$0 Video Inspection, With Any Cleaning

Almost always both, and treating only one side is why most waterproofing jobs fail. The water typically gets in because the weeping tile around your foundation is no longer moving it away fast enough, and it finds its way through a crack or a joint. Seal the crack without fixing the drainage, and it comes back. Fix the drainage but leave the crack open, and it still comes in. Ottawa homes built before 1980 almost universally have original clay weeping tile that's been degrading for decades. A proper assessment looks at both systems together, not one at a time.

Poly-B is grey flexible plastic pipe, installed in Ottawa homes between roughly 1978 and 1995. Check under your sink or in your utility room. Grey tubing with plastic or brass crimp fittings is the giveaway. The problem isn't visible from the outside: it degrades internally when exposed to Ottawa's chlorinated municipal water supply, and fails without warning. Ontario insurers are increasingly applying exclusions or surcharges to homes with Poly-B still in place. If your home was built in that window and you've never had it replaced, it's worth finding out what's actually running through your walls.

Not necessarily. Trenchless sewer repair pulls or inflates a structural liner inside the existing damaged pipe through access points, with no trench required in most cases. The pipe is essentially rebuilt from the inside out. Whether trenchless applies depends on the pipe's condition: a partially deteriorated line with intact joints is a candidate; a fully collapsed section or a severe pipe offset may still require targeted excavation. The only way to know which situation you have is a camera inspection before anyone picks up a shovel. That inspection determines the method and the quote, not the other way around.

If it's affecting every tap in the house equally, the likely cause is the water service line between the city main and your home, either a failing pipe or a partially obstructed shutoff. If it's isolated to one area or fixture, it's usually mineral scale inside an aging supply line, or a failing aerator or cartridge. The critical thing is not to guess: replacing fixtures because of a supply-line pressure problem accomplishes nothing. And in Ottawa homes with lead service lines, low pressure can indicate corrosion that needs to be addressed on health grounds, not just comfort ones.

One isolated crack in an otherwise sound, dry wall is a crack repair job, polyurethane or epoxy injection that seals it from water penetration. That's the right fix in that specific situation. Where it becomes a waterproofing problem: multiple cracks, efflorescence, white mineral staining on the wall, a bowing or deflecting wall, or water coming in at the floor-wall joint. Those are signs of sustained hydrostatic pressure that crack injection alone won't resolve. The distinction matters because crack injection is a few hundred dollars; a full waterproofing system is several thousand. Doing the smaller job on a bigger problem means doing it twice.

If your home has a basement floor drain connected to the city sewer and was built more than 20 years ago, the answer is almost certainly yes. Ottawa's combined sewer system can surcharge during intense rainfall, meaning city sewer water reverses into residential drain lines, and yours is the lowest point it reaches. A backwater valve closes automatically when that reversal happens, blocking sewage from entering your home. One sewage backup can cause tens of thousands in damage and make your home temporarily unlivable. The City of Ottawa has offered rebate programs for backwater valve installation. Check current availability when you call.