True Patriot Love - Is Your Home Ready for the Next Extreme Storm？ ft. Tony Romanelli

00:00:00.000 well there is no doubt uh we have climate change going on around us i i am a believer now not that

00:00:12.500 i wasn't before but i certainly was a climate change denier to some degree only because i kind

00:00:17.700 of feel like it's uh it's a little onerous to have on your shoulders but it is on our shoulders and

00:00:23.120 two things came to mind one is hmm what will happen in the future and how can we deal with

00:00:28.140 our climate and the other one was what are we doing to prepare how are we underpinning our

00:00:33.980 lives so that with this change we are still surviving existing and thriving because i think

00:00:40.920 that's part of the game that we don't talk about it all sounds like doom and gloom but we are a

00:00:47.200 persistent survival creature and we will figure out a way to talk to me more about that today

00:00:53.340 Tony Romanelli from RCC Wet Basements.

00:00:55.720 Thanks so much, man.

00:00:56.980 Now, as you know, this flooding season in Toronto where you're based has been significant.

00:01:05.880 Yeah, it's, you know what, from something that I thought this year was going to be a very dry year, extreme, it's turned the opposite.

00:01:11.840 And that's kind of what they're predicting was like kind of a dry summer.

00:01:14.400 We've gotten the total opposite.

00:01:15.880 And I think that's what weather is now.

00:01:17.640 It's unpredictable.

00:01:18.680 Now, let's just talk a little bit about what you do.

00:01:20.700 because in a couple of ways, you're protecting the top and the bottom

00:01:25.300 and trying to find solutions for people who are having weather-related issues.

00:01:30.120 The first is RCC wet basements.

00:01:32.380 What do you guys do?

00:01:33.520 So basically, we look after basements, I would say,

00:01:36.840 and from them from leaking and drainage, which are, you know, they go together, right?

00:01:42.120 So you're talking about sealing a basement, which is the walls coming through the walls,

00:01:45.520 and then you talk about drainage, which, you know, gets water away from the house.

00:01:49.920 And, you know, not many places in North America have basements, but the GTA is prominently basements.

00:01:56.740 That's interesting.

00:01:57.640 Like, why doesn't most of North America have a basement?

00:02:00.300 What made us think it was a good idea?

00:02:02.260 Well, a lot of it has started to do with that we needed deeper foundations for climate.

00:02:06.460 So now that you're doing all that effort putting in deeper foundations, so you said, well, we're going to do this.

00:02:10.900 We must use this room for storage.

00:02:13.980 So as you know, you go to Vegas, you're going to get a slab on grade because they don't need a basement.

00:02:18.080 Very easy and cheap to build.

00:02:19.460 That's why when you watch those TV shows, they say, oh, my God, I can buy a house in Vegas for $200,000.

00:02:23.360 That's so true.

00:02:24.220 All right, come on, we're moving.

00:02:25.860 Yeah.

00:02:26.380 Exactly.

00:02:26.800 That's part of it.

00:02:27.700 Well, if you built one of those in Toronto, it would be down on the street within one winter.

00:02:32.260 Yes.

00:02:32.420 So, no, that makes sense.

00:02:33.900 And I do remember when I was a kid, some of the houses were built with crawl spaces.

00:02:37.600 Remember that?

00:02:38.320 There would be some of those.

00:02:39.760 And then, partially, a full basement.

00:02:41.540 But crawl spaces for, you know, by and large in certain subdivisions around Ontario were a real thing.

00:02:48.540 And now that you mention it, yeah, it was just basically frost grade.

00:02:51.680 Yeah, and it was in storage.

00:02:52.820 You know, the basement in our business didn't really become a business

00:02:56.520 probably to the last maybe 30 years, 35 years, where people used the basement.

00:03:01.100 Otherwise, it was just storage.

00:03:01.960 They didn't care if it got a little damp, got a little wet.

00:03:04.040 A lot of times people kept vegetables down there.

00:03:05.980 They kept stuff off the ground.

00:03:07.200 It was good enough.

00:03:07.760 So it leaked, water got in, didn't really care.

00:03:10.040 Now you've got people living there.

00:03:11.280 Like, you know, the amount of, I don't know if there's an unfinished basement

00:03:14.060 in the city in Toronto.

00:03:15.080 That's so true.

00:03:15.660 you can't i mean there's expensive space not to be using but you know to use it you've got to

00:03:19.980 protect it properly and you've got to there's a lot of things to basement basically it's a coffin

00:03:23.900 man like you that's where you go when you die you want a hole in the ground right and if there was

00:03:27.260 glass walls i always say you would never go down in the basement right that's so true so i don't 0.58

00:03:31.740 really want to see the ground thank you yeah and even i had the nicest basement in the world i

00:03:35.420 could never get my kids to go down right because they say it's still the basement they could feel

00:03:38.780 that they went down to a place that was you know subterranean even though i finished it as nice and

00:03:43.900 and put as much fun stuff down there as it could be.

00:03:46.100 You coming down there with us?

00:03:47.140 Oh, okay.

00:03:47.880 It's in the basement.

00:03:49.220 It's cold down there.

00:03:50.640 Exactly.

00:03:51.000 No, it's not.

00:03:51.740 We made it anyway.

00:03:52.780 But that's interesting to me because as these,

00:03:56.060 I live in an older home.

00:03:57.120 My home is probably 80 to 100 years old

00:03:59.460 in a historic part of town.

00:04:01.540 They weren't thinking about drainage

00:04:02.980 the same way that we do today.

00:04:04.800 They weren't thinking about placement on the property

00:04:06.780 and that sort of thing.

00:04:07.600 These homes remain where the first town streets were built

00:04:11.620 and they created somewhat of a grade,

00:04:13.580 but that was it so a guy like me has issues always where the water needs to come around

00:04:18.940 it needs to constantly have drainage and of course because it's an old basement it's going to start

00:04:24.480 to have leak issues now with the torrential downpours that we've had over the last couple

00:04:29.340 of summers the flash freezing that comes in the winter for the first time i'm starting to see

00:04:34.580 some action in this regard and i it's my thought process on this is okay if i'm starting to think

00:04:42.480 about it now i better do it and the next 20 years as this problem persists or even probably

00:04:50.500 increases i'm protected is that what happens with the ceiling and the drainage when you guys do that

00:04:56.980 like it's just basically envelope the basement listen we don't build an arc okay but what we do

00:05:02.060 is give you all the best protection you can as far as drainage and sealing it if you until you

00:05:07.320 get involved with it there's insurance companies now that just aren't covering people for anything

00:05:11.200 that happens below ground right and that's good that's becoming more and more same thing with

00:05:14.700 people in florida that have you know coastal properties they're not covered anymore so they

00:05:19.180 can't even buy insurance never mind pay a premium you can't even get it it's not one of the options

00:05:23.040 yeah and that's and that's where we are now roof uh basements people you know you have you have a

00:05:27.820 15 year old roof and older insurance companies don't want to insure you that's that's what's

00:05:32.260 just happened this year and that's going to become less and less as the climate changes and uh you

00:05:38.180 know i'm not a scientist that's why when you name tony you end up in the construction business i

00:05:42.000 don't know i've always thought of you as a bit of a scientist uh but you know it's interesting

00:05:46.780 because i think you're probably are you seeing an increase now in the concern of homeowners saying

00:05:51.260 look i need to shore things up my home was not built for this kind of weather yeah 100 i mean

00:05:56.820 a year like with economy is right now people are kind of like reactionary like they you know don't

00:06:01.340 want to spend money but they don't have to but up until i would say the last year a lot of people

00:06:05.100 were very preventative right they were putting monies in if they're going to finish the basement

00:06:08.580 they made sure that they waterproof they made sure their drainage was great listen i bought my house

00:06:12.840 14 years ago and i purposely bought it on a higher part of toronto for that reason i was building a

00:06:17.480 new home you know i made it super watertight i did everything i possibly can it's not bomb proof

00:06:21.700 but it's bomb proof it can be as far as water uh water getting in so so you you actually had that

00:06:26.460 consideration in mind that you didn't want to end up in a scenario where you were on you were part

00:06:32.400 of the problem potentially yeah like i said i'm not a scientist but you don't have to tell me that

00:06:36.680 the earth was frozen at one time and it's getting warmer like i don't know i didn't go to school for

00:06:42.680 any of that but it kind of just adds up doesn't it like i said can we just make a note that we

00:06:46.900 just summed up history and climate change all in one sentence uh now the other part of your business

00:06:52.180 is uh roofing so i pointed at some of the issues that i think are going to contribute to the way

00:06:58.120 people roof and the way that they maintain it uh one thing that i have noticed is first of all

00:07:03.980 roofing is is quite a business you often have to do the whole roof and sometimes it seems a little

00:07:11.580 wasteful to me to be honest with you because one side of the roof is fine the exposed side not so

00:07:16.840 good this peak or dormer may be exposed but at the same time that repair process seems to be

00:07:24.060 daunting most people just wait till they need to repair a roof I wonder with this kind of rain

00:07:29.240 flash freezing and temperature change if roofing is uh starting to see a bit of a game change

00:07:35.640 well I don't know if you I didn't even lead you into this but the interesting thing is is that

00:07:40.580 you know I watch TikTok people say oh you know TikTok the social media but if you watch some of

00:07:44.760 these social things for the right thing you learn a lot you can get very educated in the half an

00:07:49.120 hour that you're scrolling and one of the business that i saw happen in the states was this um

00:07:54.140 extending the life of shingles okay and i saw it in the states and i kept watching on my tiktok

00:07:58.460 and i go wow that's amazing this really worked so i flew down went to see some of these operators

00:08:02.860 and checked it out and i said wow this stuff really works and it's and it's really amazing

00:08:07.580 and extends the life of a shingle and me like you said because one side of the house the shingle's

00:08:11.420 brand new the other side it's it's it's going uh and i said wow and i said wow really i really need

00:08:16.520 to start another business like i need a hole in the head yeah well done yeah exactly and and and

00:08:20.140 we did and we started this company called roof life and it's been two years and we've put millions

00:08:24.560 and millions of square feet out there because people that get it get it and they understand

00:08:27.540 and they're going to get it a lot more but we extend the life of your shingles by just putting

00:08:31.240 a very cheap application onto the roof there's like a thousand to two thousand bucks and you

00:08:35.480 can save yourself from replacing a ten thousand fifteen thousand dollar roof for for five to ten

00:08:39.720 years not trying to sell you something here but these are the type of things that you have

00:08:42.300 But I saw it in the States.

00:08:45.040 I didn't invent it.

00:08:45.840 We make the product here now in Canada.

00:08:48.760 And it's really exploding.

00:08:50.760 And it's something for people, a part of a home maintenance.

00:08:53.040 This is going to be the new, for roofs, it's going to be the new home maintenance.

00:08:55.980 Especially as I just mentioned, insurance companies are just saying over 15-year singles, no coverage.

00:09:01.420 Well, that's, and so now if you can get your car, this is so interesting.

00:09:06.480 Where insurance used to be the solution, it seemed to get to, we've hit this precipice

00:09:11.440 where either they don't give you the insurance,

00:09:14.060 your deductible is so much, or the coverage is so low. 0.92

00:09:17.040 The quote backs that they give you are ridiculous.

00:09:19.280 I don't know if you've ever had to claim insurance,

00:09:21.180 but the value of replacement is never going to be there.

00:09:24.780 The depreciation on anything, a roof, I would imagine, included.

00:09:29.120 It's more of a decision to go,

00:09:30.600 okay, how can I save money, invest my own money in my home

00:09:35.340 instead of waiting for an insurance issue to take care of it?

00:09:38.440 Look, the party's over.

00:09:39.540 Like, you know, I've been in construction my whole life, right?

00:09:42.000 And so I used to remember hearing stories of people, you know,

00:09:44.800 they had a flood in their basement or the roof leaked.

00:09:47.260 And you know what?

00:09:47.860 Oh, my God, I got $25,000 in insurance.

00:09:49.820 It only cost me $12,000 and I pocketed $13,000.

00:09:52.140 Those days are gone.

00:09:53.700 Oh, no, that's upside down.

00:09:54.940 It's upside down.

00:09:55.700 You're going to be losing $13,000 on that claim because so,

00:09:58.520 and if you can get insurance, right?

00:10:00.500 And that's where we're going.

00:10:01.640 Every year, it's going to get worse and worse and worse.

00:10:04.040 Sure, you can make one claim and get a crappy response,

00:10:07.940 but you'll never get insured again.

00:10:09.340 that's the other fear so you have to use your one-time insurance pretty now it's not that

00:10:14.280 extreme in every case but it seems to be going there and don't kid yourself if there's if there's

00:10:18.820 a big change in the weather and in a recent episode the one that i actually recorded this

00:10:23.740 morning uh you know it's pretty significant it's like an 80 change at some points in our year

00:10:30.140 what happens with the weather compared to what it was just 20 years ago so rather than panicking and

00:10:37.220 And I think it's time that people really, this has been my call to this,

00:10:41.700 people need to look forward with survival instincts

00:10:45.640 and value-retaining instincts for their home.

00:10:48.920 That's why I thought, you know what, if you don't mind coming in,

00:10:51.580 because, you know, the other thing is the economy is in a place

00:10:54.840 where people aren't out there buying a new home.

00:10:57.620 Their mortgages are not being handed out like candy like they were.

00:11:00.620 Interest rates are up.

00:11:01.540 I think that people are going to refinance and stay where they are.

00:11:05.600 That means homes are aging.

00:11:07.340 It means that they need a different care set than our mindset has given us over the last 15 years,

00:11:13.560 where it's like, ah, it gets old, I'm going to buy a new one, and I'll still make money.

00:11:17.840 That, I think, is also long gone.

00:11:20.720 So I think restoration and maintenance is kind of where it's at.

00:11:24.840 Yeah, listen, it's like everything else you maintain.

00:11:26.980 You maintain your car properly, it's going to run better, it's going to last longer.

00:11:31.140 Same thing with the house.

00:11:32.060 You can't ignore it, right?

00:11:33.520 And you have to get on that pattern of how to maintain your house and stay on top of that maintenance. 0.99

00:11:40.500 I always love the fact that people used to always say, oh, those condo owners are such suckers. 0.96

00:11:43.920 They have to pay a monthly maintenance fee. 0.91

00:11:45.600 I said, so do you as a homeowner.

00:11:47.120 You just don't do it.

00:11:48.200 You know, it's so funny.

00:11:49.960 It's like when you go buy a hammer and a wheelbarrow to do it yourself at home, well, you got to add the hammer and wheelbarrow into your maintenance costs.

00:11:56.580 That is your maintenance fees.

00:11:57.580 I'm going to own it.

00:11:58.180 Well, no, but that's part of it, right?

00:11:59.980 Yeah, but you're just taking that off the next cost of the next job.

00:12:03.260 Yeah, you got the wheelbarrow, but there's still this expense.

00:12:06.060 Don't kid yourself.

00:12:07.020 The older I get, the more I realize what a deal the maintenance fee might be.

00:12:11.220 Maybe less and less in this era.

00:12:14.880 What do you think over the next 20 years?

00:12:17.100 Are you going to be seeing more of these products like you found in roof life?

00:12:21.540 Are you going to be, are there other, are you already now starting to scope?

00:12:25.360 Okay, these are better building products for a sustainable future?

00:12:29.500 Yeah, we're looking at everything as far as like, you know,

00:12:31.440 our warranties and what we give people and what we promise people and making sure they understand

00:12:35.400 it better um and then like say products were always improving because it's changing like i only

00:12:42.080 learned a 50-year storm that's what i that's what i grew up with right we designed properties we did

00:12:46.680 everything around 50-year storms now we just had two weeks ago a hundred year storm it's not the

00:12:51.800 first hundred year storm in the last 10 years well that's not hundred year storms anymore that's

00:12:55.920 every 10-year storm so right these are happening much more frequently and they're monstrous right

00:13:00.120 And they could become monstrous, and we could go a year without nothing,

00:13:03.560 and people would say, well, we word for nothing.

00:13:04.920 Well, that's the way the climate's going to go.

00:13:07.160 The other thing is you can't trust the infrastructure.

00:13:09.300 I'm sorry, I hate to say this.

00:13:10.320 You can't trust the infrastructure is up to speed for 300-year storms in a single summer, right?

00:13:16.900 Well, there's places in Toronto that for the insurance, you're banned,

00:13:20.680 because the city in North York, it's one place in North York,

00:13:23.500 the infrastructure cannot handle a 25-year storm.

00:13:27.200 Condos have been added to it, all this infrastructure has been added to it,

00:13:29.600 and they can't have so they have no insurance for the basement zero they can't buy it they can't

00:13:33.400 get it nothing and people ask what can we can you can you will you guarantee no we can't guarantee

00:13:37.460 this this and that they want us to rewrite our guarantee right right and it's just that that's

00:13:41.740 the future right it's like being near the ocean and saying well you know what we want to insurance

00:13:45.200 it's not going to happen yeah i need hurricane insurance i'm sorry what yeah it's not gonna

00:13:50.120 happen tony thanks i appreciate this no problem

True Patriot Love - September 24, 2026

Is Your Home Ready for the Next Extreme Storm？ ft. Tony Romanelli

Episode Stats

Transcript