Purchasing and insuring a sinkhole repaired home in Spring Hill. (Tampa: for sale by owner, foreclosure)

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

My question is how much did all of that cost?

It cost our insurance company about $180,000 when all was said and done. We had State Farm at the time.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by floridagirl777

It cost our insurance company about $180,000 when all was said and done. We had State Farm at the time.

I have seen prices on things like this from $90,000 and up. My question is why does it cost so much to basically pump concrete under a house? There are no forms to be put up or anything. I believe, could be wrong here, that they basically identify the size of the hole and dig holes to put the concrete pumping hoses into and pump away. The price seems extremely excessive, given full foundation excavations and pours can be done for $20,000. What am I missing here? I must be missing something.

[Ken E]

Some of those houses probablly arent worth the cost of the grout put underneath them.

[Mike1306]

The company that I know of doing underpinning now are offering lifetime transferable warranties.

And while the prices are jacked up a bit, it is also not as easy as just drilling down and then pumping in the grout. Then you also need to figure in all the cosmetic repairs which can sometimes be almost as much as the grouting.

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by PriusH8r

I have seen prices on things like this from $90,000 and up. My question is why does it cost so much to basically pump concrete under a house? There are no forms to be put up or anything. I believe, could be wrong here, that they basically identify the size of the hole and dig holes to put the concrete pumping hoses into and pump away. The price seems extremely excessive, given full foundation excavations and pours can be done for $20,000. What am I missing here? I must be missing something.

Yeah. The cost is pretty jacked up. But like someone else said in this thread, there's a lot more that goes into the process than pumping grout into the void. It took about 45 truckloads of cement to fill the void beneath our home. On top of that, we had chemical grouting done to stablize the sandy upper layer. We were told by an outside appraiser that our home's foundation (and others that have been repaired in a similar manner) were probably the thickest and safest in the entire state! I'm confident that sucker isn't going anywhere.

Then there are repairs that must be done to the exterior of the house. We had to have all the cracks sealed and the whole house re-painted. We lost all of our landscaping due to the heavy equipment being used around the house's perimeter, so that had to be replaced. Because they had to drill through our driveway and lanai, that had to be replaced as well.

The interior had to be re-done, too. All the tiles had to be removed since many had popped off the foundation. We had tile throughout, so this was a monstrous job. The wall and ceiling cracks had to be filled and re-painted, which in nearly every room meant the whole room had to be re-painted. By the time everything was finished, we essentially had a brand-new house!

The funny thing was, we originally wanted to cash out. The insurance company refused to do that since they said the repairs did not exceed the cash out value of our house. Unfortunately for them, they actually ended up paying 30K MORE than our cash out value when all was said and done because we had to have the chemical grouting done. That was something they hadn't anticipated.

I would NEVER want to go through this situation again. It was a nightmare. Although we ended up with a beautfully remodeled home that didn't cost us a penny (other than our deductible), the process took over a year from start to finish and we were living in a construction zone for several months.

That's why I say it's far better to buy a properly repaired sinkhole home than to purchase an unknown.

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by Ken E

Some of those houses probablly arent worth the cost of the grout put underneath them.

Definitely true in our case! Our house is currently worth about 100K in this market. We paid $195 for it during the height of the market and then had nearly $180K worth of work done to it because of the sinkhole.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by floridagirl777

Yeah. The cost is pretty jacked up. But like someone else said in this thread, there's a lot more that goes into the process than pumping grout into the void. It took about 45 truckloads of cement to fill the void beneath our home. On top of that, we had chemical grouting done to stablize the sandy upper layer. We were told by an outside appraiser that our home's foundation (and others that have been repaired in a similar manner) were probably the thickest and safest in the entire state! I'm confident that sucker isn't going anywhere.

Then there are repairs that must be done to the exterior of the house. We had to have all the cracks sealed and the whole house re-painted. We lost all of our landscaping due to the heavy equipment being used around the house's perimeter, so that had to be replaced. Because they had to drill through our driveway and lanai, that had to be replaced as well.

The interior had to be re-done, too. All the tiles had to be removed since many had popped off the foundation. We had tile throughout, so this was a monstrous job. The wall and ceiling cracks had to be filled and re-painted, which in nearly every room meant the whole room had to be re-painted. By the time everything was finished, we essentially had a brand-new house!

The funny thing was, we originally wanted to cash out. The insurance company refused to do that since they said the repairs did not exceed the cash out value of our house. Unfortunately for them, they actually ended up paying 30K MORE than our cash out value when all was said and done because we had to have the chemical grouting done. That was something they hadn't anticipated.

I would NEVER want to go through this situation again. It was a nightmare. Although we ended up with a beautfully remodeled home that didn't cost us a penny (other than our deductible), the process took over a year from start to finish and we were living in a construction zone for several months.

That's why I say it's far better to buy a properly repaired sinkhole home than to purchase an unknown.

Thx for all that detail. I figured I must have been missing something.....and obviously I was.

[Limeybastard]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

"Settlement issues" are one thing, but active sinkhole activity is another. Settlement issues can usually be corrected, cosmetically, while sinkhole damage would be a lot harder to hide. You won't find "settlement issues" list by the property appraiser.

Yes, there are/were thousands of bogus sink hole claims. Just hire a sinkhole company, they will go to no end to find a sinkhole on your property. Some sub divisions are notorious for the sink hole claims within the sub division but little to no activity surrounding the sub division.

Also bearing in my mind most of those who come by and check your ground via radar will find voids.

[Limeybastard]

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

The Hernando County property appraiser was the guest speaker at my HOA annual meeting. One thing he discussed was sinkholes. A permit is required if a property is going to be checked for sinkholes. This prevents someone from getting their place checked, finding out it has one, and putting it up for sale without disclosing it. They will be unable to hide it since a permit was pulled.

Granted, this is a fairly recent change. But it's a step in the right direction.

You can check the county GIS maps. If a house has an unrepaired sinkhole, there is a red symbol superimposed over it. If it has a repaired sinkhole, it's a green symbol. If there's no symbol, it wasn't checked. The symbol looks like a plastic house from the Monopoly board game.

http://www.hernandocountygis-fl.us/PublicMapGallery/

Noticed this change requiring a permit for sinkhole investigation occurred sometime in 2011. How does one find out of ones house was investigated in the past prior to this date ? Also , if a permit wasn't pulled prior to this date and seller sold you a home knowing that there are voids would there be legel implementations ?

[Spring Hillian]

Exactly!

Originally Posted by Limeybastard

Also bearing in my mind most of those who come by and check your ground via radar will find voids.