I knew things were too good to last…
We’d had one major water leak in the basement shortly after moving into our country home. We called our real estate agent right away because the water was coming from the general area of a previous leak we were told had been fixed. However, the contractor had refused to honour his workmanship guarantee for the previous owner, because the water “must have gone down below the area he fixed”, whatever the heck that meant…
So, we’d mopped up the mess and the water disappeared within a few days. With so many other things to worry about, we put off fixing the leak and to be honest I completely forgot about it. Until earlier this week…
The water leak returned, this time in multiple places, so I called someone to come take a look at it. After discussing options, we agreed the best solution was to fix things from the inside by drilling a trench into the concrete floor along the inside of the offending basement wall, adding weeping tile and draining everything into our existing sump pump. Then the walls would be wrapped in a waterproof lining so that any water coming through them in future would run down the inside of the lining and into the trench.
I was assured that water leaching though the concrete walls would in no way affect the structural integrity of our walls over time. I made the guy swear on his mother’s honour, so I felt reasonably confident we were safe.
The quote was substantial. In order to cut costs, I agreed to rip out 57 feet of paneling, insulation and framing so the concrete walls would be completely bare and ready to go when the waterproofing crew arrived.
My husband was not impressed when I told him about the cost-saving “deal” I’d negotiated.
“Knock yourself out,” was all he said.
