Sinkhole??

Question

ok in my front yard we have a "sinkhole" my dad believes its from where they had burried the electric cables and didnt do a good job of compaction (since a few feet away their is an about 5 feet long line of dirt sunk in 3-4in.) but anyway we have tried to fix the hole by putting rocks in it and dirt and a little bit later it gets bigger and its right near the street! the hole currently is about 2 feet wide not sure how deep but it is rather deep and its filled with grass. our Tractor has gotten stuck in it before but we now try to avoid it. and not sure if it matters but i live on a fairly steep hill in NC.


what i'd like to know
1. what are steps to fix this properly (prefably a do-it-yourself not hiring anyone)
2. is this dangerous.
3. anymore help or experience or personal stories of such holes

Thanks in advance Everyone!!

The wires were buried in the 80's. and the whole opened up in the past 3 years.

we use a community well and a private sewer thats in our back yard.

yes, we do have LOTS of clay here in my yard and most of NC in general.

Answer 1

you can't fix it until you know what's at the bottom, causing it.... at one house we had a previously unknown spring erupt underground during an odd rainy season and cause one..... at this house, in NC, too, we have a big one out back that we found out was where the builders dumped all the trash from building the house and then put soil over it..... all the wood is now rotted and the area has sunk a good two ft.....

if it's electric cables, I'd call them and have them check it out.... while threatening to dig it out yourself.....*but don't!!.....

you might have that locator service come out and locate ALL your lines to be sure where stuff is... it's free and they come quickly.... then, you might find that there's more than one line in that area to deal with, too.... just be careful.... get someone else, the companies to look first... it's their responsibility.... cuz if you get in there and wreck something...... ya know?.....

Answer 2

I had some similar experiences with two of the house we have lived in.

First was a new house in Denver that we moved into in the winter. With the first really big wet snow storm of the spring, a sink hole developed from the sidewalk to the front our house. It turned out to be the ditch for the water line. I filled it in with dirt that I had hauled in.

Then later in the year after a pretty good summer rain, a similar sink hole developed in the back yard running from the power company transformer to the corner of our house. Again I filled it in with dirt.

The next year we had a power failure. That is, we lost all power to our house. This time there was a really deep sink hole in the side yard. This one turned out to be the power company's feed to the distribution transformer. This one took 5 yards of dirt to fill. The cable was buried about 4 foot in the ground.

In all of these cases, the problem was the type of soil and the failure of the contractors to properly compact the fill. The area we lived in was mainly clay and needed to be watered heavily as it was being back filled so it would not bridge over and form a tunnel.

The next house we lived in in Houston, developed a sink hole in the back yard about two years after it was built. This one ended up being where the sewer line and the power cable to the house crossed. When they dug the ditch for the power cable, the ditch witch cut into the top of the PVC sewer line. The hole was only an inch or so in size and it took two years for sufficient soil in the yard to wash through the hole into the sewer and cause the sink hole to appear.

In this case I split a piece of PVC pipe, covered the hole and used to a pair of stainless steel band clamps like the ones for dryer vents to hold the patch in place. I also used some silicone caulk to seal the patch.

If you have a lot of clay soil, you to may have a bridging problem. You may think you have filled the hole but part of it is still bridged over with clay.

Answer 3

Have your County Officials to come out & investigate. We have several Sink-Holes here in Florida, & it usually comes from building over land-fills, & things not even connected to buried cables. Do NOT attempt to do anything yourselves, cause a sink-hole can grow & gobble up houses & anything on top of it. A lot of it has to do with what's underneath. Call the County out to inspect it.

Answer 4

You need a professional come look at it if it keeps coming back after its filled then something is taking the dirt/rocks away . It could be a broken storm or sanitary sewer...

Answer 5

if its close to the street, call the city, could be a problem with the sewer , line or city water line,

Answer 6

Sounds like you might have a pipe leaking. I came across something like that this summer.

Answer 7

are the wires recent? the ground still might be shifting and stuff becasue of when they covered the wires back up