I am approaching my 46th year of marriage to a man with two degrees in mathematics and another one in systems engineering… but we still get along because I studied linguistics and he didn’t study logic. Go figure. We can’t even start a fire together.
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Luckily it’s well away from the foundation, at least 20 feet off, but it’s growing and has started encroaching into the neighbor’s land.
And it’s now zippered open along the long sides, so it could be a leg break hazard for the unwary (I’ve put up traffic cones around it).
It’s fairly big, roughly rectangular about 10’ wide and 20’ long, and about 30 inches depressed. From what I can see, the depression would be deeper but the ground cover is being suspended by a network of tree roots.
The firm I hired uses an expanding epoxy resin that both fills and lifts. But what I’m most interested in is root cause. If they find good evidence that this was an illegal builder trash pit, I’ll go after the developer.
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We (my building) experienced the results of builder-buried trash (or discards) a couple of years ago in the form of literally a geyser spewing up under the port-cochère in front of our entrance. No water for the building for several days. Whole thing had to be excavated and the corroded pipe out to the city main water supply replaced. Builder had discarded dissimilar metals and buried them with the water pipe. $100,000 to repair. Couldn’t go after the builder - the developer went bankrupt shortly after the building was finished, and we’ve had a parade of builder-caused floods inside and outside for the last 30 years. My parents’ basement flooded once when they were away for the winter. My first experience with disaster recovery/remediation, which I had to take care of, since they weren’t coming home. Whole basement had to be torn out and rebuilt. This was nearly 40 years ago and IIRC it cost $35k. So far, we’ve not had a sinkhole on the property, but there’s always hope, isn’t there?
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Yes, mainly I hate the front loader because of the mold. The washer is in a hallway closet so you really can’t leave the door open to air out. You are right that it probably is a relay and years ago, spouse and I actually replaced one successfully. The dryer is now scratched and rusty and I got a good deal at Costco so bit on a new one.
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Oh my, that sounds terrible. How are you going to deal with the sinkhole? That doesn’t sound good at all.
That’s why division of labor was invented. Two people working side by side at different tasks or different aspects of the same task.
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Shit, scare me summore, please, Professor! LoL.
This developer is still active throughout the Southeast. But to be frank, I doubt it’s a GC trash pit. From what I know from friends who’ve had that happen, and from internet browsing, it’s usually something that starts being apparent within 10-15 years. This house was built in the early 1990s. So less likely. Plus, this builder has kind of a “premier” name, if you will, and is known for riding hard on subs to control their behavior. Although, that didn’t keep the electrical sub from using the backstab feature on the receptacles, which was the electrical problem of last week. Which are STILL okay by code here, rather than forcing electricians to make a hook and screw the wires on. (The electrician told me, “There’s no way this shit should still be code, but on the other hand, fixing this shit will put my kids through college.”)
Besides limestone dissolution, which happens “here” but usually more North of “here”, it could also be an old gold mine pit. Those are dotted around the area, some of them even preserved in hiking/nature areas with a description plaque of when the dig was active, how deep they went, and guesses (or actual info) as to how much gold the diggers actually hauled out.
I’m not sure yet. I’ve spent a lot of time online looking at remediation methods. If it’s fairly static (something the geotech firm can help me learn next week), maybe my son in law and I just force in a mix of pea gravel and sand underneath (through the linear side openings, packing/settling down several times a week over several weeks until is seems to be complete), then cover with about 16 cubic yards of soil and replant grasses.
The other alternative is to pay the geotech guys to pump in their “proprietary” mix of expanding epoxy stuff, which will force the subsided soil back up to its natural level, in which case we don’t need to replace the soil.
But from what I’ve read online (not from this geotech firm, just in general) the epoxy lifting version is often in the $20-$30K range. And not usually covered by insurance.
That last is another weird wrinkle in all of this. If this had happened at our own house, most of everything would be covered by State Farm under homeowner’s insurance (and in the case of builder malfeasance, SF would go after the builder/developer to subrogate). But this is the house my wife inherited from her parents, where my oldest daughter’s family lives. So instead of homeowner’s insurance, we have a rental dwelling policy on it, which doesn’t normally include “drain/sewer” rider coverage, etc.
We might still be able to wiggle a claim in sideways, but if we do, we’ll be faced with being non-renewable if we decide to sell our current house (4500 sqft “McMansion” on an acre that, with the 4 kids gone, we really no longer need), move in over there once the kids buy their own house, and want to re-convert back to homeowner’s insurance…
Fun stuff. FWP, I know!
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Say it ain’t so. We have a giant ass analog clock on the wall. We’ve been drinking Swedish Chardonnay for a week, AKA Absolute. And we have to ask each other if it’s AM or PM. My dog just growled at me,
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Other than the growling, sounds like a good week to me.
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Oy….
I think I mentioned this in an appliance woes thread… I have found that running a forced drain after I’m done with my loads for the day and a spritz of NokOut or ‘homemade’ NokOut (basically the same as skunk bath without so much liquid soap in it) keeps the mold and odor out. Monthly, I will wipout the lining and reach into what ever crevices I can get at. I am fastidious with keeping my frontloader clean and dry. Even though we had a disaster with our 2000 Maytag Neptune, we decided we’d get another frontloader, different brand, because we liked the water saving and gentler washing of the clothes. Another plus, it doesn’t get unbalanced. One downer though, there is no lint trap to empty after each load. That is important when you live with, in our case, a cat that is always shedding despite our regular brushing him.
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How the hell do we procreate? Talk about the division of labor. I watched my mom divide herself between her husband, six kids and was happy to clean offices at night just to get away from it all.
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Well taken. I was being facetious, suggesting that the way for some people (particularly couples) work best together by working separately.
My grandfather is on my mind today, as we reach for tools he sent us when my husband and I bought our first home. Now that we live in an old house, for the first time we are reaching for his sturdy old brass-bristled brush for removing paint and his nail puller. Our all-wood front porch is due for TLC and these old-school tools are just the thing.
He’s been gone for years. Yet his simple gift is still taking care of us. This would not surprise anybody lucky enough to know him.
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It’s wonderful when the simplest things left to us are in fact the most memorable.
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And after an errand to one of the big-box home improvement stores just now, my husband and I were observing how my grandfather’s tools outlasted him. They’ll outlast us as well. Nothing like the flimsy tools those stores sell today!
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I have a BIL with a garage full of old tools. Drives my sister crazy, but he repaired mom’s circa 1957 rocking chair perfectly.
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Here we go - the back noise of summer. Our neighbors have 2 rat terroirs they let out unattended in all hours of the days or nights. Despite my high frequency hearing loss I can still hear them and our Aussies go out of our flapped up screen door and bark ,bark, bark and still bark. I’m ready to turn my ears off.
Signed by by your resident linguist and audiologist.
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I’m having a primal scream. Still recovering from a deadly lunch in that killer dive bar how many ever days ago it was and my 105 year old uncle died yesterday in Ft, Wayne, Indiana My 92 year old Mother wants to go to his funeral from Columbus, Ohio and I’m on Cape Cod Massachusettts pucking my guts out. WTF???
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You’re having a couple of really rough weeks. I can only hope things get better 
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