Grouting and Underpinning

[sm1550]

Currently, I have a sinkhole home in the Central area of Florida, down near Tampa. My insurance company is not giving me to difficult of a time as to paying for the repairs to my house except for when talking about the ground repairs. The insurance company's engineering firm did their study and recommended grouting the house. A few other local company's came out and gave me estimates to repair the house, most of them recommending only compaction grout, like the insurance company's engineers. However, one of the firm's I had come out to my house recommended compaction grout and about 9 pin piles. This raises the repair estimate up quite a bit, so the insurance company of course balked at this estimate.

The insurance company has told me that they see no need in their engineer's report for underpinning and grouting the structure. I am wondering if anyone here knows of any articles/references I can use to show my insurance company that compaction grouting and underpinning a structure are a better remedy to remediate the sinkhole damage at my house than grouting alone.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Geocontractor]

sm1550,

Have you contacted the Tampa office of Hayward Baker? I know they have a lot of experience in compaction grouting sinkholes and may be able to help.

http://www.haywardbaker.com.

good luck.

 

[Focht3]

Do a search for "sink hole" and "sinkhole" on this site; excellent recommendations to others in your situation.

At the very least, you should hire your own engineer to look at the engineering studies paid for by your insurance company. Your engineer needs to be truly independent; beware of consultants that do much work for insurance companies. You should seek out an ethical attorney - he/she can give you the names of reputable engineers that aren't in the insurance company's pocket, so to speak.

Be sure and understand your options before you accept the insurance company's offer -

 

[Grouser]

What will be the insurance company's response if the grouting does not work? Is there a liability limit on the policy? You need to know.

 

[Focht3]

I'm not an insurance expert. But as I understand things, once the insurance company has paid to fix something, you have to sign a waiver of additional claims on that issue.

The homeowner can't afford to allow an engineer's poor evaluation to jeopardize the future viability of their largest investment...