Ah, the joys of buying an old house.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Ah, the joys of buying an old house. (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:21:16 PM EDT

It’s seems my parents “found” an old cesspool in their front yard. They bought the house last year and did a few minor upgrades to what was a completely renovated 1890’s house.
One of them being putting in a sidewalk in the front. Must have disturbed the cesspool when they tamped the ground. It’s been a few months but we got a bunch of rain lately. They woke up to this...

Forgot the pics.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:23:15 PM EDT

[#1]

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:26:26 PM EDT

[#2]

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Pics up now.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:27:59 PM EDT

[#3]

That’d be my luck.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:28:26 PM EDT

[#4]

how is your walkway still standing..?

cute house btw

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:30:35 PM EDT

[#5]

Damn, that sucks! Nice house though...

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:30:46 PM EDT

[#6]

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how is your walkway still standing..?

cute house btw

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Com on now, magnets

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:35:02 PM EDT

[#7]

Line it with trash bags and throw some koi in there.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:37:07 PM EDT

[#8]

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Quoted:
how is your walkway still standing..?

cute house btw

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That was my first thought. Those pavers must be in there tight as hell.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:38:21 PM EDT

[#9]

I’ll give you a pmag if you walk across the sidewalk to see if it holds.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:39:31 PM EDT

[#10]

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Com on now, magnets

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how is your walkway still standing..?

cute house btw

Com on now, magnets

I walked on it. No idea how it didnt fall yet.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:39:56 PM EDT

[#11]

Whoever did the pavers did a pretty kick ass job.

Cool looking house BTW.

Throw a liner and a pump in the hole and enjoy your new water feature.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:41:30 PM EDT

[#12]

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Whoever did the pavers did a pretty kick ass job.

Cool looking house BTW.

Throw a liner and a pump in the hole and enjoy your new water feature.

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He did, Hes going over to take pics for his brag book.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:46:46 PM EDT

[#13]

Beautiful house OP.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:48:21 PM EDT

[#14]

Florida sinkhole.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:50:25 PM EDT

[#15]

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Florida sinkhole.

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According to GD, all of NJ is a cesspool.

Posted: 11/17/2018 5:50:43 PM EDT

[#16]

Played this game before.

Attached File

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:21:37 PM EDT

[#17]

The house should have had an inspection and a survey when it sold. You might have a claim on them and homeowners too.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:26:10 PM EDT

[#18]

cool house

I would rather deal with that then live in vinyl siding hell.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:28:46 PM EDT

[#19]

Cistern?

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:29:04 PM EDT

[#20]

That's called a sinkhole here, they have claimed everything, including people's lives.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:29:06 PM EDT

[#21]

Dig it all the way out and make it a bridge

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:29:19 PM EDT

[#22]

Nice house. Does Anne (with an e) live there?

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:34:21 PM EDT

[#23]

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Quoted:
how is your walkway still standing..?

cute house btw

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Probably used Polymeric sand, which when mixed with water forms a bonding agent essentially like concrete.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:36:04 PM EDT

[#24]

the ghosts are always fun too

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:39:48 PM EDT

[#25]

I'd say they meant cistern, but those were usually brick lined, and they'd more likely at the side of back of house. I'd guess it was more of a sinkhole created by water somehow since its at the front of the house, and no evidence of a liner.

My 1902 house still has a brick lined cistern, at the back corner of the house. I recently "discovered" it when I saw chipmunk dive into the cracked sidewalk joints. I asked one of my older brothers about it (it's the family home). He said he remembers my our and uncle filling in that area (before it was covered with sidewalk) once in awhile as it settled.

I broke up the sidewalk above it, and started excavating the dirt. Got down maybe 3 feet before it lost its novelty. Even my daughter, who is an archeology student, got tired of it. Nothing special found, just trash mostly.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:40:51 PM EDT

[#26]

Fill it with water and you can have a nice fishing hole

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:43:38 PM EDT

[#27]

Give me your paver guy’s number. Damn Gina.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:45:31 PM EDT

[#28]

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That was my first thought. Those pavers must be in there tight as hell.

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My first thought. Whomever built that cares and is good.

To the op, good luck. Tell your parents, it could always be worse!

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:50:05 PM EDT

[#29]

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Beautiful house OP.

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Except it’s in New Joisey.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:50:10 PM EDT

[#30]

I like the architecture. It's pretty cool that the bricks are still connected even though the sub-base is gonnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeee

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:54:08 PM EDT

[#31]

Can that just be filled back in and rock on? Not a construction expert here.

Posted: 11/17/2018 6:56:02 PM EDT

[#32]

That's a nice bridge you've got there, OP.

Posted: 11/17/2018 7:00:32 PM EDT

[#33]

Those gutter/downspout drains should be channeling the water to a storm drain. The way they are dumping water right where the failure occurred is the reason for the failure.

Posted: 11/17/2018 7:01:03 PM EDT

[#34]

Looks like it was a privy (outhouse) location from when the house was built. There are people that dig thru those to find old bottles and stuff. I have a house built somewhere around 1870 (doesn't look as nice as yours). We had a depression forming in the yard starting somewhere around year 2000. It just kept getting deeper and wider, and then a guy came around saying he would fix it it he could dig thru it. He fills it with rocks and then puts an exterior steel door down to level it above the rocks, then fills it the rest of the way with top soil. He actually found 3 privies in the small yard.

Posted: 11/17/2018 7:44:04 PM EDT

[#35]

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Those gutter/downspout drains should be channeling the water to a storm drain. The way they are dumping water right where the failure occurred is the reason for the failure.

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I agree with that. We are working on getting the down spouts to run at least to the paved driveway where it would run away from the house. But that hole is 5’ deep, it was going to fail sooner or later.

We have no idea what it was yet, it is unlined. I have an 8’ pole I probed the hole with and found nothing solid. It was probably filled and abandoned LONG ago. Just done poorly. I said an old privy, but it’s in the front of the house.

Posted: 11/17/2018 7:49:26 PM EDT

[#36]

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Except it’s in New Joisey.

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Beautiful house OP.

Except it’s in New Joisey.

Yes, that is a problem.

Posted: 11/17/2018 8:06:04 PM EDT

[#37]

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Quoted:
how is your walkway still standing..?

cute house btw

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I said this as soon as I saw it. My old boss had a saying, there are few problems in life that can't solved with sufficient money. I live in a money pit so I do sympathize with your 'rents.

Posted: 11/17/2018 8:16:12 PM EDT

[#38]

Sometimes they had old cisterns with coins hidden from FDR

Posted: 11/18/2018 8:53:00 AM EDT

[#39]

What's the plan to fix it? If you just repack it and still have a water
issue the hole will reappear.

Posted: 11/18/2018 9:06:20 AM EDT

[#40]

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According to GD, all of NJ is a cesspool.

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Quoted:
Florida sinkhole.

According to GD, all of NJ is a cesspool.

I used to argue that there were a lot of red parts of NJ that were nice. But after November 6th, 2018 I'm no longer willing to make that argument. All of NJ is a cesspool.

Also OP, that is a nice looking house and amazing walkway work but hot damn that sucks.

Posted: 11/18/2018 9:13:52 AM EDT

[#41]

My wife and I bought an old house one time. I'll never do it again. The movie "The Moneypit" comes to mind.

Posted: 11/18/2018 9:24:29 AM EDT

[#42]

Buying and fixing up an old house is NOT like they show you on HGTV.

Wiring needs to be replaced.

Plumbing needs to be replaced.

Walls and ceiling need to be insulated.

Rotten wood needs to be replaced.

And then you get the "want list":

Replace all cabinets.

Replace flooring.

Replace the roof.

Take out a wall to open up the space.

Enlarge the bathrooms.

Add a jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower big enough for 3 people.

Add a deck out back.

Etc., etc.

Posted: 11/18/2018 9:30:27 AM EDT

[#43]

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That's called a sinkhole here, they have claimed everything, including people's lives.

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Don't forget a museum of corvettes in KY.

Posted: 11/18/2018 9:34:49 AM EDT

[#44]

A mini hellmouth is a feature for some buyers

Posted: 11/18/2018 9:44:42 AM EDT

[#45]

Those blue pipes tell me they're having issues with water in the basement as well.

My family has a house from the 1870s, and as "charming" as it is with ornate wood they don't put in houses nowadays, it also has very expensive issues that would be a bundle of money to really fix.

Posted: 11/18/2018 10:02:04 AM EDT

[#46]

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Nice house. Does Anne (with an e) live there?

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I understood that reference.

Posted: 11/18/2018 10:05:57 AM EDT

[#47]

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What's the plan to fix it? If you just repack it and still have a water
issue the hole will reappear.

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We are still working on a plan. Non man made sink holes just don’t happen around here, if we fill it with good compactable material it shouldn’t reappear.

They were going to call the township construction official, but the the office is only open one day a week. It’s a shared service with another non-joining township, so finding anyone with any knowledge of a likely non permitted abandoned septic system is going to be a problem.

They live in a small close-knit town and of the dozens(literally) people that have stopped by, no one has seen anything like it. I’ll be calling an excavator in the morning. The sidewalk guy is busy(his work shows why) so i’ll be tearing out the pavers and palletizing them for now.