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When Suzie MacDonald bought her quaint little house in old Hull in 2007, there was a small vertical crack in the foundation, on the side where the land sloped gently down to the street corner.
But the storey-and-a-half was about 50 years old and the crack, more of an age line, was repaired. Houses settle and groan, do they not? What was there to worry about?
In 2010, the corner of Hélène Duval and Garneau streets — only steps from the foundation — was dug up to replace sewer and water mains. Work began in August with the digging of a deep hole. Here’s what she remembers.
“You could feel the house shake. My daughter’s computer monitor was shaking so bad she couldn’t study at home.”
She later told an investigating engineer: “I remember the house shook so much that the tea light candle holders, and whatever else was on top of my desk, would always fall off while I was at my computer.”
Suzie MacDonald in her Hull home that she claims was damaged when the city was working on water and sewer lines many years ago. Errol McGihon / Postmedia
The work went on for weeks. By October of that year, she had lodged a complaint with the City of Gatineau: the little patched crack had widened and mysterious things were happening inside, particularly in the addition closest to the corner.
“My side door kept opening on its own.” Cracks began to appear inside the house, over door frames, in ceiling corners, the brick-work had zig-zag crevices, other doors on that side were sticky, and windows would not shut properly.
(The addition consists of an extension to the basement and a ground-floor sunroom, about 10 by 12 feet. There isn’t a single door, up or down, that works properly.)
Suzie MacDonald in her Hull home that she claims was damaged when the city was working on water and sewer lines many years ago. Errol McGihon / Postmedia
Today, the floor is so slanted in the worst-affected room that Citizen photographer Errol McGihon remarked it felt like the Crazy Kitchen at the Museum of Science and Technology. The side of the house, literally, is breaking away, strikingly visible in a hair-line crack in 2007 that has grown to be seven centimetres wide. Big enough to put an arm in.
McDonald, 58, gets by on a disability pension due to a chronic back injury.
She is so frustrated in her efforts to get compensation from either the City of Gatineau or the contractor, Novex, that’s she gone public out of desperation.
Fight city hall? Try fighting city hall when your income is $2,000 a month. When her initial complaint was not resolved, she hired a lawyer, who contracted an engineering firm. All in, she’s probably racked up $25,000 in professional fees.
In 2013, she was offered $10,000 to settle.
“I was shocked and insulted,” she said Thursday. “I’m on disability. I guess they were thinking I would see the dollar signs and just take it.”
She’s in possession of an engineering report, completed in July, that says the addition should be torn down and rebuilt, at a cost between $60,000 and $90,000. The engineer examined exterior photographs taken at the time of purchase in 2007, during the period of excavation in 2010, during an update in 2011, and the state of affairs in 2015.
He also took soil samples, dug below the frost line, uncovered and studied a substantial crack in the basement floor, and did an examination of the remainder of the foundation. The conclusion was the road work was responsible for the most serious damage on the south end of the foundation.
But the case has stalled.
A spokesman for the city said the municipality is not the main defendant in the case and, because legal action has commenced, would not comment any further. No one from Novex could be reached.
MacDonald, a mother of two who lives with two ecstatic dogs, Genie and Bud-bud, now has her life on hold. Because of her back injury, which severely restricts her ability to climb stairs, she’d like to relocate to a home with one floor.
But the house, which cost $145,000 nine years ago, is obviously not in selling condition.
The affected room was once her living room and later her craft area, where she indulged her stained-glass hobby. It is now unusable. “It’s unstable. I’m afraid to use it.”
In the winter, the room is drafty and cold, to the point that frigid air is leaking into the main part of the house, MacDonald said, and she is forced to wear boots and extra layers indoors.
“I’m afraid to spend another winter like this,” she said. “I’m tired. I’m exhausted.”
No wonder. She wakes up every morning knowing this: someone else made this crack, she just fell through it.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
But the storey-and-a-half was about 50 years old and the crack, more of an age line, was repaired. Houses settle and groan, do they not? What was there to worry about?
In 2010, the corner of Hélène Duval and Garneau streets — only steps from the foundation — was dug up to replace sewer and water mains. Work began in August with the digging of a deep hole. Here’s what she remembers.
“You could feel the house shake. My daughter’s computer monitor was shaking so bad she couldn’t study at home.”
She later told an investigating engineer: “I remember the house shook so much that the tea light candle holders, and whatever else was on top of my desk, would always fall off while I was at my computer.”
Suzie MacDonald in her Hull home that she claims was damaged when the city was working on water and sewer lines many years ago. Errol McGihon / Postmedia
The work went on for weeks. By October of that year, she had lodged a complaint with the City of Gatineau: the little patched crack had widened and mysterious things were happening inside, particularly in the addition closest to the corner.
“My side door kept opening on its own.” Cracks began to appear inside the house, over door frames, in ceiling corners, the brick-work had zig-zag crevices, other doors on that side were sticky, and windows would not shut properly.
(The addition consists of an extension to the basement and a ground-floor sunroom, about 10 by 12 feet. There isn’t a single door, up or down, that works properly.)
Suzie MacDonald in her Hull home that she claims was damaged when the city was working on water and sewer lines many years ago. Errol McGihon / Postmedia
Today, the floor is so slanted in the worst-affected room that Citizen photographer Errol McGihon remarked it felt like the Crazy Kitchen at the Museum of Science and Technology. The side of the house, literally, is breaking away, strikingly visible in a hair-line crack in 2007 that has grown to be seven centimetres wide. Big enough to put an arm in.
McDonald, 58, gets by on a disability pension due to a chronic back injury.
She is so frustrated in her efforts to get compensation from either the City of Gatineau or the contractor, Novex, that’s she gone public out of desperation.
Fight city hall? Try fighting city hall when your income is $2,000 a month. When her initial complaint was not resolved, she hired a lawyer, who contracted an engineering firm. All in, she’s probably racked up $25,000 in professional fees.
In 2013, she was offered $10,000 to settle.
“I was shocked and insulted,” she said Thursday. “I’m on disability. I guess they were thinking I would see the dollar signs and just take it.”
She’s in possession of an engineering report, completed in July, that says the addition should be torn down and rebuilt, at a cost between $60,000 and $90,000. The engineer examined exterior photographs taken at the time of purchase in 2007, during the period of excavation in 2010, during an update in 2011, and the state of affairs in 2015.
He also took soil samples, dug below the frost line, uncovered and studied a substantial crack in the basement floor, and did an examination of the remainder of the foundation. The conclusion was the road work was responsible for the most serious damage on the south end of the foundation.
But the case has stalled.
A spokesman for the city said the municipality is not the main defendant in the case and, because legal action has commenced, would not comment any further. No one from Novex could be reached.
MacDonald, a mother of two who lives with two ecstatic dogs, Genie and Bud-bud, now has her life on hold. Because of her back injury, which severely restricts her ability to climb stairs, she’d like to relocate to a home with one floor.
But the house, which cost $145,000 nine years ago, is obviously not in selling condition.
The affected room was once her living room and later her craft area, where she indulged her stained-glass hobby. It is now unusable. “It’s unstable. I’m afraid to use it.”
In the winter, the room is drafty and cold, to the point that frigid air is leaking into the main part of the house, MacDonald said, and she is forced to wear boots and extra layers indoors.
“I’m afraid to spend another winter like this,” she said. “I’m tired. I’m exhausted.”
No wonder. She wakes up every morning knowing this: someone else made this crack, she just fell through it.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
