How embarrassing, this happened to someone as experienced as I am!

This story is pure embarrassment, but I wanted to share it because how this happened to someone as experienced as I am, well, I still don't really forgive myself. The only reason I do is that this is the only job I have worked on where I didn't have technical drawings or specifications. Building is easy if you have drawings! 

Picking the cheapest contractor may seem like a good thing, but there's a saying "pay cheap, pay twice." The cheapest doesn't always work out to be the cheapest in the end. Don’t learn the hard way—take your time, as this is a significant decision! 

We bought our pig with lipstick home (as David would call it) in 2020. When we moved in, I spent a few days clearing the garden of all the trees and brambles. This left us with a great blank canvas to work on and we started to get quotes.

At the start of 2021, we instructed an acquaintance/family friend verbally to redesign our garden according to the design I created. We received a total of four quotes for the project, and ultimately, our acquaintance offered the lowest price at £16,000—only £3,000 less than the others, but it was enough to sway our decision. We trusted him, as he presented himself well and talked a good game.

Our first mistake was handling everything verbally or through WhatsApp to confirm the details of the job. Even after asking him three times whether the quoted price was final and whether there would be any additional costs, he reassured us repeatedly that there would be no extras.

We paid him £7,000 upfront for materials without questioning what exactly he was purchasing or how much it would cost. To this day, I can’t get the materials he used to total £7,000. How many times have you heard "I need the money up front!"

On the very first day, he informed us that the quote only included one skip. He asked for an extra £500 on day one because of this oversight. I should have stopped the job here! I should have asked him to resend me the price and just stopped! I wish I trusted my gut and stopped the job!

The work was so poorly executed that even before the job was finished, many defects were appearing, including rocking paving slabs and a crack across the concrete base.

What went wrong? Pretty much everything.

The Concrete Base

The contractor installed around 50mm of MOT for the base, the concrete depth of the base was between 50-100mm, and the DPM had been installed under the MOT and there was no reinforcement used. We only discovered these facts when we ripped it up in February 2022. When the concrete arrived on site, it was wheelbarrowed into position instead of pumped, and in my opinion, this affected the quality of the concrete. The contractor tried to tell me the stony finish was normal. There is no way the original base that was installed would have taken the weight of the Fox Den once completed, without cracking up and destroying the structure we built on top.

Retaining Wall

There were no structural drawings or specifications for the retaining wall when it was built; it was just built. There should have been some kind of reinforcement within the wall, tying it to the foundation. The stairs leading up to the higher level were also built without proper footings, and now they continually crack.

Patio

The patio was installed without any MOT underneath it. I believe the contractor used building sand and not sharp sand for bedding down the slabs. The curve I had requested was cut straight.

Turf and Planters

The standard topsoil amount under a new lawn is 150mm; we barely had 50mm of topsoil laid on top of very chalky mud. The flower beds were filled with waste that should have been removed from the site, and one day I even found the beer bottle I bought them buried in the flower beds. The grass remains bumpy and doesn’t grow evenly. Our flowers only grow because David removed as much as he could when we got the skip after we ripped up his work.

This is just a summary of the major issues. I hired a professional to conduct an independent report, and we also sought assistance from Citizens Advice throughout the process—they were extremely helpful. We sent two formal letters requesting a repeat of the work, free of charge, stating that the work had not been completed with reasonable care and skill, as required by the Consumer Rights Act.

After months of him repeatedly promising to return and rescheduling, but never following through, my husband and I were left with no choice but to rip everything up and publicly share our experience online. I didn’t want anyone else to go through what we had, and unfortunately, I found two other women who had experienced the same issues with him. It was incredibly frustrating and sad to hear their stories.

We ended up paying another contractor £5,000 to properly relay the patio and slab with the correct MOT and reinforcement.

The courts didn’t hear our case until April 2023. I submitted all the evidence by the deadline and received no defense from the contractor. On the day, the contractor presented new evidence directly to the judge that I never saw a copy of and was not shown beforehand. I spent weeks gathering evidence, whilst being pregnant, many months before it went to court, only for it to be criticized on the day. In the end, we were only awarded £6,000 back from the £17,000 we had transferred to him.

Even writing this up gives me anxiety. I wish I had stopped him the moment we were hit with unexpected extras on the first day. I wish we had taken the time to compare quotes more thoroughly. The other companies we considered provided written, professional quotes and were transparent in their approach. I should have asked for a clear program of works, a breakdown of materials, and a detailed build methodology. If this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.

We are now planning our own extension, and while my husband is reluctant, I want him to build what he can himself (he is very talented and annoyingly good at most things he does). This is because I no longer trust anyone else to do the job right. This experience has scarred me, and because of that, we won’t be starting our extension until April 2026. I’ll thoroughly research every trade, get testimonials and references, check previous projects, ask to visit where they are currently working and check through the comments on their social media. If they’re unwilling to share this information, I’ll find someone who will.

I have so many photos from the project because I was excited to document the before and after, but I didn’t realize the extent of the issues until it was too late. One of my old project managers used to let us make mistakes because he said that’s the only way we would learn. Well, I learned a lot of lessons the hard way during this work, and my hope is to help others avoid making the same mistakes.

Dreams can quickly turn into nightmares if you're not careful.