Calgary's rainy summer has calls flooding in for some businesses
Repairs to leaky basements, overflowing eaves keeping some companies busy
The wet weather that's been putting a damper on summer for most Calgarians has had a silver lining for others.
Chad Lacey says his foundation repair company got more than 100 service calls one day last week — almost as many as he got for all of July last year.
"And a lot are the window filled up so fast and the water came in, or the pump failed ... and especially through the night through our 24-hour service side," he said.
Lacey says he's had to bring in staff from other cities to keep up with demand.
The rain not only leads to leaky basements but major structural problems too, Lacey says.
"There are houses that will start to bow in, so the walls will actually start to bend and bow in and houses will sink and crack ... so we have two full-time departments going here," he said.
Record set in 1927
Calgary got 206.1 mm of rain in July. The average accumulation for the month is 66 mm.
July 1927 still holds the record for the city's wettest July at 246 mm of rain.
The weather has kept Alberta Sandbags Inc. busy.
"A total influx of people coming to pick up sandbags compared to last year," said owner Terry Holowachuck. "People's properties are starting to get saturated now, instead of the water going around its now being held and kind of going up against their house."
Allan Eisses, who cleans out eaves and gutters, is also seeing more business from the rainy summer.
"A busier time for gutter cleaning is definitely in the spring but with the way the rain has gone we've really not slowed down," he said.
Eisses says people usually call after a problem occurs, so he suggests having getting eaves checked before it rains.
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