Could a collapsed drain cause my house to move and crack ?

Question

We know some wall ties have gone but have had major movement going on. Cracks have appeared around windows and up walls. Driveway is sinking and cracking very badly and I have now been advised to have my drains looked at. Could they have caused all this damage and where would I stand with my building insurance if it is proven that this is the cause of all our problems. So far we have been quoted around the 25,000 mark to put right all the damage so we are not talking just a little bit of work.

Answer 1

You do have major problems. The thing insurance companies often say is "we don't insure structural defects" so you have an uphill battle in gettiing them to pay unless you can find some way of proving another cause.
It sounds like way more is going on than a collpased drain unless it caused such a major sinkhole that it ended up causing what is basically catastrophic damage.
You had better get a couple of opinions and DOCUMENT all the work that you do for litigation which may follow if you have to prove a claim in court. Causation is sometimes problematic, and I wish you well on what I believe is an uphill battle.

Answer 2

if a drain is causing it it must be completely separated to have caused such extensive damage.

if you've just bought the place you could after the inspector, realtor or former owner, if you could prove prior knowledge.

If you've been there a long while you will have to try your insurance company.

It could be a matter of what was used to fill your lot, I've seen similar problems where the lot was cleared to build, and the trees and brush were used as fill.as this stuff breaks down it causes sink holes.

Answer 3

I work for a highways department and it is not unheard of for major subsidence and or holes to appear in the road because a drain has been leaking for years washing away the fine particles in the soil so I would expect it to be quite feasible to cause this sort of damage to your property. As regards insurance you will have to check your policy but I cant see why you would not be covered unless you had been negligent incausing the drain to break of knowing it is broken and not repairing it sooner.

Answer 4

Water flow underground would erode the soil below your house and create cavities and the house and drive etc would slowly sink with walls cracking as you describe.
You have a major problem and maybe difficulty in getting the insurance company to help.
Get it looked at immediately before your home is a write off.

Answer 5

To pinpoint it to a collapse of your sanitary system, do your toilets flush properly? When you flush a toilet does the water go down and bubbles come back up or does it just go down like normal? Do your sinks drain? If not and you have standing water in your yard then you are correct in assuming that your system is collapsing, if not then you probably have a major sink hole appearing.

Answer 6

If you lift a manhoe cover, you can see if there is any damage to the drains. Run some water and see if it flws away freely.