Sinking or settling building questions & answers:

This article presents questions & answers about sinking buildings, significant building settlement, cracking, or movement, including sinking building causes, diagnosis, and repair information.

This artricle series explains causes of building settlement or sinking (distinct from sinkholes), and gives building and site inspection advice useful in identifying areas where there is an increased risk of building settlement.

Page top photo: a badly-damaged sinking home in Alaska.

FAQs about Causes Of & Cures For Soil Subsidence & Building Movement Not Due to Sinkholes

These questions and answers about dealing with a settling or sinking building, its safety, diagnosis, and repair, were posted originally at SINKING BUILDINGS - be sure to see the advice given on that page.

Watch out: in severe cases of settlement damage a building could be in danger of imminent sudden collapse, causing injuries or death to occupants.

If you suspect significant building movement or collapse get people out and call local emergency services or your local fire department (911 in many areas).

Description of Cracks at a property in Lone Tree Colorado

We have a property that has cracks in the wall paint, separation at the corners of rooms and wood trim. Floors show signs of not being level. The property is located in Lone Tree Colorado 80124. On 2019-11-07 by Don

Description of a Sudden collapse of a property in Garrison Minnesota

This article helps a lot, thank you! This February 2019 in Garrison, MN, a garage on the property under contract for deed we signed in September 2018 collapsed suddenly.

This, roughly 70' x 40' "pole barn", is/was the best and most finished of them all and were told it had an industrial quality floor (used to have a car lift for restoration projects), a floor drain with unknown drain location, 2x6 insulated walls, drywall (unfinished but complete), ceiling foam board with blown insulation above, roughly 15'x20' garage door (this was smaller than the original and the framing and garage door opener hangers were clearly redone),

two visible fireplace/heater flues exiting roof and side wall, covered with a metal roof with what appeared sufficient pitch especially since it's metal. No really noticeable signs of water damage aside condensation where drywall wasn't taped, but there was a crack across the entire front of garage about 3 feet in, I'm from Colorado so didn't think to much about that.

The property backs up to our DNR Marsh land lot and there is about a 25' drop to the water level, running water. It's slopped steady from back of garage with about a 5' drop to the water.

Recently discovered, was not disclosed before, is 1 of possibly two septic tank systems about 20' directly behind, dead center, of the garage in question. First, I'm pretty sure it's illegal distance away, installed septic on hill leading to and less than 50' from State DNR Marsh land...

Second we never found it until before first snow once all the raspberries and other foliage disappeared and we found trash buried and exposed all over that hill, also there is a fence running from center of garage down to the water and trash piles around it with blackout netting as to hide things like trash, 100lb propane tank is one. After moving a couple boards I found the pump pipe under and broken off.

Also looking in you can see the pipe is bent downward towards water and only about a foot and a half deep to inlet from house?? So after moving fence panels, wood and how ever many years of natural mulch, we found the the corner of the tank lid exposed, not just exposed but intentionally broken open at corner under the lid.

I say intentional because hole was proportioned, Sledge, and pliers were still there where the thin mesh metal, used to reinforce the concrete box, was cut clean. Huge huge huge problem, not just our garage but now polluting State natural resource wet land that feeds one of the largest lakes. S

o DNR, state health, EPA and who knows how many other agencies, fines, jail, property loss, and clean up fees will come with this issue, clearly intentionally created years ago.

So to finish, garage collapsed, seller was already in breach of contract for a, can you guess, failure to get proper sewer/septic inspection of compliance prior to transfer of said property. Well county doesn't have to follow their own laws according to them and can transfer title and Torrens prior to inspection regardless clarity of statues.

So many things wrong but ground is now apparent it's very gravely and unstable, very heavy structure built improperly next to the hill above septic leaking, and a garage South about 10' away and built at a lower grade level and North side a 40'x30' green house about same distance away but discovered exposed french drain along garage on green house side, can't find exit.

Between the South walls was raspberries with a path down middle and random 4"drain pipe coming out level with ground and no lid??? Also no access to pump tank so makes sense why one desperate may open it.

Also it's clear to see the sewer was dug up recently, probably to repair a break from shifting because it's the only flat path like section on the hill and I was a plumber so it's obvious. Garage appears to have separated from front, it's still standing and explained the crack, but the back wall feel down the hill and in process roof collapsed in while side walls appear to have just fell outwards.

No signs of water damage, actually want to auction off the structures knowing that the wood is clearly good. I feel it's pretty clear cut cause of failure, at the least it was sliding/shifting/sinking in the back down the hill (that's also where the lift was placed when it was there).

I have a $35K+ Mitsubishi Evo show/race car sitting under that that just got hit with ice, blowing the turbo in -33° ambient temp, tow truck ripped front bumper, and was waiting tow to the shop that put 5K into the motor 4 days prior to the only damage

. That's a love ton of claims in a short time and I'm just grateful no one was working in there during the collapse. To get to my question I guess is am I on the right track with the evidence we have accumulated, without touching anything yet, who would be the best expert(s) to call for determining causation of failure?

One last thing, I talked to county building department and no records of permits and supposedly wasn't required pre 2014 but in what was left behind that's not the case because we have permits from the original owners (company) of many jobs including his home dating back to the 80's... What the f&#@?

Thank you if you did read this and any advice would be very appreciated as the snow is finally melting but now raining on snow so I can't see this getting better for any other structures on the property. On 2019-03-14 by Major639

How do I fix the brick foundation that is sinking under my home?

The brick foundation at the southwest corner of my house has sunk making the floors uneven.

The house is more than 100 years old. How can I fix it? On 2018-05-17 by John

Reply by (mod) -

John

To fix a settling building foundation you need an on-site assessment by an experienced mason or a civil or structural engineer who is familiar with residential masonry foundation damage diagnosis and repair.

No "fix" can be proposed before we know

1. the cause of the foundation movement

2. the extent of movement that has occurred

3. the effect of that movement on the rest of the structure

Repair may range from doing nothing to addressing an outside roof runoff or surface drainage issue, to crack patching to slab jacking or insertion of a helical pier or more piers, to excavation and reconstruction of the foundation wall.

See our advice at

• BRICK FOUNDATIONS & WALLS - Failures & collapses
• BRICK WALL REPAIR METHODS

Old slab settlement repair methods

We built a commercial buildingin 1984, it is only 30x50 ft and it is on a concrete slab. I noticed a few years ago a crack in the north west corner and it hasn't gotten worse since the year 2000.

There is a really old building next to us that has no concrete foundation and their roof is 1 ft lower on the side where it meets our building.

The roof isn't leaking and everything is looked after so we don't know why that corner of our building is sinking. When they were redoing our road in front of the building I talked to an engineer and she showed me the sizes of gravel in the hole where they were putting new pipes for the city.

She says that there is sand, small gravel, large gravel, boulders of all sizes and the soil is simply terrible for stability. There are other commercial buildings that are almost 100 years old and sank in 1 ft just like the building next to us.

When I put a round bead on the staff room counter it rolls toward the west, so the west side of the building is sinking for sure.
Is there a way that could be fixed ?

I guess if the ground is bad here there isn't much one can do. It could be too costly and if it sinks that slow, it wont get much worse in my lifetime. On 2017-04-21 by Slavica-Louise

Answer by (mod) -

Slavica

If the slab hasn't moved in the last 17 years, surely your engineer would agree that if you keep water away from the area (avoiding settlement) and seal the crack that'd be sufficient?

If you needed to stabilize, lift, or repair the slab you might want to

See our article VERTICAL FOUNDATION MOVEMENT REPAIRS that describes using HELICAL PIERS for foundation and slab repairs, and also to look at SLAB JACKING or MUD JACKING in that same article for settled slab repairs (less suitable I suspect for your case).

Multipoint Foundation (MPF) acts as a concrete raft slab

Vacant lot in PA

With the Multipoint foundation you can have a steel frame floating foundation MPF that acts as a concrete raft slab but at only 10 lbs./ft2

so you are not overloading the already poor bearing conditions with a concrete slab at 200-300 lbs./ft2. The frame acts as a "Snowshoe" and the load of the building is spread out evenly over the site.

The system has incredible bridging capacity which allows for loss of bearing in one location to be transferred to another set of feet or bearing plates. This technology is over 30 years old and has been used, without failure, in the harshest environments in the world. On 2016-10-26 by Tim

Response by (mod) -

Interesting, Tim. Thank you for the comment.

I've added your remarks to FOUNDATION REPAIR METHODS and would welcome further comments or suggestions.

I'd like to see more information and perhaps add an article on this approach. If you're interested in helping out you can use our page top or bottom CONTACT link to send along suggestions.

Below I also post additional remarks from Tim that were blocked by our Comments Box code that doesn't accept URLs.

I would like to start with Fairbanks Alaska, this is one of the most active permafrost regions in Alaska and the movement can destroy a building (See CCHRC)

Multipoint Foundations have over 800 foundations in Alaska (Fairbanks was one of the first locations back in 1985 that had a MPF install and monitored by the University of Fairbanks)Your home is moving due to discontinuous permafrost and the heaving that is caused in the freeze/thaw cycles ...

 

Question: settling of modular home related to horizontal drilling by gas company?

Four and a half years ago I purchased a modular home and a piece of land that required excavation for a basement and tree clearing.

There has been normal settlement cracks in some areas of the house. However, the main beams in the middle of the house have recently appeared along the floor of the living room and master bedroom. For the past 8 months there has been HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling) 90 feet from the house.

I am not sure how I can prove this to the Gas Company that performed the drilling or what needs to be fixed and the associated risks if it is not fixed. Can you please help me? Thank you kindly!

If you are able to email me a response at jcnelson17@gmail.com, that would be greatly appreciated! (Dec 2, 2015) Joanne

Reply:

Joanne

You will need an on site foundation and geotechnical engineer.

Horizontal drilling, IF it were passing below your home's foundation and IF it were not located deep below the home, might have an impact on the structure, but I'm doubtful since the diameter of displaced soil by horizontal drilling ought to be rather small. Certainly if cracking and movement continue and more if those events appear to correlate in time with the drilling process then one would be more concerned

Joanne Nelson said:

Thank you very much! Fortunately, I had a foundation inspection by the gas company before they started drilling in April and there were 3 hairline cracks at that time. As of today, I have noted and photographed 13 as further evidence.

I am grateful for your assistance! Enjoy your holidays:)

(mod) said:
Use the page bottom CONTACT link if you want to send me photos for comment. It's good you got a "before" assessment - a critical step.

Now we (your engineer will) need to assess

- the impact on the structure
- safety of the structure including risk of collapse or electrical or gas system hazards caused by movement - these can be URGENT
- proper repair needed to stabilize the structure - perhaps using mud jacking or helical piers

Keep me posted

Joanne said:

Thank you Dan. I just sent an email with pictures to editor@inspectapedia.com. [Posted above on this page - Ed.]

 

Question: Am I seeing normal cracking in a recently-built home ceiling?

Hi, I was wondering if you guys could tell me if it is normal for a recent build(2mo old) to have noticeable cracking in the garage and upstairs ceiling? I can give more details if needed. Thank you Travis (Dec 9, 2015) Travis

Reply:

Travis:

Some interior cracking in drywall is normal in new construction; the extent depends on variables such as type of framing and lumber moisture content when the building was framed (and other things). If you see cracks into which you can stick a pencil something is seriously wrong.

An expert can look at the size, location, pattern of cracks and other building and site features to assess the situation; But I'd start by asking the builder to take a look.

If you want to send me photos use the page bottom CONTACT link

 

Question: Buying a home that has had a floor collapse on one side

I try to buy a house rent to own but one side of the house floor collapse down to the foundation I am looking for some advise before I put myself in that deal
.please help me out. (Mar 19, 2016) Mimi s

Reply:

Mimi

See the EXPERTS DIRECTORY at page top and obtain a thorough building inspection so that you have an idea of all of the costly and/or dangerous topics that need to be addressed.

 

Question: 50-100 year old test pits to look for iron ore: impact on construction site

I own a vacant residential lot in PA with a unique history. Apparently, 50-100 years ago they dug a test pit looking for iron ore and then abandoned the pit when no ore was found. The pit was then used by the Township to dump some construction debris before they filled it in with uncompacted fill. A house was built on the fill in 1968 and was demolished in 2012 due to subsidence issues.

I'd love to do SOMETHING with the property. The geo-engineering report says that there is "no presumptive load bearing capacity" for this fill pretty much down to the bedrock at 45-65 ft.

Are there any types of foundation systems off the top of your head that would enable one to build a house on a property such as this. I'm only looking for ideas and educated guesses here before I speak with an expert. (Apr 6, 2016) Mark

Reply:

Mark:

You need a plan from an engineer who has made an on-site inspection, reviewed the reports, understands the plot plan, location, local zoning rules etc. Options range from a 65 ft. driven pier system to a floating slab of sufficient size to carry loads to beams spanning the test pit.

Also see Multipoint Foundation Repair for Settling Foundations discussed at FOUNDATION REPAIR METHODS

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Continue reading at SINKING BUILDINGS - topic home, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• FOUNDATION REPAIR METHODS
• SEPTIC & CESSPOOL SAFETY
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  • SINKHOLE DAMAGE REPAIRS
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  • SINKHOLES - IMMEDIATE SAFETY ACTIONS
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• SINKING BUILDINGS

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