Job for the weekend...

[MadAlicesDad]

Not sure this is the correct forum, but I got home tonight and reversed onto the drive (gravel over clay and rubble). I got out and found the back wheel in a 2ft x 1.5ft hole! It's at least 2ft deep but with bits of brick etc in it.

I managed to get the car out and back on to the road but WTF to do now?

Before I get a few barrow-loads of gravel and fill it in, should I investigate further?
Should I tell the council (it's about ten feet from the footpath by a main road)
Should I tell my insurance company?

TBH this wasn't on my job list for the weekend, but it's escalating in priority rapidly!
Any advice gratefully received.

Mike

 

[joe-90]

I bet it's one of those Florida type sink holes and your house will disappear overnight.

 

[MadAlicesDad]

I'd better sleep in the back room tonight!

I've scraped the gravel away from the edge to look for cracks etc. it looks like a chamber about 4ft diameter, and looks like it's natural, not man made.
Worryingly it's only 6 inches below where I've been parking for nearly 11 years!

Mike

 

[dann09]

The majority of such minor, suddenly appearing holes are due to below the surface water erosion, often from leaking drainage or water services, or made-up fill.

However, depending on the house site or your local region it could be something else. Suggest that tomorrow you get a view from BCO - a gas or other service pipe might be in the vicinity. You could call your water utility tonight.

Keep kids away from the curious hole in the ground.

 

[noseall]

Let's see a piccy??

Please.

 

[MadAlicesDad]

Sorry about the quality of the photos, it's dark now!

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• MadAlicesDad
• 7 Mar 2013
• 1

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• MadAlicesDad
• 7 Mar 2013
• 1

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• MadAlicesDad
• 7 Mar 2013
• 1

Water erosion was one of my thoughts, and there's definitely rubble and in-fill under the surface.

In September last year, I put in a new gulley to replace the one against the house next to the hedge. Until then, all the rain water from the gutters had been soaking into the ground and under the house for the best part of a decade. Maybe that could have eroded the clay?
At the time, I tried digging up the drive to find the old pipe but couldn't get to it because of all the rubble under the surface, so ran the new one along the front of the house. During that job I found the gas pipe so I know that's not near the hole and I'm sure the water pipe runs under the concrete bit of the drive.
Will call BCO tomorrow just to make sure.

Mike

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

How old is the property? You describe a lot of 'rubble under the surface', lead rise to the thought what was there before? If earlier buildings have been cleared to make way for the house then it could be an old cellar, well or possibly manhole or cesspit that was filled in at the time of demolition.

 

[MadAlicesDad]

It was built in 1898, before that "all round 'ere were fields".
Drive was gravelled a few years before we moved here in 2002. Under the 'decorative' chips is a 4-6" layer of compacted ballast, rubble and bricks on clay.
Mike

 

[MadAlicesDad]

I emailed and phoned Building Control - they were on a training course but I was advised to just fill it!
There was a long piece of old mantlepiece/hearth that had been acting like a lintel over a 'cave'. I guess that the side of the 'cave' had fallen in leaving the lintel unsupported at one end, then I drove on it.

I dug out as much as I could and as I was doing this several passers by stopped to chat - apparently a mine shaft opened up in a garden nearby a few years ago! I poked around with a long stick and a scaffold pole - there was clay all around with no obvious voids under the surface so I hope it's just water erosion.

I ended up with a hole approximately 110cm by 80cm and 60cm deep.

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• MadAlicesDad
• 8 Mar 2013
• 1

I put the rubble and gravel back in and it took a barrowload of broken bricks and 4 barrows of chips to dust to fill.

The car's not fallen in it yet.

Mike

PS I'm glad I didn't pave the drive last year like was intended!

 

[dann09]

Thank you for coming back and telling us what happened next - few do.

 

[MadAlicesDad]

And hopefully that's the last you hear of it.

I know what you mean though; if people are willing to give advice, it's only right to share the outcome. It may help someone with the same problem, and could point to some advice being wrong.

Cheers,

Mike