Sinking yard -- what could cause it?

me · 2004-07-17T12:58:18+00:00

I live in a four-family building of townhomes, less than five years old.The yard in front of the building has been sinking for some time, two orthree years. The sinking runs a line from one sewer clean-out valve at theside of the building, down that side, turning a corner under the driveway(which has cracked) into the yard to the next sewer cleanout valve, and outfrom there. About three feet out from there is a small plum tree that hisnow sitting in a sinkhole, it's probably 8 to 10" lower than the groundaround it. Besides this sinking, there is an area between that and thehomes, right in front of a decorative rockbed, which seems to be sinking inthe middle, forming almost a saucer-look to it. That part is almost exactlybehind the tree and about four or five feet back.This has been noticed with concern by the lawn people, and most recently twosewer companies who came to fix a backup, because they said it can beindicative of a break in the sewer line. However, they dropped a cameradown the lines and found no breaks.Both my neighbor and myself are getting concerned because it continues toget worse. There are no basements, and when my carpet was pulled uprecently, I found a crack in the concrete extending from one end of the unitto the other -- the builder tells me this is not a big deal, all concretebuckles, and as long as the crack is going in one direction and notspidering off, and as long as the crack is less than 1/4" wide and bothsides are level, it's nothing to be concerned about. The sidewalk has alsoformed a horizontal crack, and the slabs are becoming quite uneven.I realize that normal settling occurs after building, but this seemsextreme. Other than a sewer line break which has been ruled out, what couldcause ground sinking like this?

Jul 17, 2004 21 Replies

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trader_4 9 years ago

A foundation is what the house sits on. A plumber deals with sewer lines. Depending on where the cleanout was that you opened, the sound of running water could be normal. It could be water running in the line in the street, with the sound carried up the pipe. The plumber had the camera in there, besides the one leak that was apparently the problem of the sewer folks, what else did he tell you? What makes you think you still have a leak, other than the sound of water in the line?

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mike 9 years ago

If your yard is sinking, you have a problem you must fix.

My water main sprung a leak. I could hear it inside the house, so I turned the water off. I'm sure it would have become a sink-hole had I left it running. Turn off everything inside the house and go watch the water meter for a few minutes. If it moves at all, you've got something to fix.

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Sinking yard -- what could cause it?

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