Mystery Holes in Basement Floor

Oct 08, 2004 18 Replies

A house that I'm thinking of buying has a number (20 or more) of what appear to be 2" in diameter holes drilled in various locations or the basement (800 sq. ft) and then recemented. Someone took the time to mark them sequentially with numbers ("X13", "X16", "X20" etc.) The only thing I can think is that someone was either testing for something or possibly trying to level the floor. The floor does show some minor to moderate signs of heaving, maybe an inch out of true in the worst spot. Any idea what these holes would have be used for? The current owner hasn't a clue either. Thx.


Nope not a termite area. It's a modern house with tons of concrete.

That's what I was thinking. But I've never seen it done to a basement floor.

------------------- Not that common, but it is done in circumstances where the ground under the slab has been undermined or subsided.

Don't you guys watch horror movies?? Don't remove the cement plugs no matter how curious you get. OR you'll be sorry!

maybe its the sort of 'X' marks the spot could be riches under them spots could be ashes of x-wives

I watched them pump concrete under a neighbors two car concrete pad driveway/carport - this whole area was parceled into a subdivision and the guy that cleared all the palmetto's and pine trees would dig holes about every hundred yards and bury the foliage... which over timed rotted/condensed and many homeowners driveways and yards have slowly developed deep wavy, wash board style sink holes. Anyhow - The neighbors carport slab was cored about two inches dia hole in several spots and they pumped concrete under it to lift it back to flat, mainly to fix the forever shifting/tilting/sinking roof.(for a few more yrs)

whatever the problem was (or still is) i'd walk away from it and look for another home.

Hi, Basement floor is sort of floating concrete pad. They are not attached to the walls. It can rise and sink. Maybe it was sinking unevenly? Mud jacking will raise it up or prevent further sinking. I had it done once on my back yard patio pad. Just a guess though. Tony

If they are poured correctly, the concrete is poured so that at least part of it lies over the footings, therefore it may rise, but it will not sink unless it takes the footings with it, or it cracks and sinks inside of the footings.

Hi, Yes, still it can buckle or warp up or down. If I were the OP'er, I'd pass up that house. I never lived in second hand house. Always had my own built from my own design with my own spec. Tony

Test wells for something nasty! Give the house a pass... Jon

---------------------------------------------------- Anything being cooked a second time needs a hot oven.

------------------ Boy, what a tough life ;-)

So you believe in building and owning a new home only?

May I ask why?

Im serious abt the question not being smart ass

Thanks in advance!

Not the OP, but I had my house custom built with plans that we picked out ourselves. Everything that we wanted, at our price range, was included in the plans. We did not have to settle for a house that had some of the things we wanted and other things that we did not want. It's like ordering a new car to your specs, and not settling for a car on the lot that was close to what you want.

"second hand house"?. ???.

What an incredibly pompous ass way of putting that.

About how much did it cost to mud jack your patio and how big is your patio? My back porch is low compared to the grass and parts of it slope towards the house. Thank you in advance for all replies.

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