“I hope you aren’t attached to these floors.They’ll all need to be torn up.”He motions to the floors I just had replaced last year.
“Awesome.Those are practically new.”I shake my head and stare up at the ceiling.This can’t seriously be happening.
“Did you turn off the water?”Wes asks.
“…No.I was looking for the leak and couldn’t find it.I never thought of turning off the water to the house.”
“No one ever does.”Blake chuckles and he pats me on the shoulder.“I’m assuming it’s in the basement.”
“I think so?I don’t really know.”I grip the back of my neck, feeling more than helpless in this situation.
“Dang, these baseball players think they’re hot stuff because they can catch a ball and they don’t even know where the water shuts off in their own home.”Blake rolls his eyes as he opens the door to the basement and disappears out of sight.
“I feel like such an idiot,” I murmur.
“Don’t.He’s just busting your balls.It’s what he does.”Wes shrugs.“What work have you had on the house recently?”
I open my mouth to respond, but Blake calls for us to come down to the basement.I turn on the flashlight to my phone and use it as a light to walk down the steps.There’s at least two feet of water down here.I don’t know how I didn’t think to check the basement at all.
“I turned off the power to the house.There’s no way of knowing if the electricity is compromised and with your entire house being wet, I don’t want you to get electrocuted.”
“Only took it happening to him once for him to learn his lesson.”Wes smirks.
“Anyway,” Blake ignores Wes and continues.“It looks like there’s a leak inside your wall.I’m assuming that’s where your bathroom is.”He points up and I mentally map out which room we’re under.
“Yeah, I just had my spare bathroom renovated a few months ago.They went down to the studs and replaced all the plumbing and electrical.”
“Who did it?”Wes folds his arms over his chest and watches me carefully.
“Blackstone Renovations.”
“Ha!You’re lucky your house is still standing.”Wes lets out a humorless snort of laughter and shakes his head.“We’ve had more jobs than I can count because of their failure to handle things correctly.I'm not joking when I say you’re lucky you haven’t had an electrical fire or more flooding.They cut corners and their guys take no pride in their work.All they care about is making money.”
“Their contract only covers their work for thirty days and most people don’t realize that.They make sure the work will last for at least thirty days, but after that, they don’t care what happens to your house.They already made their money.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groan.
“We can handle this if you want us to.Your floors are ruined.They’ll have to be ripped up.Down here will have to be drained and dried up, but I don’t see much that will need to be replaced.”Wes glances around the basement.I don’t keep much down here and that’s probably a good thing.
“How often do you come into the basement?”Blake asks slowly.
“I haven’t been down here in months, why?”
“Is this your master bedroom or spare bathroom?”
“Spare bathroom.”
“I have a feeling this has been slowly leaking for a while.You probably didn’t notice because the water was going under your vinyl hardwood floors.They’re good at soaking up water and you don’t notice a leak until it’s too late.”
“Awesome.”I pinch the bridge of my nose, more than done with this already.
“Your molding will probably need to be replaced.There’s a chance the drywall will also need to be replaced.”Wes winces.
“Will I even be able to live here?”
“Did you check if the other side of the house is wet?Your master bedroom is on one side of the house and the spare bedrooms are on the other, right?”
“Yeah, they renovated the spare bedroom.I don’t remember my master bedroom carpet being wet when I checked that bathroom.I called Wyatt as soon as I couldn’t find the leak.I wasn’t really thinking straight.”
