Hamilton furniture store underwater for two months, blaming local construction

A longtime furniture store in Hamilton has been underwater for two months, and the owner says the nearby city construction is to blame.

The Parks Furniture and Mattress (Superstore), found at the corner of Sanford Ave. North and Wilson Street provided CHCH News a tour of their flooded show room.

“This is the showroom,” said Patrick Gabriel, the owner of the Parks Furniture and Mattress store in Hamilton, “we put everything out of here – this was all a showroom and has been a showroom for the last 100 years.”

The staff at Parks Furniture had to move the furniture after the showroom flooded.

Gabriel said his massive moisture problem started when the City of Hamilton started working on Wilson Street.

“All these lines, called laterals, go out tot he stormwater system,” said Gabriel. “They put the new ones in and destroyed the old ones, without reconnecting our old ones – all my water is just leaking into the ground.”

A lot of the water comes from the roof drain with nowhere to go, which has caused over $100,000 in damage.

“Our main goal right now is to just get it fixed – I don’t even care about the losses so much,” said Gabriel. “Yes there’s losses – we have to rip this whole thing out – but I just wanted to fix it, it’s been two months.”

Gabriel said he had to jackhammer part of the showroom Friday morning to expose the drainage pipes so city workers would be able to find them outside his building.

“They are looking at it today, the day you [CHCH News] come down here, the day they’re trying to dig up my old pipes,” said Gabriel. “Cross my fingers that with some encouragement from you guys they get the job done.”

CHCH News reached out to the City of Hamilton to speak with someone in the building department.

City staff said in an email that, “given the age of the building and age of the combined wastewater and stormwater infrastructure within the Wilson Street roadway that is being replaced, further investigation is required to locate all the private wastewater and stormwater connections from this property to the city’s system.”

Gabriel said until he can ensure the basement won’t flood, he can’t set up the showroom again.

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