Can you blame the mold in your house on the new street curbs?

If your town is like my town, the politicians can’t spend your tax money fast enough on projects of questionable need and design. One of these projects is replacing the curbing on residential streets. Generally speaking, the curbs do not need replacing. In the cases where some of the curbs are actually broken, it is almost always cheaper to repair them than to remove and replace miles of curbing. The unintended consequences of replacing all that curbing are:

• The cost is prohibitive, especially in light of the already high taxes we all pay for necessary services and maintenance of public facilities.

• The mess created by the demolition of the existing curbing and roadway can go on for weeks, causing your house to be filled with all sorts of dirt and dust.

• The noise of the machinery and trucks can be very irritating and pose a significant danger to you and your children playing in the area.

The benefits after the mess and noise have subsided are:

• You have a brand new curbing and pavement in front of your house.

• The new curb and roadway improves the value of your property and the neighborhood in general.

• It also provides a very nice new and smooth road surface on which you, your neighbors and visitors tend to drive much faster on. This often turns into a new source of income for your town via speeding tickets. It also results in more accidents with children riding their bikes or chasing a ball.

• The most insidious result is the elimination of the notches in the curb where the roof drains used to empty into the street. Yes, the curb looks nicer without the notches, but the water that runs off you roof and used to empty into the street now can’t go there. No problem right? No! Big Problem!

Often the resulting problems appear slowly and only after an unusually heavy rain. What used to be a dry basement isn’t always dry any more. What used to be a nice level dry yard is now a swamp for days after a storm. The wooden siding next to the down spouts is starting to turn dark and rot. Water now runs out of your neighbor’s yard into your yard. All of which go unnoticed because when it rains you are inside waiting for the rain to stop, not outside where the action is.

Most of the streets that are getting new curbs were built before 1980 (before the flexible black plastic tubing became popular). The drain pipe used to carry the roof water to the street was terracotta pipe that can in 12 to 30 inch lengths. They were just laid in a trench end to end with no seals at all. The pipe was cheep, easy to install, smooth (so they didn’t clog up with debris as long as the water could flow freely) and were relative strong so it didn’t collapse under the weight of the dirt piled back in the trench. The terracotta pipe was susceptible to tree and bush roots. Oh well, nothing’s perfect.

So now the notches in the curb are gone and the drain pipes can no longer flow freely. Where does all the water go?

• If you have a concrete slab house, it ends up in the yard and squirting out of the joint between the downspout and the pipe going into the ground.

• If you have a crawlspace, basement or cellar under your house, it will often end up there as a pool of stagnant water. Sometimes it looks like paint peeling off the basement walls. Sometimes it’s a stream of water coming from the joint between the basement wall and the floor. Sometimes (mostly with block walls) the wall is always wet. And some times the water pressure makes cracks in the walls so the water can flow freely. But most of the time it ends up smelling moldy and musty because the high humidity and water promotes mold growth.

What can you do about the damage to your property induced by this town funded project?

• Often there is not very much to do unless you take action while the project is in progress. Going to meet the town engineer and tell them what is happening, and how this oversight will inevitably damage the neighborhood has been known to work on a limited basis.

• After the project is finished and the workers are gone it is much tougher to get positive resolution. This is because in the infinite wisdom of the town council and at the request of the town engineering department, it is usually illegal for you or anyone else to put the notch back in the curb for the water to drain through. Who is responsible for the cost of the repairs and damages you are incurring?

• You are, unless and until you and your neighbors band together, hire a lawyer and go after the city with a class action lawsuit. These cases can take years and cost thousands of dollars to litigate. They often make you and your neighbors very unpopular with the town council, engineering department and various inspection and licensing bureaus in your town. In the meantime the damage to your property is continuing to mount. What is the best way to avoid future situations like this in your town?

• Go to town council meetings on a regular basis and make your opinions known. Remember, getting elected to council does not improve their understanding or intellect; it just gives them the power to spend your tax dollars foolishly.

• Write down your opinion and send it to the local newspaper’s editorial comment page.

• Seek out your neighbors and talk to them and with them about things going on in the neighborhood. Even the people renting houses have a say at counsel meetings.

• Get involved and stay involved! You actually can make a real and positive difference! You never know, you might be able to save your community or neighborhood from a fate worse than death. You know…fiscal irresponsibility.