I have a situation. Not on my property. It’s something that might be a sinkhole might be a collapsed well might be a combination thing might be a portal to hell. Yes, not kidding. I need some testing done. From research I need a geotechnical engineer, or a specialized geologist, or someone in wells, or potentially a catholic priest.
We’ve called 15 firms and haven’t found a single person/company that is able to investigate/test residential property. This has become a headache.
Does anyone know anyone that could possibly help?
Yes, this is an attempt to pull at straws and close to a last ditch effort. The hive mind is an amazing thing….hoping it might work here.
How close is this “sink hole” to a house? Is it an old house? Is it on public sewer? Public water? Is it old enough to have had a septic tank or cistern that collapsed (I had a house built in 20’s that had a cistern that collapsed).
Are there other sink holes in area? They are usually associated with specific geological ground formations over an area. The USGS may have maps of ground formations. If near water US Corps of Engineers might have something. If City water and sewer were added to area, planning department will have year they were put in - if newer than house then I’d bet septic.
If old enough to have those, then upgraded to public water and sewer, land could been replotted into smaller lots at some point decades after they were disconnected and forgotten about. A cistern will usually be very close to house - mine was about 10 feet from foundation line.
It’s under the house. Very old house. Pier and beam.
We were told it was a well. Inspector thought it was a cistern that failed and came back and was like “well, I’ve never seen anything like that before”
No other sink holes that we know of. Fear is it was a well that failed but tapped into an aquifer that is still consuming soil.
I doubt it was a well. They are usually outside of house so they can be cleaned and serviced, at least the main pump. Inside would be small sink pump that would draw from cistern. Cistern could be under house. Mine only had about 36 inches of soil (frost line - Topeka, KS) Around here, much less.
A hydrological map would show what water table is - or contact well diggers, they can tell you depth of aquifer.
Of course, it could be shallow graves that collapsed. Check newspapers for missing persons over the years. How cool would that be; Haunted house on Air BnB would bring premium bucks I’d bet.
House was built in the 1890s. Where the well/pit is was not part of the original house. It is part of an expansion. Not sure when. The current owners have been putting thousands of dollars worth of dirt in every 5-10 years. Current condition is a pit 15-20ft in diameter and about 3 feet deep. I don’t think a collapsed cistern or septic would be big enough to require that much dirt, and that often. All that dirt is going somewhere.
I have called close to 20 different companies; well drillers, structural engineers, and geotechnical engineers. They all say they can’t help for one reason or another. We just need someone to give us some idea of what’s really going on.
Have you tried calling SMU? Dedman college has a geotechnical engineering program, and it’s possible that one or more of their professors might do consulting work - esp since it’s summer. They’ve been quoted on and have researched the Wink Sinks.
Ya most would…and we likely will pass but we’re trying just to get some professional eyes on it to actually look it over because of stubbornness and (most importantly) more stubbornness and (even more importantly) illogically emotional attachment to a physical object and a garage that can stomp out all other garages in its path with a wink.
Consider: What bank is going to loan on this house? Any home inspection report is going to say: Big F’ing Cater expanding under house of unknown origin, not sure if it can be fixed as prior efforts have failed, can get no professional opinion as to cause.
Good luck getting home owners insurance, which will be a condition of the loan.
Any work to remediate the condition will require building permits that describe damage, if it is serious enough the certificate occupancy could be revoked till it’s fixed when the city inspector comes out to look at it after the engineer’s report is submitted.
Sorry to be blunt: It’s time to walk away from this one. You don’t want to be the one that gets stomped.
Why is it that you’re assuming that the geotech prof isn’t an accredited professional? I’d think getting some folks – any folks out to look at it would be a start.
I didn’t mean to imply that at all. What I was thinking in my head is that they (sellers) want a foundation person to look at it and we want someone with earth movement knowledge based on the information we know….not in the business of selling foundation repair. I think my words were crossed from my brain to my fingers.
Foundation repair is great. We are hoping to get additional eyes on it.
We realize this sounds a bit foolish to peruse this endeavor based on the information presented.
We likely will walk, but we want to give this true lady of a home the most opportunity possible before walking.
Look for a foundation repair company that has a licensed PE on staff, They are very unlikely to put their license/company on the line to make a sale - that will probably have a warranty on it that would come back to bite them in the butt.
If none of these companies are willing to even bid the job, that should tell you something is much worse than typical Texas soil expansion and contraction. If this house was built in 1890 that means it still hasn’t settled after 130 years!
