Isabel Webster, 72, suffers from long-term ME and last year underwent a double mastectomy for breast cancer.
She said she was “pressured” by a door-to-door salesman to put in new paving outside her Winstanley home. But the work wasn’t done properly and she was left £7,000 out of pocket.
Mrs Webster was so unhappy with the standard of work that she reached out to another firm, CG Paving, to see if they could salvage it. They were shocked by what they found and estimated it would cost £10,000 to rip it all out and start again.
Calum said: “I was horrified by what I saw. There was no dig out, no preparation and no consideration for their actions. The tarmac wasn’t even laid properly. In a couple of weeks, it will peel up and start cracking.
“We assessed it would cost £10,000 to put right. We offered to do it for free and asked for other contractors to chip in.
“The lady is really ill and is housebound, and her husband is also in hospital.
“It was the old salesman tactic, she was basically pestered into getting the work done.
“When we told her we’d do it for free, she was lost for words and crying over the phone. After I put up a post on our Facebook page, all my regular suppliers said they would help out and we will be supplying all the labour and machinery.
“We’re hoping to squeeze the job in as soon as we can.”
In his Facebook post, Calum added: “Don’t let these scumbags give the building trade a bad name and we will have one happy lady once completed.”
Mrs Webster said: “Although I have a sign on my door asking cold callers not to disturb me, in February whilst taking in a delivery I was approached by a salesman who was going door to door. I said I wasn’t interested, I was ill and it was a bad day. But they persisted.
“Two weeks later the contractor came out to start. I wasn’t impressed from day one. He arrived at 3pm instead of 9am, did an hour’s work and left. He had little or no equipment.
“He has since told us he has dissolved his company so we wouldn’t be able to get any compensation from him.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Calum.
“The man who did the first job was very intimidating towards me at the end. It was very stressful.”
Her son Mark commented on CG Paving’s Facebook post: “I can’t begin to tell you what this kindness and generosity means to my mum and to all of us.
“It’s been a tough time this last couple of months for one reason or another but this was a real blow for mum and to have someone willing to make this right for her is something we could have never expected. Thank you dearly for your kindness.”
