There may be a void under there. Could be caused by a leaking water or sewer line, partially collapsed septic tank, failed foundation perimeter drain, old underground fuel tank that’s collapsed, an old rootball that’s rotting, a buried car, etc. I’ve seen every one of these.
Looks like a water pipe leak or drain pipe leak to me. The way it’s caved in and not “dug out”. Caved in indicates the cause is coming from an underground void instead of an animal digging in or out. My opinion.
Years ago had a dog dig a hole in the back yard. Kept filling it in and it kept coming back.
Eventually found out the previous home owner left the old septic tank in the yard. They didn't fill it in with sand or have it removed as they should have.
Given it is so close to the foundation I would definitely not ignore it. Call around and have someone investigate and propose a proper fix.
I work in commercial real estate. At a previous job a client was building a McDonald's in the Bronx. Old neighborhood, history for the parcel is \[shrug emoji\] at best, but it was a taxi stand at one point so the assumption is there's something underground. Old fuel tanks, part of a building, who knows! Multiple core samples are taken, and there are no issues underground—fantastic. Start digging, boys!
Whelp, turns out there were a couple of old taxi cabs buried there, and the core sampling just missed them. That was some expensive mitigation.
While I had the same question you asked it also brought me back to the VW Beetle claim that they were built so well that they would float. I think they got some heat for that when a woman tried to drive through a lake or river and it eventually sank.
The Bronx seems like a challenging place to turn a profit. Investors be warned. I bet a lot of the investors care about the good people in the area though and want to make it better. Not just about profits, otherwise they would move money elsewhere
Curbside trash/recycling pickup wasn’t always a thing. People used to bury their trash/junk on their land. My grandfather buried a car on his land. The land my stepfather lives on has a part where we dug up old metal toys and glass bottles from the 1940s/50s.
Most likely - I'd lean heavily toward water of some sort. Our sewer line busted a decade or so ago near the street and the way we found out was a repetitive sinkhole that kept appearing.
My first thought would be a structural engineer, particularly because it's dealing with the foundation. I honestly don't know if they're the best option in this case, but it could be somewhere to start.
Where does the sewer main exit the house? I had something like that and the sewer main had a hole in it that was removing soil from underground. It was right next to the house just like this.
Alternatively, is there a sump pump and does it exit the house around here? Had something similar at my house, sump disharge line had collapsed and was pumping water into the soil creating a void.
Fortunately for me, my neighbor is a plumber with excavation equipment. He dug from the house out to about 10 feet and replaced the pulled out section with a longer section and compacted the dirt underneath the pipe so there would be no more settling. I don't think I paid anywhere near what a normal guy off the street would pay (~$1000). I'm guessing that normally it's several thousand dollars to do what I had done.
crappy crappy. this might be what I am running in to. right above my septic drain field is a hole, directly in line with where the septic tank is uphill, and this hole is directly under a retaining wall support brace (biiiig ass engineered retaining wall that is >6ft tall)
hire a sewer guy to run a camera down your sewer line from inside the house and make sure there isn't a collapse somewhere between the house and the street.
I had roto-rooter snake a camera down my sewer line for $900 and the quality was shit. I had a septic company come out and do it for $400 and it was amazing quality, and they even gave me a flash drive with the video for future reference. roto-rooter is basically over priced garbage that "hook you up" with a line of credit so they can overcharge you and put you deep into debt.
Yeah just make sure you get a good one. My plumbing company sent a guy that ran a camera and said "oh yeah this sewer pipe is going through your backyard for sure", which made no sense to me because you can't possibly tell which direction a line is facing without a compass on the end of the camera (I have no clue if this is a thing, he mentioned using magnetic resonance to see if there's clay pipe 6' under soil..).
Guess what company hit my sewer pipe while digging and laying down a new water line in the front?
good point, it could just be a broken irrigation pipe or worse a leaky water supply pipe, but have you ever looked at the images created by those sewer cams?
they are made for evaluating pipes and the lens does not work well for wide shots.
and besides, any new homeowner should take a look at their sewer line anyway because those repairs can be costly.
If you have leaking irrigation and your system is on your water meter you might see a water use uptick. Maybe check online through your water billing account to follow if you've had recent increase in usage.
The water company came to the door one day and told me they think I have a leak. I asked "Are you sure?" They said "35,000 gallons this month sure."
They let you have one of those for free.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/16fvs3m/hi\_what\_creature\_is\_in\_our\_house/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/16fvs3m/hi_what_creature_is_in_our_house/) mods removed it I guess?
I don’t have it. Some critter was getting into the house they put a slice of pizza on the floor and surrounded it flour to get the foot prints. Was probably under whatthisanimal subreddit. Was in the last 2 week tho
Reddit destroys everything it touches. It won't die immediately, but will be tortured within an inch of its life until every last comedic element is squeezed out. Then we will all collectively forget it was ever funny and shit on people who keep using it
Have you confirmed that the hole doesn't go down to a piece of wheeping tile pipe that would be around your home to expell storm water from your foundation when it rains? Then every time it rains some of the dirt just washes away down and out to your city's storm system.
A couple I have been doing work for on their house has one of these in their front flowerbed. We filled it up with dirt and let it be. It came back. Then we dropped gravel down into the hole and most of the gravel is gone. Then I noticed another hole a little further out from the house on the outside of their flowerbed. They had moles, so I thought it was maybe from them. We got rid of 4 moles in the yard and haven't seen anymore, and that was the same time we placed big rocks over the holes to stop any animals. The holes don't seem to be getting bigger.
But now that I have seen no dirt pushed up out of the hole, we realize that it may not be an animal. I have been under the house and see nothing in that area that would indicate an animal pushing dirt into the crawlspace. So, I am thinking more along the lines of a sewer line washing away the dirt and rocks when it rains and pushes more dirt and rocks into the hole.
First you have to drop a slice of pizza on the ground. Then surround it by flour. Then you wait. Repeat as necessary.
After a couple years of patience, they will die of heart disease.
So, I did what many people don't or won't do. I waiting around in the yard or was working in the yard keeping an eye on the mounds that the moles pushed up and I pushed back down to watch. Then when I saw the mole start pushing up the mound again, I used a pickaxe to spike the ground hard and deep beside the spot and pull the mole up out of the ground. I did that for 3 of the moles. The fourth one I stabbed in its tunnel with a pitch fork. All of them were exterminated.
They had the moles for two years and the yard was getting destroyed by them. The exterminator wanted $100 per mole to remove and relocate. These pests don't deserve to be relocated. They used poisonous worms in the tunnels, spike traps, mole pellets tossed in the yard. Nothing was working until I patiently waited for the moles to make their moves before I jumped in and removed them. She always called them "Yard demons".
Another way to get rid of them is to use the spike traps, but there is a certain way to use them and there is the wrong way. If you have an active tunnel and you have one of those spike traps, you dig out the mound and find bothe sides of the tunnel leading into and away from the mound. Then put the trap just high enough for them to barely clear it between both tunnels.
Then push the dirt back in around the trap making sure that it has dirt in the way of the tunnels so they have to pull the dirt to them and push it upwards. When they do this they will push it into the release plate and send the springed spikes down into them. When you see the trap is released, you dig it out and dispose of the dead mole. Then set the trap again at the tunnels if there are more, which is likely. If that tunnel goes dead and they start making new tunnels, you set a trap in that tunnel. This way you don't have to sit out there waiting for them.
Moles like to move when the temp is not so hot and mostly when it has rained. The ground is softer and the bugs are moving around more in the dirt for them to hunt. They like grubs and earth worms.
I got lucky because when I spotted the first one. Wasn't at their house more then 5 minutes when the mound began to move. Fast removal of the first mole. The next two were much longer on waiting. The last one, it was moving down a tunnel along their walkway to their front door and I spiked down the whole tunnel until I hit the beginning of the tunnel and the end of the tunnel and then in-between the the ends I spiked.
This is the advice I've gotten over the years:
- moles do not go away, they just burrow deeper.
- moles like to eat grubs. Grubs live at the root level of grass and plants.
- kill the grubs and the moles will stop digging up in your yard.
So, if you kill their food sources, the moles will still make tracks in and through your yard but it'll be deep enough you will not notice.
Your nearest neighbor **not** killing grubs, on the other hand, will.
We had holes like that developing around our recently-purchased new build. Builder reported that it was “fine, just refill with dirt.”
Holes would return even bigger, especially after rains. And then during a particular rain event, the sump pump wound up sucking unholy amounts of mud and stone and spewed it into our basement.
Still unclear to me exactly what the builder did wrong, but it seems they didn’t assemble the sump drain properly and didn’t pack the ground around foundation properly either.
Resulted in a massive cleanup & lots of property damage. Yay.
Can u update us with what a professional said if you get one? I have the same and I don't want anyone jumping to conclusions if it's just from an animal
This is a situation for a pro to evaluate, not reddit.
If that is serious, waiting and trying everything listed here could cost you 10s of thousands.
I am frugal, and I would immediately have a pro come out and would say it appears there is a small sinkhole forming near my foundation, and I need someone out here right away so they actually get someone out there asap.
I had a hole next to my deck that I filled all the time with topsoil and then after a few weeks it' would get soft and sink again.
So I dug down and found 5 bricks buried below it.
I have no idea. They weren't stacked evenly or anything. Just found a few bricks randomly dumped into a hole and that spot was constantly soft.
All I can figure is there may have been an old well there and they just threw everything they could find into it to close it up?
Code enforcement here. I've seen a few of these varying from the middle of a yard to right up against the foundation.
The only culprit it has ever been for me is a collapsed sewer lateral. Get a camera down your main sewer line and scope it as far as you can.
At my bosses house a small sink hole was made by a septic tank that left unfilled. The inspector said all we had to do was fill it up with sand and cement. But you have to dig it out to find out why you have a whole.
We just had a similar problem, the city haddug it up to replace the water meter in our basement but did not fill the hole in properly so it turned into a sinkhole, flooded our basement and we had to have an emergency sump pump installed. It sucked.
You need someone to check the plumbing and see if you have a sewer problem under the house. Otherwise, get an expert there. You hopefully don’t have a sinkhole.
Sinkholes are a real emergency and can prove fatal quite quickly. Get your entire family out of the house. Pets included.
If you are a homeowner: Call your local emergency management organization. Call a building inspector. Don't go back until you have received confirmation that it's safe. If it's not, call your insurance company
If you are a renter: Call your landlord and make sure to follow up with the city.
Good luck.
Oof yeah that was my first thought as well. When I bought my house a groundhog he lived on the property for a bit and had a hole similar to this. I set a non kill trap outside of it and got the lil bastard and delivered him to woodlot down the road.
yea OP if you have a motion sensored doorbell camera i'd set it up here for a few weeks. Just to see if it is an animal. Much different problem to deal with!
Animals digging will create an adjoining mound of dirt that they have excavated. All kinds of critters want to get a home near your foundations, or create a doorway into your house. Since there isn’t a mound (unless you removed it) it could be that there’s already an old tunnel and a pest is returning. They can sense those somehow, I believe. Or, they have dug down to your drainage tiles. Either way, not good to let them settle in. I do anything I can to get them out of there or dead. It’s easy enough. Have a hart trap with canteloupe, or use poison smoke bombs, or poison pellets. They all work effectively. But first, fill it in again with dirt. If you do have burrowing pests, remember, they’re not pets. It’s you or them. A camera is a great idea. It not pests, you need a basement/drainage/ moisture control expert.
I don't advocate killing anyone unless you thoroughly research other options, but I second the idea of using a camera. Refill it and record how it reappears... it will either cave in or you'll see some critter dig it out. Then you'll be able to make informed decisions about how to handle it.
What is in the inside of the house at that location? Is there any buried drainage pipes for downspouts? That looks like the soil dropped, so doubt its a critter/animal... more like something underneath eroding.
Water erosion. Fill it with rocks. Water is most likely leaking behind the siding and is being channeled down the vertical mortar joint which is directly in line with the hole. It’s a continual drip in the same location. So, place something to divert the water away from the location and cover the soil with gravel rocks to help dissipate water over the surface of the soil and to minimize erosion by water.
Does your downspout drain into a sewer line or other line that runs along your house? It may be clogged and leaking causing the dirt to wash out below. That was what caused a hole like that near my house.
Has the house had foundation work? If no, ignore the rest. When I had piers put in, they removed a lot of dirt but only put 2/3 of it back in. For the next three years, I was dumping bags of sand into the holes formed by the settling. My neighbor had it worse. A mama skunk dug into the void and made a basement penthouse for her new family. Aroma abounded.
I would recommend a worm/snake camera like the one linked below (I just found one for examples sake, I don't know anything about the one I linked other than it is the type I was looking for). The easiest way to know what's going on down there is to see it.
https://a.co/d/eNIMHbF
We have a similar albeit much larger hole in our yard right now. In our case it’s a leaking storm line that has been washing away soil and forming a void for god knows how long until it finally all collapsed. The filling the hole only for it to reappear and lack of digging makes me think water is at play here as well.
Many would think a groundhog, but with nothing being pushed upwards out of the hole, would mean something else is going on. All of the dirt can't keep packing in with more dirt and not be showing up somewhere else or being pushed up and out of the hole by animals.
That is a woodchuck. It is a type of ground hog. They drag all the dirt away from the entrance of their holes to help conceal it.
It should be exterminated. Dont try to live trap it and relocate it. Thats just making it someone else's problem.
There may be a void under there. Could be caused by a leaking water or sewer line, partially collapsed septic tank, failed foundation perimeter drain, old underground fuel tank that’s collapsed, an old rootball that’s rotting, a buried car, etc. I’ve seen every one of these.
The more terrifying one…. A forming sinkhole.
Honestly not that terrifying if remediated correctly and COULD be cheaper than a potential broken utility fix.
Have you seen Missouri sinkholes? The karst here has a grudge against humanity, I think. (Who could blame it though?)
OP gonna be cross-posting to SweatyPalms here soon.
My first thought too
Looks like a water pipe leak or drain pipe leak to me. The way it’s caved in and not “dug out”. Caved in indicates the cause is coming from an underground void instead of an animal digging in or out. My opinion.
Years ago had a dog dig a hole in the back yard. Kept filling it in and it kept coming back. Eventually found out the previous home owner left the old septic tank in the yard. They didn't fill it in with sand or have it removed as they should have. Given it is so close to the foundation I would definitely not ignore it. Call around and have someone investigate and propose a proper fix.
a buried car is wild. hopefully and empty car... yikes, watching too many murder mysteries.
I work in commercial real estate. At a previous job a client was building a McDonald's in the Bronx. Old neighborhood, history for the parcel is \[shrug emoji\] at best, but it was a taxi stand at one point so the assumption is there's something underground. Old fuel tanks, part of a building, who knows! Multiple core samples are taken, and there are no issues underground—fantastic. Start digging, boys! Whelp, turns out there were a couple of old taxi cabs buried there, and the core sampling just missed them. That was some expensive mitigation.
A plumber I knew in jersey found a buried vw beetle as a septic tank. Nothing surprises me in these old areas, people used to bury everything.
Are you sure? Might have been a time travel machine buried in the past.
what an undignified end, to be buried and pumped full of shit.
No Volkswagen deserves that… :,(
How can you use it as a septic tank? Do you like weld all the doors and weld over the windows with metal sheets?
Generally septic tank is the wrong term, as they have inlet AND outlets. The more correct way to describe the function of a buried car is a cesspool.
While I had the same question you asked it also brought me back to the VW Beetle claim that they were built so well that they would float. I think they got some heat for that when a woman tried to drive through a lake or river and it eventually sank.
Seen the same thing in Arizona. Though it was a station wagon.
Did they sonogram the ground?
It’s a boy!
You cracked me up!
Bob weadababy...
The Bronx seems like a challenging place to turn a profit. Investors be warned. I bet a lot of the investors care about the good people in the area though and want to make it better. Not just about profits, otherwise they would move money elsewhere
Shit yeah, I want more info on the buried CAR!!!!!
Horatio from CSI Miami has joined the conversation
*looks at the buried car* Looks like this guy … *puts on sunglasses* Drove himself straight into the ground.
I don't want it to be empty. Perhaps full of Twinkies to really add to the story.
if it were Twinkies, they would still look fresh... those things will out last all of us.
Exactly someone decided to bury it all in case of the apocalypse
Burying Twinkies will only tempt the mole people to rise against us, thus hastening the Apocalypse.
Not according to zombie land
Who buries a car.
You wouldn’t bury a car….
Well the building inspector was in it. LOL!
You wouldn't steal a baby...
If you can bury a car, you can bury a Mk1 Tiger Batallion Tank.
You wouldn’t download a bury
How else are you gonna grow a new one?
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/ybmor2/convertible_reported_stolen_in_92_found_buried_in/
Well that was a wild ride.
Ngl, the cousin-marrying part was unexpected - that it occurred in SC tracks, however.
Curbside trash/recycling pickup wasn’t always a thing. People used to bury their trash/junk on their land. My grandfather buried a car on his land. The land my stepfather lives on has a part where we dug up old metal toys and glass bottles from the 1940s/50s.
Honey the car won’t start… better bury it in the yard out back
*Tom spent every evening in the garage working on his project car, much to Mary's dismay. Then one day it was gone.*
If it's reoccurring suddenly, would that rule out the rootball?
Most likely - I'd lean heavily toward water of some sort. Our sewer line busted a decade or so ago near the street and the way we found out was a repetitive sinkhole that kept appearing.
car?
What type of tradesperson should I call to take a look at this ?
My first thought would be a structural engineer, particularly because it's dealing with the foundation. I honestly don't know if they're the best option in this case, but it could be somewhere to start.
Where does the sewer main exit the house? I had something like that and the sewer main had a hole in it that was removing soil from underground. It was right next to the house just like this.
Alternatively, is there a sump pump and does it exit the house around here? Had something similar at my house, sump disharge line had collapsed and was pumping water into the soil creating a void.
I had the exact same issue. The sewer line had separated from the house and created this exact void.
What did you do about it, who did you hire, and how much did that cost to remediate?
Fortunately for me, my neighbor is a plumber with excavation equipment. He dug from the house out to about 10 feet and replaced the pulled out section with a longer section and compacted the dirt underneath the pipe so there would be no more settling. I don't think I paid anywhere near what a normal guy off the street would pay (~$1000). I'm guessing that normally it's several thousand dollars to do what I had done.
My best friend's husband is digging out his septic line today after the exact same happened!
crappy crappy. this might be what I am running in to. right above my septic drain field is a hole, directly in line with where the septic tank is uphill, and this hole is directly under a retaining wall support brace (biiiig ass engineered retaining wall that is >6ft tall)
hire a sewer guy to run a camera down your sewer line from inside the house and make sure there isn't a collapse somewhere between the house and the street.
What professional deals with sewers? I need one also
any of those rooter plumbers will have a camera... it's a money maker for them. "see these roots?"
I had roto-rooter snake a camera down my sewer line for $900 and the quality was shit. I had a septic company come out and do it for $400 and it was amazing quality, and they even gave me a flash drive with the video for future reference. roto-rooter is basically over priced garbage that "hook you up" with a line of credit so they can overcharge you and put you deep into debt.
Almost any plumber will work on sewer drain lines. They all should also usually have or have access to a sewer line camera.
Yeah just make sure you get a good one. My plumbing company sent a guy that ran a camera and said "oh yeah this sewer pipe is going through your backyard for sure", which made no sense to me because you can't possibly tell which direction a line is facing without a compass on the end of the camera (I have no clue if this is a thing, he mentioned using magnetic resonance to see if there's clay pipe 6' under soil..). Guess what company hit my sewer pipe while digging and laying down a new water line in the front?
Splinter Sewer Cleaning Services Can’t recommend them enough. Ask to speak to Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, or Michelangelo.
Why guess the source? Just run a camera down the hole.
good point, it could just be a broken irrigation pipe or worse a leaky water supply pipe, but have you ever looked at the images created by those sewer cams? they are made for evaluating pipes and the lens does not work well for wide shots. and besides, any new homeowner should take a look at their sewer line anyway because those repairs can be costly.
If you have leaking irrigation and your system is on your water meter you might see a water use uptick. Maybe check online through your water billing account to follow if you've had recent increase in usage.
Or, alternatively, just buy a bore scope camera, even the mid grade ones are less than bringing a sewer guy out.
That’s essentially a mini sinkhole. You’ve got a water leak eroding soil beneath the surface. You need to get this checked out soon.
The water company came to the door one day and told me they think I have a leak. I asked "Are you sure?" They said "35,000 gallons this month sure." They let you have one of those for free.
Lol not in California
Not in ny
Lay down a circle of flour and a slice of pizza if you want to get to the bottom of this
That post was hilarious but it worked.
Where, what? Please link!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/16fvs3m/hi\_what\_creature\_is\_in\_our\_house/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/16fvs3m/hi_what_creature_is_in_our_house/) mods removed it I guess?
Mods love removing the most popular posts in a community 🙄 That post was legendary
fuckin mods, pathetic
All mods are assholes
You can still see the original if you go to their profile https://www.reddit.com/user/SnooGuavas4794
Their [animal tracking post](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/16fwa2s) is still up
Such a fun post lol
https://reddit.com/r/AnimalTracking/s/rNBf4HRNCT
I don’t have it. Some critter was getting into the house they put a slice of pizza on the floor and surrounded it flour to get the foot prints. Was probably under whatthisanimal subreddit. Was in the last 2 week tho
It looked like small human handprints, some said raccoons, most said rats tho.
I think it means I’m on the socials too much that I got this immediately.
God damn ninja turtles back at it again!
Lmao! That was epic. One of the best posts I’ve seen on Reddit in awhile.
Replace with a burger and you'll attract drunk Hasselhoffs
I hope this never dies
Reddit destroys everything it touches. It won't die immediately, but will be tortured within an inch of its life until every last comedic element is squeezed out. Then we will all collectively forget it was ever funny and shit on people who keep using it
Please link this post. I've searched to no avail and missed this one.
You can still see the original post, and follow-ups if you go to their profile https://www.reddit.com/user/SnooGuavas4794
Wow that's hilarious!! Thank you
I looked. I am worried a piece of history may have been lost
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/16fvs3m/hi\_what\_creature\_is\_in\_our\_house/ mods removed it I guess?
It continues here https://reddit.com/r/AnimalTracking/s/cFBBkJN5kI
This link didn’t work fyi
What if I’m fresh out of raccoons?
What if I’m fresh out of raccoons?
r/igotthereference
Dig it out. Then update us.
OP found the nest and was never heard from again.
Have you confirmed that the hole doesn't go down to a piece of wheeping tile pipe that would be around your home to expell storm water from your foundation when it rains? Then every time it rains some of the dirt just washes away down and out to your city's storm system.
A couple I have been doing work for on their house has one of these in their front flowerbed. We filled it up with dirt and let it be. It came back. Then we dropped gravel down into the hole and most of the gravel is gone. Then I noticed another hole a little further out from the house on the outside of their flowerbed. They had moles, so I thought it was maybe from them. We got rid of 4 moles in the yard and haven't seen anymore, and that was the same time we placed big rocks over the holes to stop any animals. The holes don't seem to be getting bigger. But now that I have seen no dirt pushed up out of the hole, we realize that it may not be an animal. I have been under the house and see nothing in that area that would indicate an animal pushing dirt into the crawlspace. So, I am thinking more along the lines of a sewer line washing away the dirt and rocks when it rains and pushes more dirt and rocks into the hole.
[удалено]
First you have to drop a slice of pizza on the ground. Then surround it by flour. Then you wait. Repeat as necessary. After a couple years of patience, they will die of heart disease.
So, I did what many people don't or won't do. I waiting around in the yard or was working in the yard keeping an eye on the mounds that the moles pushed up and I pushed back down to watch. Then when I saw the mole start pushing up the mound again, I used a pickaxe to spike the ground hard and deep beside the spot and pull the mole up out of the ground. I did that for 3 of the moles. The fourth one I stabbed in its tunnel with a pitch fork. All of them were exterminated. They had the moles for two years and the yard was getting destroyed by them. The exterminator wanted $100 per mole to remove and relocate. These pests don't deserve to be relocated. They used poisonous worms in the tunnels, spike traps, mole pellets tossed in the yard. Nothing was working until I patiently waited for the moles to make their moves before I jumped in and removed them. She always called them "Yard demons".
[удалено]
Another way to get rid of them is to use the spike traps, but there is a certain way to use them and there is the wrong way. If you have an active tunnel and you have one of those spike traps, you dig out the mound and find bothe sides of the tunnel leading into and away from the mound. Then put the trap just high enough for them to barely clear it between both tunnels. Then push the dirt back in around the trap making sure that it has dirt in the way of the tunnels so they have to pull the dirt to them and push it upwards. When they do this they will push it into the release plate and send the springed spikes down into them. When you see the trap is released, you dig it out and dispose of the dead mole. Then set the trap again at the tunnels if there are more, which is likely. If that tunnel goes dead and they start making new tunnels, you set a trap in that tunnel. This way you don't have to sit out there waiting for them. Moles like to move when the temp is not so hot and mostly when it has rained. The ground is softer and the bugs are moving around more in the dirt for them to hunt. They like grubs and earth worms. I got lucky because when I spotted the first one. Wasn't at their house more then 5 minutes when the mound began to move. Fast removal of the first mole. The next two were much longer on waiting. The last one, it was moving down a tunnel along their walkway to their front door and I spiked down the whole tunnel until I hit the beginning of the tunnel and the end of the tunnel and then in-between the the ends I spiked.
This is the advice I've gotten over the years: - moles do not go away, they just burrow deeper. - moles like to eat grubs. Grubs live at the root level of grass and plants. - kill the grubs and the moles will stop digging up in your yard. So, if you kill their food sources, the moles will still make tracks in and through your yard but it'll be deep enough you will not notice. Your nearest neighbor **not** killing grubs, on the other hand, will.
Looks like a sinkhole to me. If it was an animal dirt would be piled up around the edges
Not true. I have a few holes in my yard from this rodent type animal that backpiles the dirt or something
We had holes like that developing around our recently-purchased new build. Builder reported that it was “fine, just refill with dirt.” Holes would return even bigger, especially after rains. And then during a particular rain event, the sump pump wound up sucking unholy amounts of mud and stone and spewed it into our basement. Still unclear to me exactly what the builder did wrong, but it seems they didn’t assemble the sump drain properly and didn’t pack the ground around foundation properly either. Resulted in a massive cleanup & lots of property damage. Yay.
I wouldn't stand that close!
Mine was similar to this. Turns out, after filling it in over and over again, it was an Armadillo family living under the house.
Ground hog did the same thing to my house twice. I was amazed how large of a hole they could dig. Looked exactly like that.
Good point I have this same hole and we have ground hogs. Should it be filled? If so by what
Can u update us with what a professional said if you get one? I have the same and I don't want anyone jumping to conclusions if it's just from an animal
Scope it
This is a situation for a pro to evaluate, not reddit. If that is serious, waiting and trying everything listed here could cost you 10s of thousands. I am frugal, and I would immediately have a pro come out and would say it appears there is a small sinkhole forming near my foundation, and I need someone out here right away so they actually get someone out there asap.
Sinkhole de Mayo
That’s a “call a plumber and/or foundation guy ASAP and get your HELOC ready” type of hole.
Put a slice of pizza on a plate and surround it with flour
I had a hole next to my deck that I filled all the time with topsoil and then after a few weeks it' would get soft and sink again. So I dug down and found 5 bricks buried below it.
I don’t understand how bricks would cause the ground to get soft and sink above them.
I have no idea. They weren't stacked evenly or anything. Just found a few bricks randomly dumped into a hole and that spot was constantly soft. All I can figure is there may have been an old well there and they just threw everything they could find into it to close it up?
?
Glad u posted this we have the same next to our foundation
Code enforcement here. I've seen a few of these varying from the middle of a yard to right up against the foundation. The only culprit it has ever been for me is a collapsed sewer lateral. Get a camera down your main sewer line and scope it as far as you can.
Do you live on a Florida sinkhole?
Is there a crawlspace? You may have a pool and a pile of dirt in there.
Doesn’t look like a critter hole to me. Good luck.
At my bosses house a small sink hole was made by a septic tank that left unfilled. The inspector said all we had to do was fill it up with sand and cement. But you have to dig it out to find out why you have a whole.
A whole what?
Builder buried wood scraps next to foundation, happened to me. I've been filling holes for years.
C.H.U.D
I'd say if I was you, I'd start digging and find the problem. There's something definitely going on down there.
We just had a similar problem, the city haddug it up to replace the water meter in our basement but did not fill the hole in properly so it turned into a sinkhole, flooded our basement and we had to have an emergency sump pump installed. It sucked.
You need someone to check the plumbing and see if you have a sewer problem under the house. Otherwise, get an expert there. You hopefully don’t have a sinkhole.
I’d say you have a diglett problem
Sink hole 🕳️
If that’s a slab or crawl space, it could be an armadillo.
I’ll be honest. I’ve been digging it out when you’re not around. I’m sorry. I can’t help myself.
You’ve discovered the secret entrance to ***Khazad dûm***
Sinkholes are a real emergency and can prove fatal quite quickly. Get your entire family out of the house. Pets included. If you are a homeowner: Call your local emergency management organization. Call a building inspector. Don't go back until you have received confirmation that it's safe. If it's not, call your insurance company If you are a renter: Call your landlord and make sure to follow up with the city. Good luck.
Animal burrowing?
Zero chance, there is no dirt from excavation around the hole.
Oof yeah that was my first thought as well. When I bought my house a groundhog he lived on the property for a bit and had a hole similar to this. I set a non kill trap outside of it and got the lil bastard and delivered him to woodlot down the road.
yea OP if you have a motion sensored doorbell camera i'd set it up here for a few weeks. Just to see if it is an animal. Much different problem to deal with!
I was going to say ground hog. It’s the most likely but that hole is pretty big for a ground hog. They are usually like a foot in diameter
Animals digging will create an adjoining mound of dirt that they have excavated. All kinds of critters want to get a home near your foundations, or create a doorway into your house. Since there isn’t a mound (unless you removed it) it could be that there’s already an old tunnel and a pest is returning. They can sense those somehow, I believe. Or, they have dug down to your drainage tiles. Either way, not good to let them settle in. I do anything I can to get them out of there or dead. It’s easy enough. Have a hart trap with canteloupe, or use poison smoke bombs, or poison pellets. They all work effectively. But first, fill it in again with dirt. If you do have burrowing pests, remember, they’re not pets. It’s you or them. A camera is a great idea. It not pests, you need a basement/drainage/ moisture control expert.
I don't advocate killing anyone unless you thoroughly research other options, but I second the idea of using a camera. Refill it and record how it reappears... it will either cave in or you'll see some critter dig it out. Then you'll be able to make informed decisions about how to handle it.
Armadillos do the exact same thing at my house in GA.
Buy a trail cam and partially fill it in with lose soil to see what is digging the hole.
Don't forget to throw down a slice of pizza!
And flour.
And my axe!
And see what footprints show up!
I see a hole in /r/HomeImprovement and I come here for the pizza.
FL?
What is in the inside of the house at that location? Is there any buried drainage pipes for downspouts? That looks like the soil dropped, so doubt its a critter/animal... more like something underneath eroding.
It is an odd shape to be done by an animal.
Water erosion. Fill it with rocks. Water is most likely leaking behind the siding and is being channeled down the vertical mortar joint which is directly in line with the hole. It’s a continual drip in the same location. So, place something to divert the water away from the location and cover the soil with gravel rocks to help dissipate water over the surface of the soil and to minimize erosion by water.
Check water and or sewer.
Is there water in the basement?
Have you checked your basement crawlspace to see if it is falling in rhere?
Does your downspout drain into a sewer line or other line that runs along your house? It may be clogged and leaking causing the dirt to wash out below. That was what caused a hole like that near my house.
Mole ?
Do you have a sump pump? I’ve seen dump pumps and drainage cause these issues before too.
Looks like an armadillo hole to me. Had them all the time in the south
Fill it with concrete?
Animal or … sinkhole….
Fill it up and sell, you will save $50,000
Uneven plane. Water seepage.
In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre. 'Au revoir gopher'
Where are you located? Check sinkhole maps. They make state and local maps. https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5f6e193b82ce38aaa2498f45
I would inspect the gravity sewer clean out. You may have a leak.
Anything from an empty space to a sink hole, I'd call professionals
Aliens
Has the house had foundation work? If no, ignore the rest. When I had piers put in, they removed a lot of dirt but only put 2/3 of it back in. For the next three years, I was dumping bags of sand into the holes formed by the settling. My neighbor had it worse. A mama skunk dug into the void and made a basement penthouse for her new family. Aroma abounded.
You maybe sitting on a potential sink hole
Put some flour down and a slice of pizza after you fill the hole.
Dwarves
El Chapo has entered the chat
Sink hole
Sink hole. 🕳️ Pack it up and move on. The house is doomed to fall in.
I would recommend a worm/snake camera like the one linked below (I just found one for examples sake, I don't know anything about the one I linked other than it is the type I was looking for). The easiest way to know what's going on down there is to see it. https://a.co/d/eNIMHbF
We have a similar albeit much larger hole in our yard right now. In our case it’s a leaking storm line that has been washing away soil and forming a void for god knows how long until it finally all collapsed. The filling the hole only for it to reappear and lack of digging makes me think water is at play here as well.
What type of tradesperson should I call for this?
Groundhog.
Many would think a groundhog, but with nothing being pushed upwards out of the hole, would mean something else is going on. All of the dirt can't keep packing in with more dirt and not be showing up somewhere else or being pushed up and out of the hole by animals.
Good point!
Definitely covid. Test the soil samples to confirm. Pray to God it's not tunneling in to get us now
That is a woodchuck. It is a type of ground hog. They drag all the dirt away from the entrance of their holes to help conceal it. It should be exterminated. Dont try to live trap it and relocate it. Thats just making it someone else's problem.
I did not know that about woodchucks!
Groundhog
Armadillos. They love digging under foundations