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‘My home renovation dream turned into a nightmare’

Yuliya Martynova photographed at her home in Caversham, Berkshire - John Lawrence
Yuliya Martynova photographed at her home in Caversham, Berkshire - John Lawrence

The instant Heidi Roberts walked through the door of the two up two down Victorian cottage in Ipswich she could see its potential, despite years of grime and neglect.

What she could not foresee was how just long it would take to make the modest little property habitable.

When Roberts, 68, and her husband Clive, 60, took on the house in 2021 they were blissfully unaware that Britain’s construction industry was in crisis. Experts say that hundreds of thousands more workers are required simply to upgrade Britain’s ageing housing stock and help reduce carbon emissions.

Heidi and Clive Roberts who have experienced a catalogue of builder problems during their home refurb - David Rose
Heidi and Clive Roberts who have experienced a catalogue of builder problems during their home refurb - David Rose

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) says a third of builders are struggling with shortages of carpenters, bricklayers and general labourers. Its latest “State of Trade” survey reveals that almost half would like the Government to allow the immigration of more skilled labour to help address “the chronic skills gap” in construction.

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Britain has only half the number of skills it needs to make the country's historic buildings more energy efficient, a string of conservation bodies said this month. They blamed the shortage on a trio of factors: the pandemic, Brexit, and an ageing construction work force

Britain’s trades crisis

Roberts paid around £149,000 for the “quite disgusting” little house. The house was uninhabitable when they took it on. “The previous owner had kept birds inside the house,” says Roberts.

Roberts, a food and travel blogger and influencer, and Clive, a retired bank manager, worked up plans for a thorough renovation.

They anticipated spending around £20,000 to £25,999 on installing a new kitchen and bathroom, improving access to the loft, adding double glazing, and full redecorating. They calculated that the work would take around three months and that they would be able to use the house by the summer.

It was then that their troubles began.

“We would get someone in to do, say, the plastering, and pay them up to a certain point,” Roberts says. “Then, when it came to finishing the work, they would disappear. One guy ghosted me for six weeks. The electrical guy disappeared too – he didn’t want to finish the work because he had another job.

“The problem was there were not enough builders to go around. Everyone was so busy that you could only book them in two or three months’ time.

“The gentleman who fitted our kitchen told me that the amount of work he is being asked to do has gone through the roof,” Clive adds.

“And I have heard some absolute horror stories from people about hiring plasterers who were looking at YouTube videos to work out how to do a job. People were really taking advantage of the demand.”

Heidi and Clive Roberts - David Rose
Heidi and Clive Roberts - David Rose

The pair's problems with disappearing tradesmen meant scheduling work was a nightmare.

The project was eventually finished just before Christmas 2022, well over a year behind schedule, and at a cost of around £40,000 to £45,000. And it only got done because Clive took over the painting and laid the timber floors himself, staying at the part-finished house.

“I was sleeping on the floor for over a year,” he says. “We didn’t have a kitchen for weeks, so I lived on sandwiches.”

‘We couldn't find a bricky for love nor money’

Another home renovator, Madeleine Lewis, also suffered from a lack of available tradesmen.

In 2019 she purchased an eight-bedroom Victorian house, along with a plot of land with planning consent for three new houses.

She thought the run down house could become a family home for them and their daughters, now seven and ten. Her husband, a property developer, could manage the new build side of the work.

At the start of 2022 the family of four moved into rented accommodation and began.

The property needed new bathrooms, an extended kitchen, rewiring and replumbing.

“It was absolutely horrendous,” says Lewis, 44, a former teacher who now runs an events and hospitality company.

“People know that any sort of labour is in short supply and so they are obviously working it with what we charge. We were asked to pay £300-a-day for a tiler,” she says. “You could not find a bricklayer for love nor money.”

The first company hired to fix up the house were rapidly sacked. “They did everything wrong,” Lewis says, adding their replacements were much better – but very expensive.

In the meantime, the family spent almost a year squeezed into a tiny flat, with the girls in bunk beds in the bedroom, their parents sleeping on the kitchen floor.

The family were finally able to move into the house a few days before Christmas. They have, so far, spent around £1.2m, yet there is still a way to go. A temporary wall in the kitchen hides the fact that the extension is not complete, the cellar needs attention, and there is a long list of snagging to do.

“We have doors, but we don’t have door handles,” she says. “It is all the funny little jobs like that that end up costing a lot because everyone is paid a day rate not a job rate.”

‘I messaged 15 firms, but just three replied’

Yuliya Martynova photographed at her home in Caversham, Berkshire - John Lawrence
Yuliya Martynova photographed at her home in Caversham, Berkshire - John Lawrence

Yuliya Martynova and her husband Alexander Reid can sympathise with Lewis's frustration, as they too are living in an almost-finished home; a project which has been going on since their daughter, Madison, was two months old. She is now two and a half.

In February 2021 the couple, both 42, sold their home in Wimbledon, south-west London, and paid £750,000 for a four bedroom house in Caversham, Berkshire.

“It had not had anything done to it since god knows when,” artist Martynova says.

“The house was riddled with mould; you could not go into two of the rooms because of it.”

Finding an architect with space in their diary to help draw up plans for the house took three months, but by October 2021 they had been granted planning permission and began seeking a contractor. “Two builders rejected us – one said he was busy for the next 18 months,” she adds.

Eventually they accepted a £270,000 quote from a local firm. The family moved into a rental property and work began on site in March 2022.

“He told us he would have an army of people … [working on the site] … but this was not the case,” she says.

The work was supposed to be completed by September 2022.

By October, with no end in sight and the lease on their rental running out, Yuliya and Alexander decided to cut their losses and change their builder.

Martynova took over finishing off the work. Radiators and flooring needed fitting, her art studio was unfinished, as were sections of the roof, rendering, and guttering.

“I literally could not find anyone to come,” she says.

“We had two plumbers. One was an apprentice and the other came after work. Several times I was just stood up by tradesmen who said they would come and did not come. It was driving me bonkers.”

The family were able to move home in December, having spent around £450,000, but they are still working on getting it finished.

“Two of the bedrooms are still not heated because the builder installed the wrong piping, but I can’t get a plumber to come and lift the floor and fix it,” Martynova says.

“Last week I messaged 15 companies – I heard back from just three, and one is coming next week to look at it. Or I hope they are.”