CUTTING EDGE: BOBSKI THE BUILDER
Every year thousands of British homeowners call in the builders, trusting their most valuable asset to a stranger. For a long time, the trusty British builder seemed to have a monopoly on home improvements. But in the past five years, a new breed of builder has reached Britain from Eastern Europe – particularly from Poland. This Cutting Edge film follows two teams – one British, one Polish – as they each construct an extension on two suburban houses. How will they measure up?
Thursday 16 October 2008, Channel 4 9PM
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[...] Bobski the Builder, Channel 4, 9pm ~ Cutting Edge tonight takes a look at the changes in the building industry over the past five years, with much of the workforce now originating from Eastern Europe. As part of their investigation, they follow teams of builders from both Britain and Poland as they each construct a house extension, before the end results are compared. [...]
We require an extension and would like the builer from Poland to do it. Please forward his information and contact details.
Thank you.
joy@joybaileyvideo.com
As a Brit married to a Pole there is no space for predjudism in our house.
That said, I was enraged by this programme. Yes enraged. Taking one British builder (is this the worst builder in the world?) and one Polish builder and pitting them them against each other in what should more appropriately be titled ‘Battle of the builders’is just a ridiculous idea. You could have the same results with two Brits, two Poles or even two Chinese builders.
I even found myself shouting in an unlady-like manner at Mrs Smith’s gratuitous comment of ‘I wish I could turn back time and hire an English (but surely she meant British?!) builder’. ‘BUT THE BRIT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE YOU STUPID !@*’. Ahem.
I hope she watched the programme and felt suitably embarrassed. But I doubt it.
A builder is a builder. Some are brilliant, some are terrible and others are everything in between.
At a time when construction companies are struggling, here comes Channel 4 storming in as usual to make things worse. Bad form channel 4, you should be ashamed.
i would like to employee jarek to do an extention on my house is there anyway you could forward his contact details to my email adress. i thought that the work he did on the extention was fantastic and they all worked so hard and got no thanks from the family at all which i thought was so rude and arragont.
can you give jarek my details i think he done great and would like him to do my building work.
This programme was not about nationality-v-nationality as it was pitched but a race between two naff builders!!
Both had their share of difficult situations – one involving cables in pipes and the water board the other involving a young couple who wanted everything for nothing completed in double quick time! Of course one had to be the ‘winner’ but, as the wife of a good builder, neither extension was to a standard I would want on my house!
I won’t feel sorry for a Pole or a Brit who is not skilled enough to do the job in the first place – and from the look of the work produced, neither guy was!
At a time when putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your head in this country (no matter what your profession) is tough for many decent families, Channel 4 decided to stand up and give all the hard working tradesmen another kick in the teeth no matter what their nationality!
Finding work at the moment is hard enough with out daft shows like this and I’m disgusted with Channel 4. They should be ashamed.
All i can say is i hope the Smiths have a concious, cos the way they treated Jarek was appalling the poor bloke was trying to appease them in everyway he could and they just threw it back in his face. i sure hope Jarek and his team get loads of work following this pro cos they did a great job and they deserve it….
The Smiths deserve British builders!!
They are rude and very ungrateful!!
Please we need to contact Jerk for a good job!!
can you also forward Jareks details to us. We live in France and would love him to come and do some renovation work for us. We also know of many other people in the area who need work done. We can provide him and his team with free acommodation whilst the work is being conducted.
Many thanks.
i know how hard the building game is mentally and physically. the english builder was garbage but a master of customer manipulation. jarek needs to learn some lessons from him unfortunately.A builder cannot be friends with the client. it leads to many clients attempting to take advantage of the builder. i have had it myself so many times. thats why i found the programme so upsetting. the way the smiths treated jarek was disgusting but not unusual. its a rotten world we live in. customers have to realise that problems can arise when projects are undertraken and not immediately think the builder is trying to rip them off. imagine yourself doing the work! a builder is a human being just the same as you. jarek and his team are pure gold. i was so glad when the electrician appreciated his work and gave him the 30% deposit to build his extension. he got a small break, and im sure the work will flood in after this fantastic publicity. but remember jarek, mario and thomaz will still have to earn every penny
i know what the building game takes out of you both mentally and physically. thats why i found the programme so good yet upsetting. the way the smiths treated jarek was disgusting.im an ex heavyweight boxer and it brought a tear to my eye. mr smith should be thankfull that he doesn’t live near me.i hope he hasnt a friend left after that display of cold hearted disregard for your fellow man . jarek ,mario and thomaz are pure gold and thank god they met that electrician who actually new something about building work. im sure this programme will be the break these guys deserve. GOD BLESS THEM
Hi There, i was shocked to see the treatment of Jarek and his hard working men. I am currently going through a build with fantastic british builders, the trick is to do your homework before you hire any builder! Please could you forward Jareks details on to me as i have plenty of work for him! Many thanks
Dear God why on earth would anyone want to employ any of these two “Builders”! AT least the Brit knew how to build and followed the correct procedures but ultimately threw up a tantrum induced house of cards.
But as for Jarek! I think I’d trust him least. When he couldn’t even measure the footings correctly it was time for him to go. Then trying to rip them off with the wrong insulation. Trying to run soil pipe under a kitchen, crumbling floor where it wasn’t deep enough or supported at the edge over pipes! No matter how well intentioned he should have stuck to selling chocolates!
If any of you wanted to employ either of these then you deserve the problems you’ll certainly get. Get yourself a decent project manager. A decent project manager would have kicked both of these off within days!
Please can you give me the details of the English builder so that I can be sure NEVER to hire him! Could you also forward me the contact details of the Polish gentleman so I can DEFINATELY hire him. I am disgraced and embarrassed by the standard of trade that is obviously seen as acceptable by the building community at large.
I live in a tower block which was one of several in a multi million pound refurbishment programme for Westminster Council. Most of the workers were Polish but the foremen were British. I have never seen a more efficient team. The Polish came in to do their individual designated jobs in a conveyor like efficiency. One to fit the kitchen cabinets, another to do the plumbing a third to do the tiling. Not one aspect of their work could be criticed. There was minimal disruption and everything was completed on time.
this is the first time i have ever been ashamed of being british
the british builder did a pathetic job and i would expect to do a better finish than that if i was drunk in a fraction of the time
in defence of british builders the one i keep using as do all our friends and neighbours is an incredible worker
so the moral of the story is to go on personal reccommendations and to see the standard of their work on other peoples houses before hiring
my shame comes from the way the brits were treating jarek
he did an excellent job quickly and cheaply and was abused by them
the smiths are a national disgrace and i hope they have been shunned by the people who live near them following the program
his work was obviously of a high standard otherwise the brit leccy wouldnt of hired them, he would of got one of his brit mates to do it instead
I have been in the building game for a long time now. I have seen some excellent work and some that has been not so good. Generally I have seen a handfull for jobs that were as bad as Terrys and all of them have been done by shoddy eastern europian “builders”. After watching this so called documentary I couldn’t belive what I had seen. The producers must have gone out and personally hand picked the worst builder in England. He literally confirmed every single bad steriotype of a builder that you can imagine. While Jarek was being treated very unfairly by again the steriotypical white british who “can get one over” on the nieve Polish lad who just wants a better life for himself and his family. Then there was Terrys client, the british man of Asian decent whos parents warned him off a british builder in the first place but put his trust into Terry because being British himself wanted to support the British work force only to be let down. What a load of rubbish!!!. This programme has done nothing for good hard working British builders who are under constant threat of being undercut. This programme had an agenda with only one outcome. Look at all the posts asking for Jareks number. I do not believe this programe was real, I dont believe Terry or Jarek are real builders. If you was a Baker, Builder, Artist, any trade at all would you really produce the kind of work Terry did knowing full well that it was going to been shown on national tv, I think NOT