Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Calling anyone out there with engineering, building or gardening knowledge or in fact, anyone who can come up with a solution to this problem

77 replies

Zog · 18/03/2007 09:30

I have a huge hole in my garden. Filling it would be very expensive as it's so deep but I was wondering about the feasibility of building something in or across the hole that I could then turf on top of.

Is this possible? Can anyone think of any other solution, however left field ?

TIA

OP posts:
Original poster
Zog · 18/03/2007 22:37

Definitely no problems with drainage katymac.

OP posts:
KristinaM · 18/03/2007 22:42

zog - do you own your house or rent it?

edam · 18/03/2007 22:43

I think you do need to find out what it is to work out how you can use it or fill it. Don't suppose there's any remote chance it was a big air-raid shelter, or something? Far too big for an backyard Anderson shelter, obv. but maybe it was for the whole street or something?

KristinaM · 18/03/2007 22:51

wasnt it there when you moved in?? How could you not notice a 30 foot hole in your garden? how do you stop your kids falling intop it??

VeniVidiVickiQV · 18/03/2007 22:58

Crikey - thats not a hole!!! Thats a crater!

If you get local builders to 'dump' stuff, make sure they arent going to dump anything illegal, such as asbestos down there.

KristinaM · 18/03/2007 23:00

if you are serious....which i doubt...its probably a mineshaft. you need to get a mineral surveyor to check this and it will need to be capped. it will cost you a fortune.

hillary · 18/03/2007 23:03

how close is it to your house? I'd worry the house may slip into it(we had a bungalow once bult over a tunnel and it was slowly sinking)

edam · 18/03/2007 23:17

I wondered about that Kristina but doesn't OP live just outside N London? Not much mining in those parts, I would have thought.

Original poster
Zog · 19/03/2007 09:38

lol at not noticing the hole when we moved in

It's got steps down one side of it so you can get down to the bottom. It just renders so much of the garden completely useless. I don't think the house it at risk but you're right, I probably need to check out whether the hole is definitely man made or is just a quirky natural feature.

Hmm, I am serious unless it's going to cost a small fortune.

Thanks to all so far and keep those ideas coming!

OP posts:
zippitippitoes · 19/03/2007 09:45

how is it supported..that is a big hole what is keeping it from eroding, slippage etc does it have anything to keep it in place because it surely needs more than a few plants on the sides

Original poster
Zog · 19/03/2007 09:49

On one side a previous owner has put in shallow terraces. On the other, I guess it's held in place by tree roots. It certainly looks like it's been there a very long time.

OP posts:
BettySpaghetti · 19/03/2007 09:50

Zog -I keep coming back to this thread, finding it strangely fascinating and keep wondering about what you can do.

Is there any chance you could post a picture of the hole? I can't get my head round the scale of it and am genuinely interested in what it looks like.

( OMG does that make it sound like I should get a life??? )

zippitippitoes · 19/03/2007 09:54

so am I

I would be concerned aboput it not being sfae..what did your survey say?

VeniVidiVickiQV · 19/03/2007 10:43

Betty

I am a little uneasy at your eagerness to see Zog's hole

BettySpaghetti · 19/03/2007 11:03

VVVQV -I was trying to be very careful in my wording of that post too! Obviously I didn't do a very good job

viticella · 19/03/2007 22:24

I'm a geotechnical engineer, sounds fascinating were I closer I'd love to come and look!

Does the hole get wet in the bottom?

Have you any idea what your subsoil is, I'm guessing chalk if you live north of London on a hill but may be something else. this would point towards quarry or sinkhole.

How about filling in with polystyrene blocks and topsoil over the top? This would not come cheap, you are talking mortgage-extending civil engineering project but it would permanently solve it.

Your house is not called Quarry Pit cottage or anything like that is it?

KristinaM · 19/03/2007 22:40

what did your survey say when you bought your house?

edam · 19/03/2007 22:42

I'm with Betty, I need to see a picture!

Original poster
Zog · 19/03/2007 22:51

at you lot!

I'll see if I can take a picture.

viticella, love the polystyrene blocks idea. How much are we talking?

OP posts:
edam · 19/03/2007 22:53

I look forward to examining your hole with great interest.

viticella · 20/03/2007 09:31

Zog I think the best professional advice will be local firm of geotechnical consultants. Initial cost for a geologist/geotech. engineer to have an initial look-see and write a short report should be £500-£1000 (similar to a structural house survey). Then there will be a fee to design the infill. Need to find out if it's a solid bottomed hole (e.g. quarry) or soft bottomed (collapsed void/working) that needs "bridging", this may involve a little investigation/probing.

Can't remember costs of that polystyrene but I would think £20K - £30K may not be unreasonable for the whole project. (you have £500m3 of poly @ say £15/m3 to start with).

Foamed concrete is another idea - this can be pumped from a truck at the front of the house. It's sometimes used to infill mineworkings.

Can't wait to see a picture now, you can upload them onto your profile I discovered how to do it yesterday.

zippitippitoes · 20/03/2007 09:37

I've a feeling she made freak at the cost

Hallgerda · 20/03/2007 09:50

Chalk mining could well be responsible for your hole - I went on a bat course last weekend on which I saw some photos of bats in a disused chalk mine in Hertfordshire. Apparently there are quite a few disused chalk mines in the area. They are generally found by someone noticing something unusual about the ground surface (such as your hole, or a building falling down). Chalk mine records were not very well kept, for reasons that may have been to do with tax evasion.

viticella · 20/03/2007 14:36

There's another thread atm about winning a £35,000 garden makeover....

BettySpaghetti · 20/03/2007 15:48

Zog -why don't contact a garden makeover programme and offer them your garden as a challenge in the hope you get a solution for free/cheap?

I'm sure Diarmud Gavin would come up with a great (if slightly eccentric) design. In fact, didn't he once do a sunken party area with a 70's slant on the lighting, seating etc or have I imagined that???