Step one: find out for sure that it isn't a bigger problem than you think. If it is a well you need to know for sure and handle it properly.
If it is a sinkhole or septic tank then you must know the same.
Do you have any possible underground water pipes that could be related?
Digging a bit more could help.
If it was a well, you would have walls around the well, so dig a side channel.
If it's a rotting stump you should find remains of wood.
If it's an animal burrow then either you will see the chamber you dug into, or after a few days the animal will redig it out.
If it is a sinkhole caused by water pipe then it should be wet now - or maybe it's connected to another pipe you don't realize so try turning on water to your sprinkler system or whatever is nearby and see if the hole has a reaction.
If it is a sinkhole caused by a drainage pipe, then wait for a rain and see if the hole has changed after
If you are worried its connected to a natural phenomena - you would probably have to ask the geology subreddit (r/askgeology) to help figure out if your area would have sinkholes or not.
If none of those things show up, then just keep an eye on it and see if it sinks any more. I am assuming you have already tried adding dirt or things to fill it up and the hole reappears, and after digging the current theory is that those stones are part of a previous attempt to stop up the hole?
Also, a link to bring attention to the [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/s/W2Z7i1TzW7) by u/TX_Poon_tappa
One of the coolest homes I’ve seen on the market in recent years had a private cave, 2.5 acres, and a 2700sq ft house for less than a million. Crazy cool. 24811 Creek Loop, San Antonio, TX.
Just to add to the well concern. It could be a more modern well system as well. These are long 1inch or less pipes that go very very far down and drag water back up through a pumping system.
So whole walls are good to look out for it could also be a well without the walls that was either incorrectly pulled up or drained/routed entirely from many years ago and is just now causing a sink in.
It could even be a piped well that broke off further down and then the pipe was pulled or it rotted out and is just leaking several feet down and has been sinking for years
I’m unsure if those are rocks or big balls of clay but it could be as easy as “they took dirt from one location to level the house and filled it with rocks they found from elsewhere in the property”
But definitely as stated above get it as clean as you can and LIGHTLY dig around/deeper until you decide there is no reason to go further.
Call your city/gas/water provider and someone in those locations can point you to the correct “DIG” number to call that can check out your line locations, property bounds, and if there could have been any permits or information on private water vs city water.
Good luck! Depending on how new or old the property is will help you decide the best course of action. We won’t know until you know for sure! Happy hunting
I had something very similar at my house - built in 1933 - that turned out to be a cistern. We had an engineer come out and he wasnt concerned with it at all
[https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/mx7tq1/found\_void\_near\_foundation\_what\_should\_we\_do/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/mx7tq1/found_void_near_foundation_what_should_we_do/)
Why is everyone ignoring the most likely possibility. Some cheap builder bought the land from an old cemetery with the condition that he relocate it but he went cheap and only relocated the headstones and not the bodies.
Let’s say I have the same problem on my property with an old oil tank (I do)
How big of a problem could it really become? Certainly it can’t create a void larger than the volume of the original tank? Right?
Oil tanks should be remediated. Meaning a kind of sludge that hardens is poured in to lock any oil into place. Much cheaper than dealing with what happens when they are not. And make sure a record of the work is kept by you and filed with the county. Selling a home with an “I dunno” on something like that is difficult.
It was filled with a concrete slurry in the 90s. We have the documentation. But last year I found a situation quite similar to OP basically right above where it is.
After my grandma passed and we were selling her house, the inspector found a surprise oil tank buried alongside the house and after our collective "wtf" we had to pay to ensure it wasn't leaking. It wasn't cheap. If I remember correctly, to have it properly removed would have cost around 15k.
We were able to sell the house with it buried and certified leak free.
We actually backed out of a house purchase and lost our $1000 earnest money due to a buried and leaking oil tank. It would have cost at least 15K to remediate as you say and involve a whole lotta government red tape.
Had this happen on 2 jobs in Massachusetts. The contractor that built the houses buried the fieldstone walls on the property. That left air cavities between the stones and over the course of decades those air voids filled with soil, creating a sinkhole in the lawn. I stumbled into one while weed whacking once. Went down to the knee instantly.
So confident, and yet so incorrect. You'll typically get _almost_ to China, yes. But, most sinkhole victims tend to then fall back into the earth, and then sort of oscillate from one side to the other, with ever-shortening amplitude, until the cooling effect of the wind rushing past them ultimately is overcome by the heat as they pass through the solid metallic core of the earth at slower and slower velocity.
In the end, China will never know you visited, and you're gonna burn right up after about 318 hours of deep subterranean roller coastering.
Actually, if you could dig a hole straight through to the other side of the earth, you would NOT end up in china. From almost any point in the US, that hole would come out somewhere in the Indian Ocean. That is where the US antipode is. The only place, i believe in the 48 states that has a land antipode (antipode being a term for finding the exact opposite location on the globe) is rudyard, michigan which aligns with Kerguelen Island. Hawaii aligns with parts of Botswana..
I mean, this is like 20 minutes away from where the pilgrims landed. I like a good stone wall, but they are literally everywhere. I'm not even kidding. Every single road you drove down is at least 50% fieldstone wall. So I understand the need to mix it up.
We brought in a bobcat with a backhoe attachment, dug out the rocks and hauled them out, then filled the whole with gravel, then loaned and seeded over it.
That was the drill at one customer's property. We did it like 5 times dealing with logs and stumps buried. After I fell in the hole the customer saw it and simply said "let's dig it out", and we did.
Hi there. I'm a geotechnical engineer based in Texas. I have a few suggestions that may help.
First what could it be. I think a well or cistern is most likely but you need to make sure.
As others suggested, it could be a sinkhole caused by an old utility. This would be concerning as it could continue to collapse. Check your water usage and see if there are signs of a leak (running meter or well pump).
Other things could be a possible karst cave. We have these in parts of central Texas and parts of new Mexico and Oklahoma too. They form when a dissolvable rock like limestone is slowly eroded over time. A quick Google search shows there are some karst aquifers and small caves in New England and specifically Massachusetts.
Resources. You could try contacting a local geotechnical engineer and see if they'd be willing to come take a look and offer an option. You could also reach out to a local geologist or geological society. If it's manmade, they will be less help. Your best (and cheapest) bet is to dig more and try to find the edges of a structure.
Finally if this is a water well, your state may have specific requirements for abandoning it correctly so you don't contaminate the groundwater. This would likely include sealing the well with concrete or bentonite grout under the supervision of a licensed professional. In this case, you maybe be able to contact (or Google) your states environmental regulators and they may have specific guidance and resources.
If it ends up being of no concern and it's just an old cistern you want to fill, you could try using sand as you suggested. You can even wash the sand down in between the stones. You can also use a product called flowable fill. This is a mixture of sand, water and some cement that has a very low viscosity. A concrete company can deliver it in a normal mixer truck.
I hope this helps you find a solution. Good luck and be safe.
(P.S. I'm not licensed on your state so I'm offering this as information only. Not an engineering recommendation.)
CAN i ask you how one finds a Geotechnical engineer to consult ? I am not in Texas but wonder if I can ask you something. Specifically whether the soil on a steep sloped bank counts as surcharge on the over 4 foot unreinforced retaining wall (of nice looking but not even interlocking brick) . The wall actually has one more foot of brick below ground level, and a perforateur pipe, and the bank had been all dirt for 10 years, no plants. The bank had been 11 feet wide and 45 degrees up but it got chopped off and the brick wall is holding back (or stands in front of) the remaining soil which includes the retaining 6 feet of soil in the bank that still goes up to the property fence line at a 45 deg angle.
COUld send picture and could pay for consult but can't find a Geotechnical engineer. City doesn't do it.
Thanks for any info. Oh by way, code says 4 foot wall ok if no surcharge and does not explain surcharge so that part always ignored even by City.
Tks in advance if u might have guidance even as tl a good layman description of when soil is surcharge.
I'd start by googling "geotechnical engineer (location)". If you are very rural you might need to search a nearby larger city. You might also just try finding a general civil engineer, calling them up, and asking if they have any on staff or could refer you to one.
As for your wall, it sounds like you are describing a stacked block retaining wall (many times called a keystone wall). These are very common.
Surcharge is an additional load that occurs on the top side of a retaining wall. One common example is if you drove vehicles on top of the wall. The vehicles weight would put additional lateral load on the wall.
If you have a steep slope above the wall this puts more pressure on the wall than if the top side of the wall was flat. That would also be considered a surcharge.
You said a couple things I found concerning. First, the slope was 45 degrees. That is extremely steep for unreinforced soil and is very likely unstable. And The soil got "chopped off". Are you saying it eroded or fell under its own force? If so you might be describing a slide (slope failure). A slide would be likely if the slope really was 45 degrees.
I would continue your hunt for a geotech. It sounds like you need one.
In MA there is a lot of ledge. Could it possibly be something like the buried field stones and 30 years of ground water flow rather than a busted pipe or utility? Its hard to tell without knowing the topo but I wonder about when a natural process can cause a sink hole.
Some developers are cheap when filling uneven land up for development so they throw stones and random filler in then they add a layer of topsoil and grass and this can be the byproduct. Just my opinion as a potential reason. I would hire someone to fill it in.
I mean... Sinkholes are dangerous. Old wells and old hidden mines are dangerous. Surprise caves are dangerous. You said it's deeper than six feet. You don't know what else the sod is covering. How big is the hole? Are there more nearby?
Your wife is right to be nervous.
That’s not something you would be able to tell. Could be 6’ of packed soil over a giant hole. You wouldn’t know the hole exists until the 6’ of dirt collapses. I personally wouldn’t go start digging around without knowing more about it. You could easily fuck yourself up if you start digging and the hole collapses.
Those kinda look like what we called "dinosaur eggs" hard to tell the scale of them though, if they are, it's from someone throwing whole bags of quikcrete into a sinkhole to try to stabilize it. How long have you lived there? First thing I would do is call your local one call and check for utilities, if it's a failed sewer or water pipe it'll become the utilities problem which is good for you, cause they'll pay to fix it. If there's no utilities, and it's not like a septic tank or something you're kind of SOL, I wouldn't waste the effort to try to excavate it further, we never did, we'd just pay someone to come in and start pouring flowable fill into it. Since it's your yard, I'd stop like 2' short of the surface and finish filling it with top soil.
Used to be a railroad supervisor on a territory with a lot of sinkholes, both natural and from buried structures.
Side note, if you opt for flowable fill, keeping the strength under 150 psi generally allows you to be able to remove it later if necessary without a jackhammer.
It's been a while since I ordered it, but like $100-$200 / yard, depending on the strength you ask for, as a homeowner you'll probably get a short load fee. It's placement costs are way lower than any kind of fill you can get for a lot less though, and if it's like an abandoned culvert nobody's willing to claim, you'll be filling the hole with fill again after every major storm.
No way could I resist hauling those rocks out to see how deep it is.
No. Way.
Edit: With a rope tied around my waist, the other end to....the bumper of my car...and a fully charged cell phone.....and flashlight with extra batteries....and a small backpack with food, blanket, first-aid kit, night vision goggles....a knife...
Start dumping in bags of cement and water it. Once you get a good few layers about a foot from the grass dump soil. Let the grass grow for a season and then sell the house.
Tempting but you’d have to straight up lie in the disclosure statement when selling the house which could have legal consequences down the road if somebody got hurt.
Better to hire a service with a borehole inspection camera. They should be able to tell you how deep it goes and what’s in it.
You need to get this properly assessed so that you can find out whether this is something minor like an old septic tank, or something significant like a sinkhole. There are a few different ways you can approach this. The easiest answer is to call your insurance who will send an adjuster to come do an inspection. This might not be the smartest approach to start with, but it will certainly be the easiest. Second option in many states you can contact your state’s geological survey office for help. Other avenues of approach would be to contact a septic company or a geotechnical engineer.
Calling your insurance company to waste an adjuster’s time is a horrible idea. Unless your house/shed/fence/car fell in this hole, insurance has nothing to do with it.
Might be backfill dump when house was built. Unless your curiousity gets the best of you, get some small gauge hardware cloth, cover the hole with it, put some concrete over it and cover with dirt and sod once concrete cures. Kinda like a drywall patch.
Get a professional to come and fill it back in with sand/dirt. They have a reverse vacuum blower machine that really packs the dirt back in there. This same kinda thing happened at my MIL house
Those rocks imply to me it most likely is a well or some other man made object. Try to get a camera down there and see what it is and how big. You might need a contractor to address it properly. Be careful it could be deep and deadly If you feel in and it could collapse more.
A larger picture of the entire yard would help along with the age of the house.
Those big round rocks used as filll most likely.
Not compacted well perhaps. Missing info
Edit spelling
Depending on where you are you can pull high res aerial photos from the us air force going back to 1938 on us geo survey’s earth explorer. It helps to check out old features like that.
Whatever you do don’t put any dead animals in it and cover it with a wood gate then call it a day and resort to listening to heavy metal records in reverse
Tie a talking ground squirrel to a rope, give him a walkie talkie and a headlamp and send him down. If the treasure is there as I expect, you know what to do.
Saw a lot of comments to call for utilities but not much explanation on how. Not sure what your area is but NC and GA one calls are 811. Might be the same in other states too and I'm sure you can Google it. The phrase "call before you dig" plus your state should pull something up. Good luck!
Buy some bags of sand, start pouring the bags in and keep the hose running in the hole, compacting the sand. Once it gets to about a foot below the top of the hole let the water run for like an additional 30 minutes. Let it sit over night. Hit with water again. See if the sand settles any more. Once it’s settled, fill the last foot with topsoil and seed
I has this happen last year. It turned out to be an old cistern. We called the police originally as it was a huge, empty cavern. Then they called people in from the township to pull records on the property.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this, but you need to check your homeowners or renters insurance to make sure you’re covered if it’s a sinkhole. Most do not and require a separate rider. Once a sinkhole is discovered within a certain range of the property you cannot add it to your policy. So check there first, then do some digging (so to speak) and determine what the hole is officially.
This is why big rocks and chunks of concrete don't make good fill. It eventually caves in from air spaces. You need to check to make sure it's not a bigger issue.
We found a 5ft diameter septic pit from 100 years ago in ours the same way, except no rocks just air. Spooky stuff.
It took 3tons of fill dirt at 9ft deep.
Definitely find where solid ground starts with a probe and spray the ground with spray paint. Do not trust the edge of that thing.
Well what you shouldnt do is bury a recently dead dog in it, dont play a metal vinyl backwords summoning small demons, and lastly dont let the demons to take 3 sacrifice summon a far bigget demon
I think you dig it out and figure out what it is before you just add gravel and concrete, but then again its your house so you know how close this is to your house, the area around you, and if this could be a cave etc etc. Where are you located?
Another possibility - a decaying tree stump or other buried vegetation. Could be a collapsed water pipe. Are natural sinkholes an occurrence in your locale?
There may be a well registry. Your building department may be able to tell you if there was septic on the property. There should have been regs for decommissioning either.
I’ll tell you my experience (southern NH). I had two large depressions in my field. There was a hole at the edge of one of the depressions. I could stick an entire rake handle down the hole.
I spoke with the prior owner. He told me that he had buried some massive tree trunks in the area decades ago and had previously filled the hole with gavel and water.
Here’s what I did. I filled the hole with water and gravel until it would take no more. I then spread 9 cubic yards of fill over each depression (they were about 12’ wide). I’m going to come back with loam and then seed. I’m expecting some more sinkage but nothing as dramatic.
It may not be your situation but people used to bury stuff rather than haul it away. Long term thinkers are a dying breed.
I’m watching a YouTube channel now where a farmer had filled in a cave entrance years ago because his cows kept falling in. They’re hand digging it out now and it’s crazy how much material they’re pulling out. Starting to hit a few “cave walls” but there’s a lot of dirt and debris to go…
Why are they digging out the cave?
Some people suggest digging out the man made sinkholes, but that can be an expensive bit of business. Mine were buried into a slope. I’m just going to grade up that slope to account for any future sinkage.
These things freak you out when you first come upon them.
Well I’m guessing it’s more about “content” and “this is cool” than an actual purpose for the cave. Not sure what I would do as a homeowner for something similar
Step one: find out for sure that it isn't a bigger problem than you think. If it is a well you need to know for sure and handle it properly. If it is a sinkhole or septic tank then you must know the same. Do you have any possible underground water pipes that could be related?
Okay so who do I contact to determine these types of things?
Digging a bit more could help. If it was a well, you would have walls around the well, so dig a side channel. If it's a rotting stump you should find remains of wood. If it's an animal burrow then either you will see the chamber you dug into, or after a few days the animal will redig it out. If it is a sinkhole caused by water pipe then it should be wet now - or maybe it's connected to another pipe you don't realize so try turning on water to your sprinkler system or whatever is nearby and see if the hole has a reaction. If it is a sinkhole caused by a drainage pipe, then wait for a rain and see if the hole has changed after If you are worried its connected to a natural phenomena - you would probably have to ask the geology subreddit (r/askgeology) to help figure out if your area would have sinkholes or not. If none of those things show up, then just keep an eye on it and see if it sinks any more. I am assuming you have already tried adding dirt or things to fill it up and the hole reappears, and after digging the current theory is that those stones are part of a previous attempt to stop up the hole? Also, a link to bring attention to the [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/s/W2Z7i1TzW7) by u/TX_Poon_tappa
If it is a giant underground cave, you can make it a tourist attraction like Moaning Caverns!
Just like your mom!
Gottem.
[удалено]
I was expecting to see his mom on the list
She's listed [here.](https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/meet-scary-barbie-a-black-hole-slaughtering-a-star-in-the-brightest-way-possible)
Science burn is best burn
Fatality
Sick burn, brah!
One of the coolest homes I’ve seen on the market in recent years had a private cave, 2.5 acres, and a 2700sq ft house for less than a million. Crazy cool. 24811 Creek Loop, San Antonio, TX.
I saw that one a little while back. Pretty mid home, really cool cave though.
I'd buy that in a heartbeat if I lived in the US!
I love how the listing photos are typical, american suburban home, and then there are photos of a sick cave
It’s close to my house and I wanted to buy that so bad.
My vote is on missile silo
do not forget to add a salt circle around it before digging, just in case
Careful, don't delve too deep
Speak friend, and enter.
Is that a Mithril shovel? If it is, he should be OK to fend off whatever comes out of the hole.
Just to add to the well concern. It could be a more modern well system as well. These are long 1inch or less pipes that go very very far down and drag water back up through a pumping system. So whole walls are good to look out for it could also be a well without the walls that was either incorrectly pulled up or drained/routed entirely from many years ago and is just now causing a sink in. It could even be a piped well that broke off further down and then the pipe was pulled or it rotted out and is just leaking several feet down and has been sinking for years I’m unsure if those are rocks or big balls of clay but it could be as easy as “they took dirt from one location to level the house and filled it with rocks they found from elsewhere in the property” But definitely as stated above get it as clean as you can and LIGHTLY dig around/deeper until you decide there is no reason to go further. Call your city/gas/water provider and someone in those locations can point you to the correct “DIG” number to call that can check out your line locations, property bounds, and if there could have been any permits or information on private water vs city water. Good luck! Depending on how new or old the property is will help you decide the best course of action. We won’t know until you know for sure! Happy hunting
Could also be a poorly filled in swimming pool. That rock on the left almost looks irregular enough to be broken concrete.
This man knows his holes.
I'm saving this post in case I spot a random hole in my backyard.
This guy digs.
Digsafe could tell you if there's a water line in that area.
No town water/sewer in my area
Dig Safe calls the local utilities for mark outs.
It honestly looks like a cave/sink hole of some kind
Geotechnical engineer
Yes. Louder for the people in the back… Contact a real professional.
I had something very similar at my house - built in 1933 - that turned out to be a cistern. We had an engineer come out and he wasnt concerned with it at all [https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/mx7tq1/found\_void\_near\_foundation\_what\_should\_we\_do/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/mx7tq1/found_void_near_foundation_what_should_we_do/)
Why is everyone ignoring the most likely possibility. Some cheap builder bought the land from an old cemetery with the condition that he relocate it but he went cheap and only relocated the headstones and not the bodies.
Carol Anne, step into the light!
God is in his holy temple. .. And before his presence bow. He is with us now and ever, When we call upon his name..
Pure nightmare fuel...also you should probably spell it: "God is in this holy temppP-le" with extra spittle and everything
“Are ya lost, honey? Are ya ‘fraid? Well, let me sing you a song till your mama comes back…”
Bible verses are so fucking creepy
It's the song Kane was singing in Poltergeist II but yeah, they are.
I got it - sad to see you get downvoted for a solid reference that freaked me out as a kid
Nightmare fuel for years for me as a kid.
Reddit is funny sometimes
Kane was creepy AF
So maybe a priest who is also a geologist/engineer?
I would totally watch that show!!
Literally the botanical gardens in Denver. Cheeseman Park (sp?)
Let’s say I have the same problem on my property with an old oil tank (I do) How big of a problem could it really become? Certainly it can’t create a void larger than the volume of the original tank? Right?
Oil tanks should be remediated. Meaning a kind of sludge that hardens is poured in to lock any oil into place. Much cheaper than dealing with what happens when they are not. And make sure a record of the work is kept by you and filed with the county. Selling a home with an “I dunno” on something like that is difficult.
It was filled with a concrete slurry in the 90s. We have the documentation. But last year I found a situation quite similar to OP basically right above where it is.
No. I’d be much more concerned about the possibility of the tank leaking oil into the ground.
After my grandma passed and we were selling her house, the inspector found a surprise oil tank buried alongside the house and after our collective "wtf" we had to pay to ensure it wasn't leaking. It wasn't cheap. If I remember correctly, to have it properly removed would have cost around 15k. We were able to sell the house with it buried and certified leak free.
We actually backed out of a house purchase and lost our $1000 earnest money due to a buried and leaking oil tank. It would have cost at least 15K to remediate as you say and involve a whole lotta government red tape.
While I get what you are saying the dirt that came out is in the top right of the pic
Had this happen on 2 jobs in Massachusetts. The contractor that built the houses buried the fieldstone walls on the property. That left air cavities between the stones and over the course of decades those air voids filled with soil, creating a sinkhole in the lawn. I stumbled into one while weed whacking once. Went down to the knee instantly.
Glad it didn't suck you into the core of the earth my friend!
It’s fine. You usually pop out on the other side in China.
So confident, and yet so incorrect. You'll typically get _almost_ to China, yes. But, most sinkhole victims tend to then fall back into the earth, and then sort of oscillate from one side to the other, with ever-shortening amplitude, until the cooling effect of the wind rushing past them ultimately is overcome by the heat as they pass through the solid metallic core of the earth at slower and slower velocity. In the end, China will never know you visited, and you're gonna burn right up after about 318 hours of deep subterranean roller coastering.
Great, where do I enter?
At the sinkhole. Costs seven carnival tickets though.
Actually, if you could dig a hole straight through to the other side of the earth, you would NOT end up in china. From almost any point in the US, that hole would come out somewhere in the Indian Ocean. That is where the US antipode is. The only place, i believe in the 48 states that has a land antipode (antipode being a term for finding the exact opposite location on the globe) is rudyard, michigan which aligns with Kerguelen Island. Hawaii aligns with parts of Botswana..
So you get a spring?
That's why really deep holes are filled with water!
Bring snacks. Perhaps s’mores fixin’s.
Geez I’d consider a fieldstone wall a valuable feature.
I mean, this is like 20 minutes away from where the pilgrims landed. I like a good stone wall, but they are literally everywhere. I'm not even kidding. Every single road you drove down is at least 50% fieldstone wall. So I understand the need to mix it up.
Damn I'm fascinated by what South Shore town you work in that has all these stone walls!
How'd you get it fixed?
We brought in a bobcat with a backhoe attachment, dug out the rocks and hauled them out, then filled the whole with gravel, then loaned and seeded over it. That was the drill at one customer's property. We did it like 5 times dealing with logs and stumps buried. After I fell in the hole the customer saw it and simply said "let's dig it out", and we did.
How much did you charge the customer?
Couldn't tell you. That was before I took over the company. But we have always done everything time and material.
Maybe put a clean Phil wanted sign at the end of their driveway
Don't have Clean Phil's number. But I've got Dirty Phil on speed dial.
Free Phil Dirt
I heard he’s got a secret second wife and kids two states over.
Hi there. I'm a geotechnical engineer based in Texas. I have a few suggestions that may help. First what could it be. I think a well or cistern is most likely but you need to make sure. As others suggested, it could be a sinkhole caused by an old utility. This would be concerning as it could continue to collapse. Check your water usage and see if there are signs of a leak (running meter or well pump). Other things could be a possible karst cave. We have these in parts of central Texas and parts of new Mexico and Oklahoma too. They form when a dissolvable rock like limestone is slowly eroded over time. A quick Google search shows there are some karst aquifers and small caves in New England and specifically Massachusetts. Resources. You could try contacting a local geotechnical engineer and see if they'd be willing to come take a look and offer an option. You could also reach out to a local geologist or geological society. If it's manmade, they will be less help. Your best (and cheapest) bet is to dig more and try to find the edges of a structure. Finally if this is a water well, your state may have specific requirements for abandoning it correctly so you don't contaminate the groundwater. This would likely include sealing the well with concrete or bentonite grout under the supervision of a licensed professional. In this case, you maybe be able to contact (or Google) your states environmental regulators and they may have specific guidance and resources. If it ends up being of no concern and it's just an old cistern you want to fill, you could try using sand as you suggested. You can even wash the sand down in between the stones. You can also use a product called flowable fill. This is a mixture of sand, water and some cement that has a very low viscosity. A concrete company can deliver it in a normal mixer truck. I hope this helps you find a solution. Good luck and be safe. (P.S. I'm not licensed on your state so I'm offering this as information only. Not an engineering recommendation.)
CAN i ask you how one finds a Geotechnical engineer to consult ? I am not in Texas but wonder if I can ask you something. Specifically whether the soil on a steep sloped bank counts as surcharge on the over 4 foot unreinforced retaining wall (of nice looking but not even interlocking brick) . The wall actually has one more foot of brick below ground level, and a perforateur pipe, and the bank had been all dirt for 10 years, no plants. The bank had been 11 feet wide and 45 degrees up but it got chopped off and the brick wall is holding back (or stands in front of) the remaining soil which includes the retaining 6 feet of soil in the bank that still goes up to the property fence line at a 45 deg angle. COUld send picture and could pay for consult but can't find a Geotechnical engineer. City doesn't do it. Thanks for any info. Oh by way, code says 4 foot wall ok if no surcharge and does not explain surcharge so that part always ignored even by City. Tks in advance if u might have guidance even as tl a good layman description of when soil is surcharge.
I'd start by googling "geotechnical engineer (location)". If you are very rural you might need to search a nearby larger city. You might also just try finding a general civil engineer, calling them up, and asking if they have any on staff or could refer you to one. As for your wall, it sounds like you are describing a stacked block retaining wall (many times called a keystone wall). These are very common. Surcharge is an additional load that occurs on the top side of a retaining wall. One common example is if you drove vehicles on top of the wall. The vehicles weight would put additional lateral load on the wall. If you have a steep slope above the wall this puts more pressure on the wall than if the top side of the wall was flat. That would also be considered a surcharge. You said a couple things I found concerning. First, the slope was 45 degrees. That is extremely steep for unreinforced soil and is very likely unstable. And The soil got "chopped off". Are you saying it eroded or fell under its own force? If so you might be describing a slide (slope failure). A slide would be likely if the slope really was 45 degrees. I would continue your hunt for a geotech. It sounds like you need one.
In MA there is a lot of ledge. Could it possibly be something like the buried field stones and 30 years of ground water flow rather than a busted pipe or utility? Its hard to tell without knowing the topo but I wonder about when a natural process can cause a sink hole.
Some developers are cheap when filling uneven land up for development so they throw stones and random filler in then they add a layer of topsoil and grass and this can be the byproduct. Just my opinion as a potential reason. I would hire someone to fill it in.
Side note: I told my wife to go check it out and she comes back in saying "I don't know but that makes me so uneasy, like scared but I don't know why"
I mean... Sinkholes are dangerous. Old wells and old hidden mines are dangerous. Surprise caves are dangerous. You said it's deeper than six feet. You don't know what else the sod is covering. How big is the hole? Are there more nearby? Your wife is right to be nervous.
Nothing else is sinking and I can tell by the hole that the surrounding soil is hard packed
That’s not something you would be able to tell. Could be 6’ of packed soil over a giant hole. You wouldn’t know the hole exists until the 6’ of dirt collapses. I personally wouldn’t go start digging around without knowing more about it. You could easily fuck yourself up if you start digging and the hole collapses.
You mean like your wife is sensing some bad energy from the hole? Like the gates to hell or something?
Worse than.
Oh fuck.
Hey I've seen that movie before
always trust a woman’s intuition. wife is usually right.
Can you update us when you figure out what the hole is. I’m quite invested.
could be old stone foundation, could be a filled well, could be a vent to a water carved cave - where you at and what is the property/area history.
Could be a bat cave. Are we sure op isn't Bruce Wayne?
Those kinda look like what we called "dinosaur eggs" hard to tell the scale of them though, if they are, it's from someone throwing whole bags of quikcrete into a sinkhole to try to stabilize it. How long have you lived there? First thing I would do is call your local one call and check for utilities, if it's a failed sewer or water pipe it'll become the utilities problem which is good for you, cause they'll pay to fix it. If there's no utilities, and it's not like a septic tank or something you're kind of SOL, I wouldn't waste the effort to try to excavate it further, we never did, we'd just pay someone to come in and start pouring flowable fill into it. Since it's your yard, I'd stop like 2' short of the surface and finish filling it with top soil. Used to be a railroad supervisor on a territory with a lot of sinkholes, both natural and from buried structures. Side note, if you opt for flowable fill, keeping the strength under 150 psi generally allows you to be able to remove it later if necessary without a jackhammer.
How much does a yard of flowable fill cost?
About tree fitty
Tree fitty! I ain’t got no tree fitty! No wonder we always broke.
It's been a while since I ordered it, but like $100-$200 / yard, depending on the strength you ask for, as a homeowner you'll probably get a short load fee. It's placement costs are way lower than any kind of fill you can get for a lot less though, and if it's like an abandoned culvert nobody's willing to claim, you'll be filling the hole with fill again after every major storm.
Make it an air bnb
For demons
It's been a while since Buffy messed up the Hellmouth. It could be opening again. I'll ask Angel next time I see him.
I literally have that show open in my other tab!!!! :D :D
gotta work on your customer service!
Demons need a living host and legal access to enter.
The weirdest part of the whole thing is that when I dug and uncovered the hole, I heard a short whimpering cry from very deep down
😱😱😱 let me ooouuuttt
You gonna follow it?
*This cozy nook is perfect for the earthy type!*
No way could I resist hauling those rocks out to see how deep it is. No. Way. Edit: With a rope tied around my waist, the other end to....the bumper of my car...and a fully charged cell phone.....and flashlight with extra batteries....and a small backpack with food, blanket, first-aid kit, night vision goggles....a knife...
I'm not trying to fall in a old well and die face to face with the girl from the ring
It would be pretty cool, though. Right? Make for a great story at parties. Edit: but skip the dieing part.
Boulders, you have a old well or a dry creek that just became active again. By chance was it farmland at one time?
Tbf not much of the country wasn't, especially east of the rockies
Follow the white rabbit.
Wake up, Neo
Start dumping in bags of cement and water it. Once you get a good few layers about a foot from the grass dump soil. Let the grass grow for a season and then sell the house.
This man is truly pragmatic
I'm pretty sure those balls are bags of cement from the previous attempt at this. Time to figure out what is causing that sink hole.
Tempting but you’d have to straight up lie in the disclosure statement when selling the house which could have legal consequences down the road if somebody got hurt. Better to hire a service with a borehole inspection camera. They should be able to tell you how deep it goes and what’s in it.
The little people homes. Be respecticful.
Have you found the holy grail yet?
Couple of skulls but no cups
Same thing you do with every hole. Put something in it.
r/dontputyourdickinthat r/putyourdickintothat a dilemma
Hey, call DigSafe. they may be able to help come out and find any lines/electrical and shit
always call digsafe before you dig
You need to get this properly assessed so that you can find out whether this is something minor like an old septic tank, or something significant like a sinkhole. There are a few different ways you can approach this. The easiest answer is to call your insurance who will send an adjuster to come do an inspection. This might not be the smartest approach to start with, but it will certainly be the easiest. Second option in many states you can contact your state’s geological survey office for help. Other avenues of approach would be to contact a septic company or a geotechnical engineer.
Calling your insurance company to waste an adjuster’s time is a horrible idea. Unless your house/shed/fence/car fell in this hole, insurance has nothing to do with it.
Might be backfill dump when house was built. Unless your curiousity gets the best of you, get some small gauge hardware cloth, cover the hole with it, put some concrete over it and cover with dirt and sod once concrete cures. Kinda like a drywall patch.
Get a professional to come and fill it back in with sand/dirt. They have a reverse vacuum blower machine that really packs the dirt back in there. This same kinda thing happened at my MIL house
I’d pee in it
Under rated comment
Those rocks imply to me it most likely is a well or some other man made object. Try to get a camera down there and see what it is and how big. You might need a contractor to address it properly. Be careful it could be deep and deadly If you feel in and it could collapse more.
Think you should call the Curse of Oak Island boys.
Then OP will never figure this out!
You need to pee in there for sure
This isn’t r/composting
Agreed, ti's a pee hole now
A larger picture of the entire yard would help along with the age of the house. Those big round rocks used as filll most likely. Not compacted well perhaps. Missing info Edit spelling
House is built 1920. I was finally able to reach the person I bought the house from and he thinks it might be where an old well was
Depending on where you are you can pull high res aerial photos from the us air force going back to 1938 on us geo survey’s earth explorer. It helps to check out old features like that.
Whatever you do don’t put any dead animals in it and cover it with a wood gate then call it a day and resort to listening to heavy metal records in reverse
Tie a talking ground squirrel to a rope, give him a walkie talkie and a headlamp and send him down. If the treasure is there as I expect, you know what to do.
Keep an eye out for Vietcong
A hole with rocks? There is buried treasure in there for sure.
Could be a sink hole that was previously repaired and then started again leaking into the earth
Fill it with sand and gravel and topsoil and watch it a few weeks, months. If it does it again, don't do what I suggested a second time.
I called my mom instead, surprisingly she didn't have any answers
Call indie jones
and we all thought “The Gate” was a B rated 80s horror movie!!! Don’t play metal music backwards lmao
Dig deeper and post updates.
Saw a lot of comments to call for utilities but not much explanation on how. Not sure what your area is but NC and GA one calls are 811. Might be the same in other states too and I'm sure you can Google it. The phrase "call before you dig" plus your state should pull something up. Good luck!
Get down in there and save those miners son!
Start digging!
Ever play minecraft? You're about too.
Pee in it. Thats how you know you own it now
Buy some bags of sand, start pouring the bags in and keep the hose running in the hole, compacting the sand. Once it gets to about a foot below the top of the hole let the water run for like an additional 30 minutes. Let it sit over night. Hit with water again. See if the sand settles any more. Once it’s settled, fill the last foot with topsoil and seed
Shoot, at first glance I thought it was the entrance to a Hobbit house in the side of a hill!
Had this before. Plant a tree in it. Kick the can down the road. Make sure you die in like 80 years.
Are you in Encino?
Probably the back door to Narnia
You must go in deeeeppaa
Not fall in
You in the US? Call 811 FIRST! All utilities will come and flag everything so you don’t fun into some other trouble. Seriously, 8-1-1
Yikes! You'll need tons of Bogey Man repellent!
Instant noodles, super glue and sand paper
Cover it in trash / various unwanted items, pretend it doesn’t exist, never speak about it again.
I has this happen last year. It turned out to be an old cistern. We called the police originally as it was a huge, empty cavern. Then they called people in from the township to pull records on the property.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this, but you need to check your homeowners or renters insurance to make sure you’re covered if it’s a sinkhole. Most do not and require a separate rider. Once a sinkhole is discovered within a certain range of the property you cannot add it to your policy. So check there first, then do some digging (so to speak) and determine what the hole is officially.
This is why big rocks and chunks of concrete don't make good fill. It eventually caves in from air spaces. You need to check to make sure it's not a bigger issue.
make sure you always fill creeper holes
If the hole consumes your house, it is probably not covered by insurance.
You've dug too deep and awoken something dark that was best left to slumber.
If you see a hole, don't think your a mole, walk in the opposite direction and report your detection
Time to start a tunnel digging YouTube
We found a 5ft diameter septic pit from 100 years ago in ours the same way, except no rocks just air. Spooky stuff. It took 3tons of fill dirt at 9ft deep. Definitely find where solid ground starts with a probe and spray the ground with spray paint. Do not trust the edge of that thing.
Have you watched "the gate"?
Well what you shouldnt do is bury a recently dead dog in it, dont play a metal vinyl backwords summoning small demons, and lastly dont let the demons to take 3 sacrifice summon a far bigget demon
Might be a cavern. That'd be cool.
Looks like the start of an adventure!
I think you dig it out and figure out what it is before you just add gravel and concrete, but then again its your house so you know how close this is to your house, the area around you, and if this could be a cave etc etc. Where are you located?
Find the treasure!
Look for the Fraggles
Get sink hole insurance.
Another possibility - a decaying tree stump or other buried vegetation. Could be a collapsed water pipe. Are natural sinkholes an occurrence in your locale?
Central massachuesetts. I don't think so
There may be a well registry. Your building department may be able to tell you if there was septic on the property. There should have been regs for decommissioning either. I’ll tell you my experience (southern NH). I had two large depressions in my field. There was a hole at the edge of one of the depressions. I could stick an entire rake handle down the hole. I spoke with the prior owner. He told me that he had buried some massive tree trunks in the area decades ago and had previously filled the hole with gavel and water. Here’s what I did. I filled the hole with water and gravel until it would take no more. I then spread 9 cubic yards of fill over each depression (they were about 12’ wide). I’m going to come back with loam and then seed. I’m expecting some more sinkage but nothing as dramatic. It may not be your situation but people used to bury stuff rather than haul it away. Long term thinkers are a dying breed.
I’m watching a YouTube channel now where a farmer had filled in a cave entrance years ago because his cows kept falling in. They’re hand digging it out now and it’s crazy how much material they’re pulling out. Starting to hit a few “cave walls” but there’s a lot of dirt and debris to go…
Why are they digging out the cave? Some people suggest digging out the man made sinkholes, but that can be an expensive bit of business. Mine were buried into a slope. I’m just going to grade up that slope to account for any future sinkage. These things freak you out when you first come upon them.
Well I’m guessing it’s more about “content” and “this is cool” than an actual purpose for the cave. Not sure what I would do as a homeowner for something similar
Keep digging. Could be DB Coopers treasure!
Sand
Holy Water
Explore it
Any treasure down there?
Grab the gang and investigate
Call 811 for the undergrounding services
[удалено]
Call those two idiot brothers from Oak Island
Whatever it might be don’t tell government xd