My house/garage is sinking. I have a foundation issue.

[Sonicrunch]

So, before I go to a foundation company, I would like to have a soil engineering company give me a estimate of what is going on and how best fix it. (I had a structural engineer give me this advice)

I don't want to go to a foundation company because I am afraid they will only try to sell me their service, regardless of if it is in my best interests or not.

Some backround:

My house/garage sits atop and partially artificial hill.

Also, 2 years previous to me purchasing the house, a water main broke, and created a sinkhole. This sinkhole was about 30 feet from where I am now having a problem.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I would also love to hear from the experts and/or anyone who has had similar issues.

[trolloni]

Best thing i can come up with is, patch it up and sell it.

[paceman]

How much is it sinking? Would be tough to sell as you would have to disclose the sinking. The only thing you probably can do is talk to a foundation expert.

[chad austin]

Also, 2 years previous to me purchasing the house, a water main broke, and created a sinkhole. This sinkhole was about 30 feet from where I am now having a problem.

Was this disclosed when you bought the house?

[hanson]

Can you give more specific info on what is sinking/settling? Is the entire house going down, just one area or corner, just something in your yard, etc... you weren't all that clear.

You very well could have a serious ($$$$$) problem. Some soils just aren't suitable for building on. Soil testing will tell you this and then you can design a foundation system to work with those soils or correct (remove & replace) the soils before building. How to remediate this problem after the fact has me scratching my head a bit. There are techniques like soil solidification that we use to help stabilize soils in underpinning type situations but not sure how effective (effective meaning cost as well) something like this would be on poor soils for an entire house.

You are on the right track though... I would probably start consulting with a structural engineer and they will definitely want some soil testing done.

[upnorth]

I would look at your real estate disclosure from when you purchased the property as to whether the previous owners disclosed that sinkhole issue. If it is on the property and they didn't disclose it you may be able to go after them for damages.

[Sonicrunch]

Can you give more specific info on what is sinking/settling? Is the entire house going down, just one area or corner, just something in your yard, etc... you weren't all that clear.

It is one corner of the home sinking. To be precise, the garage. It is quite obvious to see because of how the asphalt driveway has become lower than the garage floor. tapping on the floor of the garage also reveals that the sinking corner has a hollow sound under it. eeek

I did have a structural engineer come out and look at it. He verified that it was the foundation sinking, but could not give much more info since the foundation is not an area of his expertise.

He suggested the next step would be to get a soils engineer out there next. That will be my plan.

[Sonicrunch]

I would look at your real estate disclosure from when you purchased the property as to whether the previous owners disclosed that sinkhole issue. If it is on the property and they didn't disclose it you may be able to go after them for damages.

Thanks. Good idea. I'm QUITE sure it was no disclosed.

[K_Josh87]

Not that a soil test is a bad idea, but if you have a local contractor that you are comfortable with it may be a lot cheaper just to have them look at it as typically most contractors give free estimates... And I have never known an engineer to work real cheap, and yes, he will tell you what is there for soil... But then where do you go? Back to the structural engineer whom then can tell you how it SHOULD be built for that soil.... Then You still have to go to the builder, who has most likely seen many homes built in similar areas and soils, and will probably give you the same answer as the two engineers did, and yes, sell you a service, however, thats what they are there for, to do the work you need. Find two or three GOOD contractors, ALWAYS work with licensed contractors, It will be a tough thing to know for sure and diagnose no matter how you handle it. Most likely a time and material project. How long ago was the house built? One thing that comes to mind is maybe something that was found when digging, that needed to be removed/filled in, and it was not properly filled... such things could be an old cistern, junk pile, etc... As far as what should be there to support your house, is pretty much the same around these parts of the state... so i do not know that the engineer will tell you much. Just my as a builder. Good Luck!

[hanson]

Here's my issue going the contractor route... 2 or 3 contractors are going to give you different solutions to the same problem, how can you compare bids? To a homeowner who knows nothing about this, what do you do? If you hire an architect/engineer to design a solution for you, you can get bids on the designed solution, and then compare them equally to see who has the best price.

[Sonicrunch]

I agree with Hanson.

Thanks guys.

[SkunkedAgain]

Yeah, you need to know that the contractor is actually going the recommended route. Without having consulted the soils and structural engineers, you won't know what the proper remedy is prior to getting bids.

[MontanaMax]

Dude, you describe two problems with your biggest life investment, unstable soil beneath the home and soil migration. You need to know what is going on with both issues or you'll never solve the problem. Once you fix it you can worry about whether someone else is responsible. You need the soils expert to figure out whats going on under and around the house. My guess is you'll have to helical pier the foundation to stabilize it and excavate and refill and pack the soil outside the foundation that is moving. You can't go low budget on this or you may lose the house through damage which won't be covered by insurance. Engineers will give estimates and by word of mouth you can find out who is reasonable and reputable. Talk to attorneys on both sides of sinking home cases in your area and they will know who will take care of you and who will take you to the cleaners.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I know nothing about sinking houses or different kinds of dirt.

However, it may be worth a phone call to your insurance agent, also. I don't know, but your homeowners ins may cover some of these costs.

[Hillbiehle]

Eric beat me to it. If the sinkhole collapsed at a spefic time you may find coverage on your homeowners insurance. Review your coverage/speak with your agent.

[MN_Jay]

This is a major problem with possibly your biggest investment you own. Do not go with the lowest bid contractor - no matter if it is bidding equally with two others on an engineers recommendation. Go with the contractor with the best reputation.

As a contractor myself, I can tell you there are a lot of shady people out there who will bid this very low and come in with after they start with the list of change orders because "it was way worse than you told them". Trust me, you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

[Sonicrunch]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I'll post in this thread again once I get this thing rolling.

[K_Josh87]

+1

[K_Josh87]

did this ever get anywhere??? I ask this as i am roofing a brand new home right now that has this very problem, and is currently on blocks and having soil re compacted and tested and new foundation put underneath the area... reason being, the sewer trench was never tamped in after it was installed... and with the rain it settled a couple inches... glad it was caught before the house was completed... but what a pain, and costly... I could see this happening on many projects....

[cavalierowner]

I can't tell you how many times I've seen little to no compaction on utility trenches in residential. It seems you're lucky if the backhoe guy packs it a little with the bucket. It's usually not a big issue until you try to put a building over it. If putting any building on fill, the fill needs to be compacted to minimum 98% Proctor and tested to verify the compaction. Even in our commercial projects it was not unusual to get an area that had to be recompacted because it didn't meet 98%. It takes more money to get proper compaction and testing, but it's a lot cheaper than fixing a problem after something is already built.

[WallEYES]

Sonicrunch

I am not going to read thru all these posts,but I think you are screwed....I have first hand knowledge of this situation....A friend of mine built a house on top of a hill along the west shore of big swan lake near dassel. Last fall a 3foot crack about 2 feet deep opened up from the neighbors 2 houses down and right into the middle of his house...the house settled on the back side about 2 feet... they packed up and moved after a soils enginneer came out, did borings on the back side of the home and gave them the bad newes....the hill is shifted and moving towards the lake and there was no fix possible...the homeowners are now in limbo with homeowners insurance company to cover their losses...the house is unlivable and dropped another 6 inches since last fall....good luck...I would hire both a soils and structursl enginneer to find out the source fof your problem before being in touch with a concrete/foundation contractor...there might not be a fix to your problem...again good luck and keep us all posted to what the solution is.

[Sonicrunch]

Thanks guys. I am still (slowly) getting quotes from soils engineers.

Yeah, I know I am screwed, but the settling is not nearly as bad as some of you have mentioned!! Ouch!!

Luckily for me, the settling is only occurring at the end of the garage, and not under the house. (so far).

[slurpie]

After reading the post on here I have a disclosure ? When I purchased my house the previous owner said no water got into the basement. since owning the house for three years I have got water into the basement every rain over an inch, and when snow melts in the spring. I called my realtor the first time it happened and he shrugged me off. is there any thing that can be done to go after the previous owner? I ask this because of a post that was in this post a little earlier.

[BoxMN]

Slurpie, I know a buddy of mine did go back and get cash from previous home owner who disclosed that the house roof did not leak (or at least no water damage, not exactly sure), and after my bud went through first spring it actually did leak. My bud did "win" because there was fairly easy to see proof that the previous tried to repair water damage and then lied about it.

not sure how he went about it, or if same type thing as you are seeing, but FYI anyway. Good luck.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Maybe. The disclosure requirement is limited to material facts which the owner (or Realtor) had knowledge of. Now, that can certainly present problems for buyer and seller (and Realtor). Did you have a professional inspection? Any signs of water intrusion at the time of purchase? Has the neighbor come over to say, "wow! I can't believe you bought the one house on the block with a river in the basement!"?