caravoy
Mechanical
- Feb 14, 2005
- 23
Looking for a little help or opinion here. My brother has a slab on grade house that has "settled" over 3 inches during the past year. It began in the interior of the house and has, just over the past couple of months, begun to settle in other areas (ie front porch, sidewalk, etc) Insurance co. is pretty much saying it is not a sinkhole (he has sinkhole insurance). Borings were not done directly over the worst areas as they are in the interior of the house. A boring was done down to around 15 feet to bedrock just outside of the house. Not surprisingly, the low bidder did the work. And we're not talking low bidder by 1k or 2k, but by several thousand (red flag in our minds). My question, being totally ignorant of soil mechanics/dynamics among other things, is this (well several, actually): What is a proper test to determine whether or not the problem is a sinkhole or not? Is 3+" of "settling" realistic" House is 15+ years old, one level, located just south of B'ham, AL. It was a very dry summer last year. We were probably 16-20 inches short normal rainfall. Anyway, I'm probably not providing enough of the puzzle, so I apologize in advance. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.