extension, if you like, you'll see the tiles.

They're obviously ridged cement-based tiles,

but look how they come down, right into the guttering themselves.

Now, the problem with THAT is,

because it comes directly tight up into the guttering,

when the rain comes down,

that's going to come up, over the top, BANG!

Down here. So, you're going to get a big flooded area here.

That is not the way to do it.

In fact, that's virtually a complete waste of time.

The upstand and flashing is a mess.

Patches and offcuts have been slapped together

and rather than mortaring them in, this builder has just used mastic.

And there's more...

Check this out. It's the most simplest thing to do.

If you're going to match up to the original property,

you see the fascia board there?

Look how it's butt-jointed together.

I'm telling you, that is rubbish.

And a quick investigation around the side of the extension

reveals there may be more trouble ahead.

See where this is all banked up?

You're going to get a lot of water, coming down here, and look at this.

See where the venting is? Straightaway there.

Because that's not far enough up,

or should I say the ground level isn't far enough down,

water build-up will definitely go through that vent.

Things aren't much better round at the rear of the property.

I mean, aesthetically,

it doesn't look particularly pleasing to the eye, in general,

the way those sandstone sills have been placed and...

it's just a bit higgledy-piggledy, mishmash,

we've got big gaps there as well.

That should have all been filled in properly.

Looking inside the house, there's more evidence of poor workmanship,

including some shoddy French doors.

There's a lot of disturbance down there

and, I would imagine,

because it's not sealed off properly from the outside,

there'll be problems. In fact, looking at that,

there's every possibility there's already moisture coming in there,

so therefore wind as well, cold air,

so you're losing your heat, so heating bills go through the roof

while it's left in that sort of condition.

Into the kitchen and this cowboy builder

has cooked up a few more surprises.

Mind the gap!

To stop the draft and to stop my hair blowing in the wind,

they've actually had to stuff paper towel in there.

There's already signs of bugs on there too,

so you're getting creepy-crawlies, you're getting wind, you're getting the rain...

Tommy and Carole also paid for a children's playroom

and a master bedroom, but their builder failed to deliver on these

and the shower he fitted leaked like a sieve.

The builder didn't want to get building control involved,

so the Cairns didn't even get a sign-off certificate.

There's plenty of evidence that this is the work of a cowboy builder,

but Carole and Tommy wouldn't have ended up in this state

if they'd done their homework and insisted on having

the appropriate paperwork.

You've got a contract between the pair of you?

No, there wasn't a contract drawn up.

So, you've got no contract, what about staged payments?

Did he ask for money upfront?

We paid him a bit upfront,

he said he was going to put a deposit on,

and the guys were going to come in and start doing foundations.

He contracted that out.

No contract and no payment schedule is just no good.

To avoid the Cowboy Trap...

Were you monitoring the work constantly

-while the build was going on?

-We were...

Bear in mind, we're no' builders, but we were, kind of,

looking at the build and taking photographs,

more for to see it happening, stage by stage,

but, you know, it's probably been a vital thing for us,

taking the photos to look back on,

because we can't see all the things that have happened now.

The things that are behind the walls.

In terms of the stress factors,

there must have been times when it was at a real stretching point?

We got to a point where we just didn't talk to each other

or if we opened our mouths, we just shouted at each other.

-Did it really seriously get that bad?

-Yeah.

Yeah.

So, finally, guys, where are you now?

What's your position now, as it stands?

Well, the position we're in just now is,

we still live in a building site, there's no flooring down,

there's structural work to be done...

The children are still in a small box room.

The children are still sharing their bedroom,

so we're kind of stuck at this point.

But the good news is that help is on the way.

Clearly, a lot needs to be done

and to make sure nothing's been missed,

not one, but two independent building surveyors,

Alan Crooks and Gary MacDonald, have come to give their verdict.

What have you found, first of all?

Numerous defects here, there is a concern

that there's many concealed areas

and when you start bursting into the walls, and seeing what's behind,

there could be all sorts of other problems.

The other main concern is obviously aesthetically as well.

There's been no attempt to blend the extension

into the original structure, there's no blending,

the join between the extension and the main house is formed in mortar,

which is just a very poor detail and inevitably, that's going to crack.

What mark out of ten would you give the work that you've seen?

It's going to be low!

Given that the fundamental flaws,

particularly anything with water coming in under the floor, can't be good.

-I reckon three, three maximum.

-You're generous.

I was just going to say, generous boys. You're generous boys.

Listen, I take that on board, though,

three is nothing to be proud of. In any way, shape or form.

Nothing to be proud of indeed.

Unless you're a cowboy builder,

going for the Cowboy Builder of the Year award.

But don't despair! Some knights in shining overalls have just arrived.

This good guy posse is led by master craftsman James Dunsmore.

It's a case of Mr Dunsmore replacing a builder who's Duns-less...

So, just talk us through what you're going to do, top to bottom.

Top to bottom is we've got a problem with water ingress inside

because of the ground height, so what we've got to actually do is

we've got to dig it down, take it back,

maybe 800 away from the wall, dig it down to the foundation,

let it dry, prep the brickwork

and then we're going to external tank it.

Just describe for the viewers at home what that means.

External tanking is a waterproof membrane

that is actually brushed onto the outside

and protects any water ingress coming towards the building.

What about inside, what's happening inside?

Inside, we've got front floor for starters.

It's where the dampness is coming in, because of the height

of the ground work outside, so it's lift the floor,

we need to get all the floor lifted in down the stairs in the extension.

As far as I know, the cables were sitting on the floor,

so we need to get the cables tied up,

get them all put into place, check for any, obviously, water,

get the water out and then re-net, re-insulate and then re-floor again.

James certainly has his work cut out.

So much needs doing that the Cairns are chipping in, too.

Dunsmore's Dynamos don't hang about.

They diligently do some digging

and frenetically take up the flooring.

It's time to rip it up and start again.

So far, so good.

But can the good guys rescue Tommy and Carole's dream extension?

Only time will tell.

I'm back in East Kilbride where Carole Cairns and Tommy

wanted to extend their home to make life better for their children,

one of whom has autism.

But the builder that was recommended by one of Tommy's mates

down at the gym turned out to be a dead weight.

He cut corners left, right and centre

and left the extension on the verge of collapse.

The good guys have finished their work.

It's time to find out if they've saved the day.

Before Tommy and Carole see the big reveal,

there's time for a sneaky preview.

Before I go inside, I'm pretty excited about the outside, because

I can see signs things have been put right, the fascia board,

that was all out of line, that's continuous now and it's straight.

The big telltale, of course, is I can see evidence of tanking,

just at the base brickwork there.

This pea gravel that's in, that's part of the French drain system

that we've got, so we can make sure that the water whips away

and it's not going into the sole under the property.

This house could have been washed away to Timbuktu,

the way the cowboy left it.

So far, so good. Time to check out the interior.

This was left in a real state. It's looking better now.

A lick of paint really works wonders.

And, there's a new-look windowsill.

Before, it was like this.

But now, look at it!

The good guys have opened up the whole layout,

the open-plan kitchen and lounge works really well.

It's given you a huge sensation of space,

because there's no clutter, as there was before,

so, beautiful flooring all down, look at this!

(Wow!)

The good guys have really turned on the style.

The non-existent playroom was a pipe dream before.

But now, it's a reality.

I think they're going to love it in here.

Everything prepped, ready to rock'n'roll,

I mean, great flooring, it's a real winner.

The main bedroom is unrecognisable from how it looked before.

Now, it's a place you'd like to be.

This room looks magnificent in comparison to how it was.

Now, we did have a problem before with this shower, it was leaking,

so, it looks like that's all been sorted.

Oh, it really is top.

Before Tommy and Carole get to see it,

it's time for a final word about their cowboy builder.

We got in touch to find out his side of the story,

so we can now hear their responses to his version of events.

He blames Tommy for things going wrong.

He says that you made things very difficult for him.

He said you were an awkward character, is his words.

He claims that because you started telling people on site

how to do their jobs, quite a few of them walked off.

If I knew how to do that job, do you think I would have been in trouble?

Do you think I would not have noticed the mistakes?

So, how can I tell people what to do? Yeah?

He was meant to be in control of the job, that's what he was paid for.

The only time I questioned his work was when he destroyed my kitchen.

Up until that point from me coming back from holiday,

y'know, he was left to his own devices to do the work.

Now, he also says that it was your fault

that they didn't make much progress while you were on holiday,

he was waiting on materials to arrive

that you'd insisted on buying from an auction site.

No, a lot of rubbish. Stuff was bought from companies.

How does he know that? He didn't see the receipts, did he?

We asked him why he didn't get building control involved

and he says it was nothing to do with him,

that it was your responsibility.

Did he ever express to you how important it was?

No, he led us to believe that building control were the bad guys

and you don't want them out because they'll create problems for us on the job.

If you refuse to involve building control,

then you're driving headlong into disaster.

Technically, it's the homeowner's responsibility

to contact building control, but no decent builder

will do major work of any kind without their participation.

The Cairns family have lived with the work as it's been going on,

but now they're going to see the finished results in all their glory.

So, are you ready? Turn around.

So, just say what you see that's changed from before,

-starting with you, Carole.

-The porch tiles match.

-The porch tiles match.

-The fascia's done.

-The fascia's done. Tommy, come on.

I see they've done the tanking, you can see at the edge,

they've put all the pea gravel round, so no more water inside.

They've actually tidied up the brickwork, too.

They've washed that all down.

Tommy and Carole are impressed by their new watertight extension.

But there's more treats in store inside.

First of all, stand there and have a good look.

-It's a huge difference, isn't it?

-Paintwork's amazing, it's done right.

-That's lovely.

-And all that rubbish that was around...

-It's gone.

-It's all gone.

-It's gone.

-French doors look totally different.

Yeah. It just looks... It looks like a show home.

It's definitely the finish we were looking for,

those boys have done a great job, haven't they?

They've done a fantastic job. The quality of the paintwork

these boys have done is tremendous.

-But how does it feel to have your home back?

-It's great.

-Amazing.

-We can start relaxing and living now.

-Yeah.

A living room that's actually livable in.

And they've even got a kitchen that's cookable in.

This house is finally starting to feel more like a family home.

-The room itself really flows.

-It feels so much better.

-A huge difference.

-So much better.

-Warmer without all the wind coming in.

-Yeah!

So much better. So, you're happy so far?

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, aye. The quality of work is far superior.

-Yeah.

Onto the kids' playroom, which will mean so much to all the family.

-Great, done.

-This is fantastic.

You've set it all out for us, too, brilliant.

I tell you what, it'll be amazing, really. When the kids get in here,

-what do you think they're going to think?

-They're going to love it.

-We're not going to see them again.

-Yeah!

-That'll be that.

-Yeah.

Respite from the kids. Music to every parent's ears.

And somewhere the children can call their own.

Just one more treat in store.

-What do you think?

-Huge difference. A bedroom that can be used.

-A bed in it, not junk.

-Again, the paintwork.

-On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you?

-Definitely 10.

-A definite 10+.

-A definite 10.

From 3 out of 10 to 10 out of 10.

Hats off to the good guys!

And good luck to the Cairns family.

Now, that's what I'm talking about.

The house looks great now and the all-important factor is it's SAFE!

And it's got building control sign-off. And equally as important

is the kids have now got their own separate bedrooms as promised.

Now, the thing I need to do is get back on the trail,

because you know what? I don't want to rest

until every single cowboy builder has been rounded up

and headed out of town!

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