I fell into a hole.

[polo1665]

As it is also here in Washington County.

It's also required here in Carroll County. I've never lived anywhere where it was required before now. If it is required it costs $1 for $100,000 of coverage, if it is optional it costs $5. Cheap insurance in my book.

Mark

 

[The Dougster]

Obviously there is, or was a big void down there... Of course, I'm in Texas and you are in Ohio and I know little or nothing about geology in Ohio but it appears to be some type of shale/clay, which is often quite friable when wet... it swells and shrinks with too much or not enough moisture... In certain parts of Texas, it is not that uncommon.... Unless there has been mining in your area, I wouldn't worry about it very much... fill the cavity with the least expensive rock/gravel you can find and plant grass ... Good luck..

 

[greenmule]

Well the first picture looked like a small drain type hole or a ground hog tunnel.

The other pictures[if thats the same spot] shows its next to where a drain for eves troughs go down under ground,could that be the cause?

[or maybe the drain drains into a groundhog hole!]

 

[caver]

I would contact local cavers and have them look at it. Or,,,,,well show them the pictures since you filled it in. We love stuff like this.
I would suggest this to anyone who has a sinkhole or potential cave on their property. Back when I was caving the local farmers in the area would tell us about stuff like this. You can locate a local grotto (caving club) here

 

[elalexander]

Hi Mega. Any landfills in that area years ago? Mining activity? I think these guys are on the right track. ALso, I remember last year an earthquake I think from Newyork into parts of PA and even parts of Maryland. Very mild but I do remeber seeing it reported on the news. Any thing like that near you? A fault or whatever? The U.S. Geological service may be able to help too.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Our back yard was like this at one time. All the way up to a porch corner which will have to be repaired this summer with a little enginerring. Mom and dad bought this house while dad was still travelling with road building. This house was moved here when the waterway ate Holcut. The original owners just had a site cleared and roughed in and had a mess here. Mom went to work redoing the house and were doing some good then one day mom was walking across the backyard with me and fell in up to her waist. Dad was working for a pipelaying company and they had a spare backhoe in the area and dad was asked to keep it. He knew and old hollow that runs down where our shop was an old wagon road from before the Civil War. The road curved and went right through the back yard. Dad already had the old shop behind the house so he stared digging from one end to the other as far as that 580 couldreach. he dug out oak trees as big as 48 inches across. He went from one end to the other about 400 feet, to the county road digging out trees like that. I rembered was a huge hole and the smell of old soured topsoil. Dad hired a man with an ancient TD9 to help backfill the hole. That stopped it from sink holeing. What happened was when the owners before us had the lot done they pushed in all the trees and brush that was cleaned off and put it in the old sunken road bed. then scrped off some topsoild and clay and coverd it up making a giant french drain. It let all the soil erode like that from underneath. Theres a small hole like that at my inlaws house but its on the state right of way so after i first filled it and it sank again they refilled it.

 

[Larry Jones]

What was on the hill there before you cleared it for your garage? Maybe an old cellar, dug well, or some other abandoned hole. I know a few water wells came up dry and were never developed with casing and not filled in properly either.

 

[orezok]

I'm late ...I'm late ....for a very important date

Hmmm...

 

[firemen122]

I took my little NH TC24DA with the BH on and caved in the sides enough to cover things up to be safe. Here is what I'm left to deal with.

It's already sank some since Sunday and who knows if the garage is going to dissapear! I don't feel safe around that area now.

Time for an attorney or should I give ODNR more chances? Ah....the government. Hope and change is here!

Why would you call an attorney for a hole on you property? Since when is it the governments responsibility to fix a hole? Now if your homeowners refused to pay cause you garage was damaged, then I would understand the lawyer.

 

[greenmule]

The hole musta got a lot bigger,maybe he'll climb out and give us an update on that drain pipe.

 

[LBrown59]

The hole musta got a lot bigger,maybe he'll climb out and give us an update on that drain pipe.

Don't know why folks start threads and leave u hangin by not finishing them.

 

[shepherd]

would that be an ash plank strapped to your ash kidr?

 

[JSUnlimited]

Don't know why folks start threads and leave u hangin by not finishing them.

Well sometimes things happen. To follow up a post I started on TBN may not be a priority. However I obviously have found time to do it now. I've been really busy lately....family health issues, work, kids, etc.

 

[JSUnlimited]

To eliminate the immediate danger of the hole, I took my TC24DA with the hoe and pulled some dirt in from the sides just to cover things up. I really did not want to mess with it but I did not know when ODNR would get out here to look at it. I have 2 Jack Russels and a 5 year old running around here plus the people I allow to come down here to go fishing.

Someone earlier mentioned about where the spouting drain goes. It comes right at you looking at these pics and runs over the hill.

 

[JB4310]

Wow. I didn't realize it was that close to your house, thought it was out in a field somewhere.

I doubt it had anything to do with mining and probably more to do with the construction of the home. Poor backfilling, backfilling an extra large hole without compacting or burying organic materials like brush and stumps etc.

Do you have a basement there, often times when we find a sinkhole close to the foundation it means the silt/soil got washed down a footing drain system, or any perforated type storm water management system. Flowing with the path the storm water takes, yours is about twice as big as the biggest I've seen though, and it would usually show up causing storm water back up in basement.

Keep us informed. curious

JB.

 

[JSUnlimited]

ODNR came out and looked at it. I gave the guy prints of the "before" and explained to him what had happened. I also explained to him why I screwed with it as well. He seemed to understand.

A week or so I received a letter from him. It stated the following,

"An investigation was conducted on your property on April 6, 2009 regarding a hole that had opened suddenly next to a building. It is suspected that the ground feature was due to underground mine subsidence. To be eligible for the Abandoned Mine Land Emergency Program, a site must be mining related, a recent sudden event and present an immediate threat to public health and safety. As the hole has since been filled in, there is not at present an immediate threat to public health and safety. You indicated that the repair measures may only be temporary, thus you are advised to monitor the area and should conditions change that wouldn't warrant additional investigation, please contact this office at ***-***-****."

 

[JSUnlimited]

Wow. I didn't realize it was that close to your house, thought it was out in a field somewhere.

I doubt it had anything to do with mining and probably more to do with the construction of the home. Poor backfilling, backfilling an extra large hole without compacting or burying organic materials like brush and stumps etc.

Do you have a basement there, often times when we find a sinkhole close to the foundation it means the silt/soil got washed down a footing drain system, or any perforated type storm water management system. Flowing with the path the storm water takes, yours is about twice as big as the biggest I've seen though, and it would usually show up causing storm water back up in basement.

Keep us informed. curious

JB.

This was a pole garage built across the way from my house last summer. While cutting in the "pad" and drilling holes, there was no indication of any issues. This is what is looks like....has nothing to do with the house. The house was built in '02.

 

[JB4310]

Looking closer at the pics I see the topography slopes to the house and I see the leader pipe goes under ground, it looks like an area some one would of installed storm water management system across the back of the house, maybe going to daylight on the other side or to a catch basin.

Once the water sits in a low spot it creates a funnel effect progressively getting worse, we would line the hole with filter fabric before filling to try and attempt to stop silt from flowing with the water.

Good Luck,

JB.

 

[JB4310]

OK. was there filling going on there? and can't the mine people tell you for sure if there was a mine under the property, seems to small and to close the surface to be mine related. But I honestly know very little about mining.

Where does that leader pipe go and is there a perforated pipe set in stone around the building?

EDIT: Looking at the last pic it looks like some kind of drainage would have been done between the building and the slope?

JB.

 

[JSUnlimited]

Looking closer at the pics I see the topography slopes to the house and I see the leader pipe goes under ground, it looks like an area some one would of installed storm water management system across the back of the house, maybe going to daylight on the other side or to a catch basin.}

Once the water sits in a low spot it creates a funnel effect progressively getting worse, we would line the hole with filter fabric before filling to try and attempt to stop silt from flowing with the water.

Good Luck,

JB.[/QUOTE}

Okay thanks for the info.....

Anyways, after the rain we've had here is what it looks like. Now, please understand something..... I plan to put into place a drainage system that is the same as what I've done with the side of the house.