» 5/14/2008 - Smithfield couple save house with 'heavenly' intervention
By JOSEPH R. LaPLANTE, Valley Breeze & Observer Managing Editor SMITHFIELD - Christine DelNero hears all the stories about "contractors from hell" who don't live up to their promises, let alone, a contract.
She has a story to tell, however, about "Contractors from heaven," she said.
"On March 8 my husband and I were just about to leave for a trip to Ohio to see our son, and my husband, Vincent, went back inside to check one more time," she told The Valley Breeze and Observer. "He went into our finished basement and he saw raw sewage pouring out of our washing machine and it continued coming out of the shower and the washing machine for two hours."
The sewer line outside their home at 5 Lawnacre Drive, backed up with sludge and grease, had burst. Their home is at the low point of the line, so that is where the flow went.
Their home of 35 years, a colonial ranch with a garage, was being inundated with sewage.
She called Roto Rooter first and the company responded.
"They came out and he took one look at the basement and walked out to the sewer cap and told us the problem was coming from the sewer line," she said.
DelNero called Water Out of Rhode Island on Cedar Swamp Road, part of Insurance Recovery Services.
"They were here in 10 minutes and told us they would get a cleaning crew, but that we would have to leave our home," she said.
After staying in a Boston hotel and returning home, they got the bad news from Jesse Koslow, general manger of Water Out: "This is a black water disaster."
"He said we had no choice but to demolish that area of the house, the family room, my husband's study, and the laundry room."
The DelNero family had finished the basement in 1975 and added a bathroom in 1982.
The couple has two sons, one of whom has undergone three kidney transplants. His doctors told them that he could not return to the house because he is immuno-deficient.
"We love living in Smithfield, we didn't want to move," she said.
Instead they spent more than $120,000, financed with a home equity loan, to tear down the flooded and contaminated area to the studs, with even six inches of those studs removed, and had it all rebuilt.
Water Out, Enviro Clean and Tech Builders all part of Insurance Recovery Services, got the job.
"They walked in here wearing space suits like astronauts and sealed off the entire area, which allowed us to live upstairs," she said. "Beginning on July 18 at 6:45 a.m. every day they were here until they finished in September.
"Every single person who walked through our home treated it as if it was their home," DelNero said. "They showed us respect."
The DelNeros lost furniture, linens and towels, but few personal items. They moved out for six days while the crews "shocked the house" to sanitize it.
The couple has filed a lawsuit against the town's sewer maintenance contractor, Veolia Environmental Services, in Superior Court.
When the work was finished, the DelNeros promised to invite all the workmen back for a party to thank them for their work and consideration.
The party was Friday night, Nov. 9 and every single one of the workmen showed up with their wives, having received a formal invitation from the DelNeros.
"We had a wonderful time. I thought we'd have it from 5 to 7 p.m., but they didn't leave until 10 p.m. It was great."