Sinkholes: When Sewer Repair Goes Wrong
Sinkholes are frequently a man-made problem that is caused by things such as collapsed or broken sewage and drainpipes, poorly done sewer repair, damaged septic tanks and buried trash, or soil that was not compacted properly after excavation work. A sinkhole will often indicate an area where the sewer piping is damaged, more so when the soil has been saturated with wastewater. They can occur over time as old pipelines start to erode and wastewater spills into the surrounding ground, but pipe damage will also result from ineffective patching and other preventable repair mistakes. Here’s everything you need to know about sinkholes and why high-quality sewer repair services can help you avoid them on your property.
What is a Sinkhole?
A sinkhole is a hole or depression due to some kind of collapse of the surface-layer sediment into the floor. They are also known as sinks, swallow holes, shake holes, swallets, cenote, or dolines, and can be as large as 2,000 feet or as small as a foot.
There are two kinds of sinkholes:
-
Cover-subsidence sinkholes happen when a layer of soluble rock is worn away underground, and the soil will fill it in, resulting in a large depression of the surface level. These are the kind of large sinkholes that often lead to caverns.
-
Cover-collapse sinkholes happen when storms, flooding, or drought removes material in the ground, which causes the surface-level sediment to collapse suddenly. These sinkholes can appear quickly, often in a few scant minutes, and are considered the most dangerous.
Some sinkholes occur from natural causes, while others are due to human error. Out-of-use mines will often result in large sinkholes, for example. Another cause is a poorly done sewer line repair.
If you would like to make an appointment to discuss a sewer repair, please contact Castro Valley's H & R Plumbing at (510) 296-9840 now if you live in the Castro Valley, CA region.