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01Project · Local Authority Work
01 / 07
Local Authority Work · Longton, Stoke-on-Trent

Accessibility bathroom · Mark Batkin, Longton (built free of charge)

A previous builder walked off the job a day in, days before Christmas. Mark Batkin's bathroom was bare brick, his family was about to go through the festive season with no usable washroom. John and the team finished the job free of charge.

↳ 02 Snapshot
02Project · Snapshot
02 / 07

Project · Snapshot

The shape of the build in numbers.

Local homeowner Mark Batkin wanted accessibility adaptations to make his bathroom easier to manoeuvre around. The builder he'd hired (via a friend of a friend) walked off after one day saying the job was too big, leaving the bathroom stripped to bare brick days before Christmas. Mark called John for a second opinion. When John saw the state of it, and saw what the additional cost of doing it properly would mean for Mark, John decided to do the whole job free of charge. The Stoke Sentinel covered it. This case study is on the site because Mark and his family wanted other people to know that decent, reliable builders still exist, and because Mark wanted to publicly thank John and the team for stepping in.

FreeDone free of charge for Mark and his family
DaysChristmas was approaching when the previous builder walked
AccessibilityAdaptations for easier daily living
SentinelStory covered by the Stoke Sentinel newspaper
↳ 03 The story
03Project · The Story
03 / 07

Project · The Story

How the build actually ran.

The same three questions we ask every project: what they bought, what we did, what changed. Honest. Specific. No marketing fluff.

CHAPTER01

What they bought

Local homeowner Mark Batkin lives in Longton with his family. He wanted a few accessibility adaptations to his existing bathroom: it was hard for him to manoeuvre around and, as he put it, "too high maintenance." There was also a leak and some water damage that needed addressing.

Mark hired a builder through a friend of a friend. After one day's work, that builder told Mark the job was too big and walked away. The bathroom was left stripped to bare brick, tiles ripped off in preparation for plastic cladding that was never installed. Mark and his family were about to go through Christmas with no usable bathroom. What had started as a few straightforward accessibility tweaks had turned into a nightmare.

CHAPTER02

What we did

Mark Googled "builders in Stoke-on-Trent." Three firms came up. He said afterwards he picked John's firm because it had the best credentials and looked the most reputable. Fair enough. This was the company John ran before HYPE Building, so it is John and the team's story rather than HYPE Building Ltd's: same builder, earlier chapter.

When John and the team walked the bathroom for the first time they were genuinely shocked at the state it had been left in. Because of how much more there was to do than Mark had originally planned for, including new plumbing, John and the team knew the cost was going to rise. And they knew that price rise was going to hurt a family that was already on the back foot from a cowboy builder, days from Christmas, in the middle of 2020.

So John and the team decided to do the job free of charge. New plumbing, new bathroom, finished properly, accessibility adaptations in place, ready for Mark and his family to use over Christmas. The Stoke Sentinel ran the story. It was the right thing to do, and John would do it again.

CHAPTER03

What changed

Mark and his family had a working accessible bathroom by Christmas. The cowboy-builder situation was put right. And, this matters to John, Mark wanted his story published as part of a wider point he was making: most builders are decent, reliable people. His first experience didn't go well, but his second one did. That public message is part of why he asked for this case study to be written up.

↳ 04 The build, stage by stage
04Project · Stages
04 / 07

Local Authority Work · Longton, Stoke-on-Trent

From back-to-brick to handover.

Local homeowner Mark Batkin wanted accessibility adaptations to make his bathroom easier to manoeuvre around. The builder he'd hired (via a friend of a friend) walked off after one day saying the job was too big, leaving the bathroom stripped to bare brick days before Christmas. Mark called John for a second opinion. When John saw the state of it, and saw what the additional cost of doing it properly would mean for Mark, John decided to do the whole job free of charge. The Stoke Sentinel covered it. This case study is on the site because Mark and his family wanted other people to know that decent, reliable builders still exist, and because Mark wanted to publicly thank John and the team for stepping in.

Stage 01 / 05Before

Stripped to bare brick · and the previous builder gone.

What John and the team walked into. Tiles ripped off the walls in preparation for plastic cladding that was never going to be installed. Bare brick. Leak and water damage still present underneath. Christmas closing in. The previous builder had decided after one day's work that the job was beyond him: and left the bathroom unusable for Mark and his family.

Mark was, in his own words, crestfallen. Understandably.

4 images

Before · bathroom stripped to bare brick by the previous builder
Before · water damage exposed
Before · tiles removed, no cladding installed
Before · overall state of the bathroom when John and the team arrived
Stage 02 / 05Mark said

"To have this offer, completely out of the blue, is just such a great Christmas present."

"It's going to make such a difference to us and I can't tell you how grateful we are. They've rescued us."

Mark Batkin, Local Homeowner, Longton

Stage 03 / 05John on the call

Why we did it.

"The price point was a major concern for Mark, and I knew that what he was asking for wasn't going to last. We wanted to do it properly. But obviously, that would put the price up.

"So we just decided to do it for him anyway.

"Mark came to us because we are a bigger firm and I suppose he just wanted that bit of security and peace of mind.

"COVID really hurt us, just as it has so many other businesses. Jobs were cancelled and our turnover dropped. But there are so many people out there in far worse situations. When you see someone like Mark, who can't even have a bath because of the state of the bathroom, it really puts things into perspective.

"We wanted to put a smile on his face and we did just that. We also wanted to show him, and everyone else out there, that the majority of builders are decent, reliable people. Mark's initial experience was a bad one. But we were able to put things right for him. That's what we're all about."

John Sale

Stage 04 / 05Complete

Mark, Louise and John in the finished bathroom.

Accessibility adaptations complete. Bathroom usable. Family taken care of. Mark and his wife Louise in the photograph alongside John once the build was finished.

The Stoke Sentinel covered the story. Search for "Builder gives Stoke-on-Trent homeowner" if you want to read the original piece.

1 image

John with Mark Batkin and his wife Louise in the finished accessible bathroom
Stage 05 / 05After

Before vs. after.

From a bathroom abandoned mid-strip-out by a builder who walked off the job to a finished, accessible washroom that Mark and his family could use over Christmas. Free of charge. Because the right thing to do was the right thing to do.

1 image

After · finished accessibility bathroom
↳ 05 Client word
05Project · Client Word
05 / 07

What the client said

What the client said

To have this offer, completely out of the blue, is just such a great Christmas present. It's going to make such a difference to us and I can't tell you how grateful we are. They've rescued us.

Mark Batkin

Local homeowner, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent

↳ 06 On camera
06Project · On Camera
06 / 07

On camera · Watch the build

On camera.

Every HYPE build is documented on camera. The videos from this project sit at the top. Below them: three of John’s most-watched videos from HypeTV.

From this build

DDA-spec accessibility conversion · build film

DDA-spec accessibility conversion · build film

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↳ 07 Next step

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07Project · Next Step
07 / 07

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