Sinking garage repair (yikes)

mde8965

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So I just signed a contract to have my garage fixed. I have a two car detached garage that backs up to the alley in back of my house. It has a 2 car carport next to it. At some point many years ago apparently an old pipe or something must have burst under this property that runs directly under this garage and my carport. It created a valley in the backyard and under the garage/carport and they are slowly sinking into it.

The cinderblock walls are stair step cracking and the floor in the garage has sunk about 6 inches in the middle. I have been putting off trying to repair it. But it’s getting to the point where I’m afraid to park my TJ and my other car in there.

So I have received two different estimates from companies to come out and do the Geo survey. Then put the footers (or whatever the term is) they drill very deep into the soil under the foundation to lift it back up then polyfoam underneath the slab and carport to level them back out and put a water barrier on the outside of the worst wall which leaks water into the garage when it rains so it does not leak anymore.

I was figuring worst case scenario was $10,000. But found out from my two estimates that one was for almost 16,000 and the other one was just a little over 16,000. Got to bite the bullet and do it or one of these days I’m going to find my garage has imploded and my cars are under ground.

And you guys cry about how expensive TJ‘s are. 1950s houses are even more expensive. Especially in Florida where all the soil is sand.

Thank you for listening to me cry in my soup.
 
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Oh yes I’m very familiar with that video. I believe they auctioned off a few of those cars but most were so FUBAR nothing could be salvaged. I would cry lots of real man tears if my TJ and my Challenger and all my tools fell in the hole. I cannot even imagine what the owner of the Vettes felt. Probably had to put him on suicide watch.
 
Can anyone be held responsible for the pipe and damage (utilities)? Check how your estimate changes if you fix the soil collapse and tear down and rebuild the garage. It may be similar pricing and you could build the garage with any changes you want.
 
Can anyone be held responsible for the pipe and damage (utilities)? Check how your estimate changes if you fix the soil collapse and tear down and rebuild the garage. It may be similar pricing and you could build the garage with any changes you want.
Don’t know about responsibility. I think the collapse happened in the late 80s. I bought the home in 2001 knowing of the issue and estimated $10 grand to fix which I received a consession for. But then the garage was not sinking. Previous owner used the garage as a wood shop. The garage stArted sinking about 2 years after I started parking my cars in there.

I actually had an estimate done in 2006 or so to raze the garage, remediate the ground and rebuild the garage and it was in the low $20s. Guessing that would be closer to $30 grand now. And a huge inconvenience to move everything out for a month. With the current plan I really don’t need to move anything out besides the cars and move things away from the side walls.
 
Yeah moving stuff out is a huge pain. I had to do it to finish my garage last year. The only benefit is that it did force me to organize my junk.
 
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I have a similar, albeit smaller issue like this. My house was built in 01 and the front sidewalk has sunk maybe 3" since then. It now slopes toward the house, I do my best to keep water away from it. Im hoping to repair it this year, my guess would be a company using a mudjacking process. My garage floor is ever-so-slightly unlevel too. When I built my workbench I found this out.
 
What is the cost of remo
So I just signed a contract to have my garage fixed. I have a two car detached garage that backs up to the alley in back of my house. It has a 2 car carport next to it. At some point many years ago apparently an old pipe or something must have burst under this property that runs directly under this garage and my carport. It created a valley in the backyard and under the garage/carport and they are slowly sinking into it.

The cinderblock walls are stair step cracking and the floor in the garage has sunk about 6 inches in the middle. I have been putting off trying to repair it. But it’s getting to the point where I’m afraid to park my TJ and my other car in there.

So I have received two different estimates from companies to come out and do the Geo survey. Then put the footers (or whatever the term is) they drill very deep into the soil under the foundation to lift it back up then polyfoam underneath the slab and carport to level them back out and put a water barrier on the outside of the worst wall which leaks water into the garage when it rains so it does not leak anymore.

I was figuring worst case scenario was $10,000. But found out from my two estimates that one was for almost 16,000 and the other one was just a little over 16,000. Got to bite the bullet and do it or one of these days I’m going to find my garage has imploded and my cars are under ground.

And you guys cry about how expensive TJ‘s are. 1950s houses are even more expensive. Especially in Florida where all the soil is sand.

Thank you for listening to me cry in my soup.

What is the cost of removing the garage, concrete, filling and compacting for a good foundation and pouring new concrete?
 
Are some or maybe all of the walls sinking or just the middle of the floor?
Both side walls are sinking. One much worse than the other where the concrete block is actually crumbling from water intrusion. There is the tell tale stairway cracking on these walls too. Just imagine looking at the big garage door from the outside. The ground has sunk parallel to the garage door right under the garage and extending out each side at least 40ft on each side. Each neighbors yard on both sides of me has a trench going through their yards in the same place.
 
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What is the cost of remo


What is the cost of removing the garage, concrete, filling and compacting for a good foundation and pouring new concrete?

About $11k. However, this does not foot the garage under the area of the ground that has sunk or is sinking meaning the extra weight of the concrete fill under the garage could cause the ground to settle more, rendering another garage foundation problem down the road.

So with the current plan they are drilling these footers down as deep as needed (20,30,40ft) to get below the problematic ground fault into stable ground. And the square foundation repair is permanent. Then the poly fill under the slab will raise it up and re-level the floor to within a few degrees. It is possible that over time the slab could drop slightly again, but the repair if that happens is to drill a few small holes in the slab, inject more polyfill and patch the hole. Probably $1k - $2k as opposed to having to jack up the foundation, break up the concrete slab again and pour more concrete which would cost about $11k...
 
I reckon, if you can't get the neighbors to join you filling it, your trench will become a stream.
Of course you could make it into a long pond.
Does some state agency, highway, have fill? Some things like wood chippings are free.
 
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I have a similar, albeit smaller issue like this. My house was built in 01 and the front sidewalk has sunk maybe 3" since then. It now slopes toward the house, I do my best to keep water away from it. Im hoping to repair it this year, my guess would be a company using a mudjacking process. My garage floor is ever-so-slightly unlevel too. When I built my workbench I found this out.
This could be fixed either with mudjacking or polyfill/poly foam injection. There are pros and cons to each.
 
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I reckon, if you can't get the neighbors to join you filling it, your trench will become a stream.
Of course you could make it into a long pond.
Does some state agency, highway, have fill? Some things like wood chippings are free.
After this repair I will not have any gulch, valley or trench on my property. They neighbors will still have there’s though. In the summertime after torrential tropical rain storms each neighbors trench is filled with about 6 inches or more of standing water. If it rains a lot several days in a row up to 16”. That is how deep this ground problem is. Scary. My garage floor has sunk 6-7”. Would be more but a long time ago I had a contractor dig and throw a bunch of gravel underneath the garage. I knew nothing then. Probably made the overall ground fault worse, but I guess it probably did save my garage from collapsing completely. Big difference between a 6-7” fault and 16”. Pretty sure the walls would have caved in with that kind of sinking.
 
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After this repair I will not have any gulch, valley or trench on my property. They neighbors will still have there’s though. In the summertime after torrential tropical rain storms each neighbors trench is filled with about 6 inches or more of standing water. If it rains a lot several days in a row up to 16”. That is how deep this ground problem is. Scary. My garage floor has sunk 6-7”. Would be more but a long time ago I had a contractor dig and throw a bunch of gravel underneath the garage. I knew nothing then. Probably made the overall ground fault worse, but I guess it probably did save my garage from collapsing completely. Big difference between a 6-7” fault and 16”. Pretty sure the walls would have caved in with that kind of sinking.

We don't have your problems in Arizona. And it is an 'Open Carry' state. Come on out. .... ;)
 
I have a similar, albeit smaller issue like this. My house was built in 01 and the front sidewalk has sunk maybe 3" since then. It now slopes toward the house, I do my best to keep water away from it. Im hoping to repair it this year, my guess would be a company using a mudjacking process. My garage floor is ever-so-slightly unlevel too. When I built my workbench I found this out.

Pretty typical for garages to be sloped away from the living area in case of flooding.
 
Damn, scary stuff! Hope you get it sorted safely. Karst topography can be a real bitch. I remember a sinkhole opening up on a road and swallowing a car here in our area a few years back. Found it, here it is:
 
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