Episode 7 Cowboy Trap

I'm declaring high noon on Britain's cowboy builders.

He said he couldn't source a brick to match the house,

but he'd had one of our house bricks for a year.

These jacks-of-no-trades ride roughshod over people's dreams and their lives.

We've got a bucket here. I don't know if that's to catch any moisture.

I'm rounding up the Good Guys to help turn these blots on the landscape

into beautiful builds.

I couldn't believe my eyes. The roof was such a mess.

So remember to pay close attention

because the next 30 minutes could well keep you out of the cowboy trap.

Today, we're deep in the Cheshire countryside,

in the small market town of Tarporley.

Though close to those noisy hotbeds of the pop-music scene - Liverpool and Manchester -

Tarporley is a quiet rural preserve.

It's a lovely place to visit and relax.

That is unless you're a fox...

Tarporley has a long history of fox hunting.

In fact, it's home to the oldest surviving hunt in England

that was founded in 1762 at this 16th-century coaching inn.

Although the hounds are long gone, the club still meet here,

but only for dinner, of course.

Now, whatever you think about foxes, this old hound is on the scent of some vermin.

You've guessed it - it's another cowboy builder.

His unwitting victims live in this four-bedroom detached house.

Nick and Celia Cherry are both 61 and have been married for 15 years.

Celia recently retired from teaching

and Nick, who used to be a marketing manager, now runs an oven-cleaning business.

Celia met Nick after enduring some difficult years in the early 1980s.

She divorced her husband, leaving her a single mother-of-three.

In a bid to make a fresh start, Celia decided to take a degree in teaching.

Fortunately, because I was at college, there were other single parents,

so we all kind of clubbed together

and took our kids out and did things with them as a group.

Financially, it was very difficult. Very difficult.

And very difficult to do my degree when I'd got three children

and all the stuff that that entailed.

Things were really tough for Celia,

bringing up three kids on her own on very little money,

coupled with the demands of a degree course.

But it all paid off, because three years later she qualified as a teacher

and got her first post, teaching food technology at a secondary school.

And things continued to get better, because she met Nick.

In 1997,

Celia and Nick - who had a daughter from a previous relationship - got married

and together they brought up their four children.

Nick and Celia moved into their four-bed detached property here in Tarporley 15 years ago.

Before that, they were living in Sheffield

and then Nick got a call to say he'd got a job offer in Chester.

Now, Celia had spent many a happy childhood here in Cheshire at her grandparents' home,

so she jumped at the chance.

As for the house, well, it was love at first sight.

We just pulled up outside and it had a really nice look to it,

what I'd call a happy face.

It seemed to have a huge garden, it was in a nice area and I said, "That'll do."

That was it, we made the decision not even having been into it.

The house may have seemed perfect,

but there was one fly in the Cherrys' ointment -

the conservatory was falling apart.

It was in a right state. It had a corrugated plastic roof

which had obviously leaked,

and they put a roof on the inside, as well.

So it had two lots of roof and it used to rain in, erm,

and with the cold and damp...

We had to do quite a lot of repairs to it to start off with.

Celia and Nick vowed to replace it as soon as they had the money.

In 2011, 14 years after moving in, Celia took early retirement

and they decided to invest in the conservatory of their dreams.

The Cherrys invited several builders round to quote for the job,

one of whom had a very impressive portfolio.

He had worked for joinery companies and then set up his own business.

He'd got a workshop. He ticked all the right boxes.

A builder's portfolio can separate the professionals from the cowboys.

But beware, don't get hooked by a set of glossy photographs.

Make sure you go and physically see like-for-like completed works.

That way, you can build up a nice set of images

for before and after.

Take my advice. Let your fingers doing the walking

and phone up previous customers of your potential builder to get their feedback.

Then let your feet do the walking and go see them in person.

They could just be mates of the builder doing him a favour.

If you see the whites of their eyes

and completed projects similar to yours,

you're entitled to have confidence in that builder.

The builder quoted just over £24,000 to build the conservatory

with special self-cleaning glass,

and said it would take about six weeks.

He seemed to know what he was talking about,

spotting a couple of mistakes in the designs.

We thought that he knew what he was doing, he clearly was on the ball

and would be OK to do our conservatory.

The builder wanted paying in three instalments -

a deposit of around £7,000 to be paid before work started,

covering groundworks, window frames and the roof structure,

another payment - around £7,000 - to cover glazing and finishing work,

and a final instalment of £9,620 upon completion.

He suggested constructing the conservatory offsite and transporting it in.

The Cherrys gave him the green light in the summer of 2011.

Work began but the progress was slow.

Yet the builder always had an excuse up his sleeve.

As for Celia, she had other things on her mind

because her father was seriously ill with cancer.

I think the builder did use the fact that I was away from home because of my father.

I was very upset because he was ill.

He did use that and prey upon us because of it,

because he knew we weren't going to be here, watching what he was doing all the time.

Celia was told her dad's cancer was terminal.

Remembering how much he loved the outdoors as a younger man,

she was desperate for him to enjoy their new conservatory in his final days.

But the project fell way behind schedule.

The agreed completion date in early November 2011 came and went,

with little sign of progress.

Celia's father would never get to sit in her conservatory

because on December 2nd, 2011, he lost his battle with cancer.

Celia is in no doubt

that the builder took advantage of her grief.

The funeral was down in the Midlands and we were going to be away until quite late at night.

I'd said to the builder, "You're OK to come and work that day."

But when I saw him the day before he said,

"We won't be coming tomorrow because you've got other fish to fry." Those were his actual words.

I thought that was quite insensitive, considering we were burying my dad.

The stress of the conservatory not being ready when it should've,

and also her father having cancer, was very, very traumatic for her.

And, you know, she...

I'm surprised she didn't have a breakdown

because it was really hard-going.

The builder kept disappearing for weeks at a time.

He claimed the delays were because he couldn't source matching bricks.

But he'd had one of the Cherrys' bricks for over a year,

surely long enough to find a similar type?

And the little work the builder did was shoddy.

I got a ladder up to the roof

and I couldn't believe my eyes.

The roof was such a mess.

There were strips that were not connected,

the glass was not straight on the beams.

I noticed around the sills of the window frames

that the mitre joints were pulling apart.

When I pointed that out and said it needed to be redone,

he said that he would just put a plug in it, which he has.

He drilled a hole, put a wooden plug in it to pull it all together and filled it with brown sealant.

Half the conservatory consists, I think, of brown sealant.

I just couldn't believe my eyes. It was a ridiculous situation

that a guy who was supposed to be professional

had put the build together like it was.

The Cherrys had wanted Christmas dinner in their new conservatory,

but there was no plaster on the walls, the electrics hadn't been done properly

and the builder's plumbers had messed up the Cherrys' central heating

and flooded their bedroom in the process.

No Christmas cheer for the Cherrys.

Finally, at the end of January 2012,

four months after the job was supposed to have been completed,

the builder announced he'd finished.

I don't think so!

He doesn't seem to have done anything properly at all. Nothing properly at all.

He promised that he'd get plumbers in to do the work -

he'd get proper people to do it - and he hasn't done.

We had water coming in at one point

where the valleys meet the apex of the roof.

It was pouring down there, running down the blind,

gathering on the window sill and pouring straight into the power point.

The Cherrys' window cleaner pointed out the windows were wobbly.

From top to bottom,

this chaotic conservatory was an utter shambles.

We were very upset about it, but I kept saying,

"Although we're upset, although it's cost a lot of money that I can never replace,

"because you only get that payment when you retire once,

"it's still not as bad as losing my father."

Bodged building work is one thing,

but taking advantage of someone's grief is entirely different.

And I tell you something else - I'm appalled by what goes on under the name of building.

I'm hoping to get Celia and Nick's plans back on track.

Yep, the Good Guys are in town.

Ahh! You must be the lovely Celia. I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap.

-You must be the lovely Nick.

-I am. Hi!

-How are you?

-I hear you've had problems with cowboy builders.

-Yes.

-We have.

-Do you mind if I come in and have a look?

-No.

-Please do.

-Come on, then. Let's have a look.

While Celia and Nick put the kettle on,

I check out the conservatory.

It doesn't take long to discover problems.

See, straight away there, certainly with the window boards, they should've been notched in,

and instead, the sill boards look they're stuck down

and then masticed-in on the gaps.

That's not brilliant.

And I'm not happy about that glazing on the roof.

It doesn't look like it's a modern glass.

These days, you get a nice reflective glass

which, usually in the summertime, it keeps the heat at bay

and, of course, in the winter, keeps the heat in.

It's usually self-cleaning.

We've had a lot of rain of late and that looks really quite scarred.

It's certainly not a modern glass panel, that's for sure.

We've got a bucket here, as well, so I don't know if that's there to catch any moisture.

It doesn't look brilliant. I'm starting to see little signs

of where the glass looks a little bit too short.

And there's a gap between the French doors and the frame.

That's not been set right at all.

Let's have a look outside. Two words - not good.

You can see the actual body of the conservatory butted up to the gable there,

but it's been filled in with, er, cement.

I'd have liked to have seen a flexible mastic in there.

I'd also like to know how it's been attached to that gable end.

It always is a real worry.

Here, where the beading is,

in actual fact, where these actual glass units are,

they're not rebated enough, they're not sitting back enough.

The dwarf wall supporting the conservatory is not well pointed,

and that's not the only problem.

The damp course should be a couple of courses high

and it should have at least 150 mils from ground level.

That looks like it's breaching it. It's too high.

That'll definitely have to be cut back.

This dodgy damp course is no bridge over troubled water for the Cherrys.

And as soon as I get an aerial view,

it's apparent the inside of this conservatory

is going to get wet... wet... wet.

Now I'm up here, the problems are pretty clear.

First of all, the obvious ones -

the actual panel trims are all off.

They're either wavy lines and about to come off

or they've already come off.

At the top there, as you can see with the lead flashing, there's not enough upstand

and it hasn't been dressed into the render, which it needed to be done.

It looks like it's probably just been glued on.

The glass itself has certainly been cut short.

It should be enough overhang to go towards the guttering,

so that the water whips away off the top of the glass and into the gutter.

-This roof has more

-flaws

-than the Empire State Building!

See what I did there?!

I've seen enough.

Time for a pow-wow with Celia and Nick about the cowboy builder

who's taken them for 24 grand.

Did you have a contract in place to say, "It's going to take six weeks,

"this is the stages of payment that I want,

"this is the conservatory you're going to get,

who provides what, who supplies what, etcetera"?

We had a confirmation letter from him which detailed all that.

-He called them his quotation letters.

-That's right.

But neither party signed it as an official contract,

but he said, "This is what I'll do and this is the timescale."

Take my advice - if you're forking out thousands of pounds on a building project,

spend a few extra pennies on some ink and paper for a formal contract.

Confirm in writing the overall cost,

the payment schedule and the time for completion,

that way, everyone knows the plan of action

and what to do if things start to slip.

When were the real first alarm bells with this guy?

Right from the start, Celia was worried

because he was two, three weeks late starting it,

and you were worried from then onwards, weren't you?

You were the one at home, you were the one who was dealing with it.

I was at work, so I didn't have the same sort of hassle.

What was Celia like...

..emotionally?

She was a mess, really. A real mess.

Because, you know, it was a really, erm, a really hard time,

er, with her dad dying.

They were very, very close together. Very close.

When a parent passes, it's...

I know what it feels like to lose both my parents,

so... to have this going on, as well,

the stress must've been through the roof.

Yes. It was. Yep.

Did your builder know what you were going through,

that this could've been great for your dad?

I did tell him that my dad was ill

and I would've liked Dad to see the finished conservatory.

Forget Heartbreak Hotel,

this is Heartbreak Conservatory.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Good Guys are on their way.

But before we get cracking, I've asked a second opinion

from independent building surveyor Glen Nicholas.

What do you see

that's not to your liking?

Basically, it's the detailing of the structure itself.

Good materials,

however, they haven't followed through with good practice and details.

There are gaps, glazing has been cut short.

-I understand it was supposed to be self-cleaning glass. Definitely not.

-I don't think so.

-I don't.

Otherwise, what we'd be looking at is a clean, clear view to the sky above.

Taking all that into consideration

and thinking about the various problems we've got,

what mark out of ten would you give this guy for the work you've seen?

It's a two or a three, this one.

Mm, I think nearer two than three. But let's not quibble.

Time to bring in the Good Guys, led by main man Paul Hilton.

I've got a straightforward question for the moustachioed maestro

and I can't wait to hear his answer.

-Tell us what you're going to address.

-Mainly on the roof, problems with the glass.

A lot of it is undersized, undermeasured,

not meeting where it should do, leaking,

and the wrong type of glass that the customer asked for.

It's supposed to be self-cleaning with an anti-glare film on it, which is not there.

Definitely not. The first hint that tells you it's supposed to be self-cleaning

is that it's filthy!

What about the valleys? We've got problems with the trim.

All the trims are coming off and seeping water back in,

you know, the capillary action back up there.

They just need to be fitted correctly.

Just a badly finished job, you know?

Not 'alf! But Paul and his posse aim to put that right.

So much needs doing, the Cherry's are chipping in.

Hilton's Heroes waste no time swinging into action.

First up, removing that rubbish greenhouse glass,

then prepping the beams for the new gorgeous glazing.

These boys are certainly getting into the groove.

Who needs Madonna?!

But can they create the conservatory of the Cherrys' dreams?

Only time will tell.

I'm back in Cheshire

in the picturesque village of Tarporley,

where Celia and Nick Cherry's dreams of a new conservatory

were dashed by a cowboy builder

who callously took advantage of Celia's grief

over the death of her father.

Our Good Guys have now finished their work

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

Before I do the grand tour with Celia and Nick,

I can't resist taking a sneaky peak.

OK, now, interesting enough, you're always slightly worried,

because when we first arrived here the conservatory looked great,

but when you delved, you realised there was problems all over the place,

particularly with leaks and gaps all over the place.

Now the things that jump out at me straight away, the paint is fantastic.

They've stained this wood and it sings now.

It looks real quality.

For me, it's the best paint job

since Michelangelo decorated the Sistine Chapel.

And remember those roof units before?

Now look at them!

These units are brilliant. Let me just tell you about them.

They're highly reflective and they're self-cleaning, as well,

so you almost get a blue hue on them.

What that does is, particularly with the reflection,

when it's hot and sunny in the summertime,

it reflects that sun

and keeps the temperature inside at a nice, even temperature.

In the winter, it helps to keep the warmth in.

But it's also self-cleaning, which means tree sap, birdlime,

that sort of thing that gets onto the glass,

when it rains will just wash away.

And when I say "birdlime", you know what I mean!

But it's not just the glazing that's better.

Cast your mind back to this...

Now look at this...

The problems were, gaps everywhere,

we'd got rain coming in, moisture coming in.

The problems here with the actual window sills,

they weren't actually channelled into the frame, which they should've been.

So there was huge gaps there, too.

I'm loving this detailed trim that our Good Guys have put on.

It really is quite magnificent and makes a massive difference, I think, to that sill.

Now, in the corner here, we'd got a bucket,

that was catching water here.

That's gone. There's no water there any more.

For me, that's another big, big achievement.

You don't want a bucket in your conservatory!

And that horrible gappy door has been sorted, too.

Ooh, that's a relief - the Good Guys have fixed the glazing bars.

This particular one here was way too short.

That's now the proper length, right into the guttering, which it should be.

But according to our Good Guys,

this was only seated onto the frame of the conservatory by about one millimetre.

Also, it was in with one screw only.

Imagine, I always say this, timber - living, breathing thing -

if it's going to move and stretch,

there's every possibility that that huge unit could've come crashing down!

And I'm telling you now, it's heavier than me.

Well, only just. Time to take a look from outside.

And I likes what I sees!

This has been coated up wonderfully, stained well.

When you've got a conservatory, it's always important, particularly timber,

to make sure you've got a real good quality barrier protection on the outside.

This really is top, top quality.

Before the Good Guys got stuck in,

I was seriously concerned about the top of the roof.

No need to worry now.

Even just looking at the glazing bars,

the way that we've actually got the lead flashing at the back, as well, looks great.

The valley - fantastic.

Yes. The whole thing now looks proper.

And the damp course looks better, too.

From this...

..to this.

Phew! What a relief!

Now, before I talk it through with the Cherrys,

I'd like a pow-wow about their cowboy builder.

I wanted to find out his side of the story

so I could hear their responses to his version of events.

First of all, his admits that the work suffered delays.

But he says that that was due to the weather, high winds,

and that it was something he had no control over whatsoever.

Is that the case? Would you agree with that or not?

I think there were three days where the weather held him up.

I can't see how there could be a month's delay between him doing the brickwork

and not even responding to our calls as to why nothing else was happening,

a whole month where absolutely nothing happened

and we didn't hear from him at all.

He says that, "All of your complaints are minor repairs"

which he would've been happy to do, had you allowed him to come back.

Bear that in mind - minor complaints.

Knowing what you know now, what is your reply to that?

Does he call the whole roof being replaced a minor complaint?

-Which is, you know...

-He hadn't measured the glass properly.

He just used a tape measure and wrote some measurements down. It took him half an hour.

Whereas Paul, who corrected the roof and replaced all the glass,

made proper templates.

Yes, indeedy, our Good Guys do things right.

Yee-ha!

Well, whatever the whys and wherefores,

it's now time for my favourite bit.

Celia and Nick have lived with the work as it's been going on,

but I'm about reveal the finished results in all their glory.

Come on in to your lovely conservatory.

-BOTH: Wow!

-Fantastic.

-It doesn't look the same.

-It doesn't! It looks a totally new building.

In a way, the first thing I noticed

-is the quality of the stain that's gone on there.

-Yes.

-It really looks superb.

But I think the most important factor

-was the fact that you could occasionally have a shower in here...

-Oh, yes!

Quite easily if you stood close to the window!

..so that's all been addressed. There's so many things that have gone on.

First of all, let's take the roof glazing...

You've got there a special solar reflective glass.

Now, the beauty of that is, you've got this blue hue on it,

but what happens is, in the summer when you've got the strong sunshine,

what it helps to do is reflect that heat

and keep it at a nice even temperature.

In the winter, however,

once you get the sun coming through, it'll help to keep the warmth in.

Now if you remember behind us,

-we'd got that leak and the bucket underneath it.

-Several buckets!

-That's now gone.

-Fantastic.

-Brilliant.

Do you remember the gap around the frame, as well,

which allowed creepy-crawlies in?

-You could bike through it, couldn't you?

-You could.

Not any more. We've got the beading there.

It's been sealed underneath. The guys have done a fantastic job.

-Also, if you remember on your sill boards...

-Yes.

They needed notching into the frame.

What Paul has done is put on this wonderful detailed beading,

which also looks great.

-Do you like it? That's the main thing.

-Yes.

-It looks fantastic. Really good.

-Yes. Just how we envisioned it the first time.

-It was.

-That's how it should've been.

-Yes.

So far, so good.

Let's find out what the Cherrys think of the exterior.

From the outside, what do you notice straight away?

-It's a lot neater.

-It is.

There's no bends in all the work in the gullies or anything.

-Exactly.

-No.

-Or on the glazing bars.

It looks a totally different colour, as well. It looks finished now.

-The end caps actually fit on the end!

-They do!

There was no end caps before.

All the flashing has now been properly seated into the render,

which is the way it should've been in the first place.

-Brilliant.

-Superb. They've done a great job. I'm really chuffed for you.

I'm hoping now that you will feel really happy to come home

and enjoy the conservatory the way it should've been enjoyed in the first place.

-We'll be able to, thank you.

-Thank you.

-Great.

-Lovely to meet you.

-Thank you.

-Take good care of yourself.

-And you.

-And enjoy this lovely conservatory!

-BOTH: Thank you.

-See you soon.

-Thank you.

-Bye now. Bye!

I think we can safely say

the Cherrys dream is back on track!

It might only be a conservatory, but look at the heartache this bodge has caused.

I'm leaving, safe in the knowledge

that our Good Guys have driven away a cowboy from Celia and Nick's ranch.

Talking of those cowboys, if you're watching today,

remember one thing - we're on your trail.

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