So, You’ve got a Sinkhole – What Now?

Once you’ve established that there is real, state-certified sinkhole activity happening on your property, you’ll need to act.  Thanks to recent changes in Florida state statutes, you ought to do so before June 1, 2007, to ensure the damages will be covered by insurance. If your home is in imminent danger of collapse, the first thing you must do is evacuate it.

Sinkholes often open very slowly, but they can collapse quite rapidly.

If it is a large, obvious hole, fence or cordon off the damaged area, make sure children and animals can’t get to it. You should also be very careful to keep any sort of garbage away from it.  Remember, it’s connected to the local water table, so anything you put down a sinkhole is liable to come out your kitchen tap.

Once you’ve made sure there is no physical danger to the occupants of the structure, you’ll want to assess whether it’s filling up with water or not.  This is a very common side effect of sinkhole formation.  It is even thought that most lakes in Florida are the result of sinkhole activity.  Even if it has been very droughty in the area, ground water can still seep in, causing you a further headache and, possibly more damage. 

Moreover, water continuing to pour into the void will accelerate the movement of water through the surrounding rock below, potentially encouraging the sinkhole to expand.  It is important to fully assess the amount of damage even a seemingly stable sinkhole can do over time, if repairs are likely to take awhile.

Contact the local Water Management District to advise them of your predicament.  They will be able to give you some advice for dealing with whatever water movement might be endangering you and your property.  They may even send someone out to see if the hole might threaten the local water supply.

Of course, you’ll want to contact your insurance company to make a claim.  They should respond quickly with a claims adjuster who will stop by to take a look at things.  He or she will be able to start the claim immediately and contact a geologist to perform a more thorough evaluation.

The geologist or engineer that your insurance company must hire (according to state law) to inspect the damage will inspect and file a report based upon the activity on your property, including their recommendations for repair or abandonment. Bear in mind that the results of testing performed by experts retained by the insurance company are open to interpretation, so not surprisingly, the insurance company’s hand-picked geologists often interpret the data in a way that supports their conclusion that there is no sinkhole (and therefore, no coverage).

If it seems to you that you’re not getting a fair shake from the insurance company, you may want to talk to an attorney who specializes in sinkhole claims.  

 Even if the insurance company agrees that there is sinkhole activity, it will often recommend an inadequate and cheap method of repair, such as simply injecting grout into the hole.  Your attorney may obtain a second opinion from another qualified expert to determine what is actually the best method of repair. These include actually figuring out what material is best in each part of the hole and adding re-enforcement that will create a repair that can be guaranteed. Unfortunately, you may find that a truly adequate repair will cost more than the full amount of your insurance coverage. If so, you should consult with an attorney to discuss your options.

 Because of recent changes in Florida’s insurance law, after June 1, 2007, property insurers, including your homeowners insurance company, will no longer be required to cover sinkhole damage, except in the most sudden and catastrophic collapses. So, if you think you have sinkhole-related damage, you should file a claim immediately.

Back to top

Best Sinkhole Repair Methods

 Like any other insurance claim, you may have to be on your toes to make sure your insurance company uses the best and correct repair methods on your home or building.  Knowing what are good and bad ways to repair sinkhole damage will allow you to better evaluate whether you’re being taken advantage of or not.  Before you sign off on any claim, you need to make sure repairs are being done correctly. You should also consider whether to make repairs at all, if the repairs are going to cost more than your insurance coverage. If that is the case, you should consult with an attorney knowledgeable about sinkhole litigation to explore your options.

 Just like in any fender bender, your insurance company, reputable or not, will likely want to make the repairs as cheaply as possible.  They assemble repair estimates and usually go with the lowest.  As the insured, you want the job done as professionally and completely as possible.

In the case of sinkhole damage, the most often recommended method is called pressure- or compaction-grouting.  Essentially, this means the sinkhole itself and damage to your home or outbuildings are simply injected with a grout (usually concrete).  When water has fills the sinkhole, it is usually pumped out so the hole can stabilize before the injection process. 

With pressure grouting, since no cross-stabilization is employed on the sinkhole itself, such repairs may be about as stable as a third-world mine shaft if there is damage to the building.  Even when the hole is filled completely to pressure, the rock or soil beneath may continue to sink, starting the whole process over again.

To make matters worse, pressure-grouting estimates often end up low because the bidder (knowingly or not) underestimates how much concrete will be required to fill the hole.  Bear in mind, it’s impossible to know for sure how much “grout” will be required using the most common “guess and fill” methods, especially when the hole is under a building.  Such contracts usually require the property owner to pay for the extra material when the repairs cost more than the approved estimate. 

As you might expect, this method does not result in a very good or stable repair.  You ought to know the technology exists to do a much better job.  The method most widely accepted as the best is called “underpinning,” “piering” or “underjacking.”  This technique uses long metal “piers” to stabilize the building around the perimeter and inside the sinkhole.  Often, they are pinned to the house on one end and the relatively stable dolomite or limestone beneath.  Grout is then sometimes injected into the contact points to ensure they remain stable.  

This type of repair is far more involved, often costing as much as the policy maximum or more, because the piers sometimes have to be driven as much as 100 feet or more into the ground to reach the bedrock.  Often the floors of the house will need to be removed and the occupants evacuated for the duration of the repair.  As you might imagine, this greatly increases the cost and time involved.  On the other hand, you may be assured the repair is resting upon load bearing ground that should be immune to further sinking.

There are a few different types of piers available to be used, depending upon the soil profile.  Some are more expensive to produce or install than others.  An underpinning specialist will be able to recommend the best type for your repair.  The two most common for residential repairs are resistance- or push-piers that are capable of lifting your house up out of the hole; while helical (or corkscrew-type) piers are usually used to simply support a structure.  Large buildings will often use very large concrete piers during the construction process or to repair sinkhole damage.

You may very well have to employ an attorney or claims expert that specializes in standing up for the rights of property owners to make sure the job is done right.  This is especially important now that Florida state law is changing as of June 1, 2007, to remove the requirement that all property insurance in the state cover sinkhole damage.  Acting quickly to get your sinkhole claim started before that date will help ensure your repair is covered.

 Back to top