Under the Kitchen Sink in Simsbury, and Then the Basement Below It

Under a kitchen sink is the least inspected square metre in most houses. It is dark, it is full of stored bottles, and a supply or waste connection can weep for months into a particleboard cabinet base without anyone noticing until the smell arrives or the floor of the cabinet gives. By then the damage has usually gone two directions: into the cabinet and the wall behind it, and downward into whatever sits below. This Simsbury scope reads exactly that way.

Upstairs, the lower base cabinetry was taken out, 40 square feet of drywall was removed and 30 square feet of insulation was torn out and bagged. 100 square feet was HEPA vacuumed in detail and visible mould was cleaned and removed. Downstairs, there is a separate line for cleaning and removing visible mould from the basement wall panels, priced on its own at $475 rather than folded into the kitchen work. That separation is the useful detail. It tells you the crew followed the water rather than stopping at the room where it was reported.

Protection was proportionate and specific: a zipper containment, floor protection, and contents covered with plastic, with one 24 hour negative air period across the work. A mobilization and demobilization charge appears as its own line, which is normal on a smaller job where travel and setup are a real share of the cost and honest estimates show it rather than burying it in a inflated labour rate. 300 square feet was treated with a plant based antimicrobial agent, and debris was hauled off the property. Nothing was rebuilt.

The cabinetry was not replaced, the drywall was not re-hung, and no plumbing repair was performed, which matters because the leak that caused this is a plumbing question and it sits outside a remediation scope. Cleaning and removing the affected material does not stop a connection that is still weeping. That repair should come first, then the rebuild.