OT: What is best method to fill hole?

Our home has a half basement and the ground by the front steps (only three steps high) has developed a 6" inch hole. This hole has caused "runoff" water to seep into the dirt under our home. I want to fill the hole and guide the drainage water along the side of the house away from the half basement--where I have a couple of lathes. Any suggestions on material to use or steps I should take to solve this problem of wet ground under the house?
Thanks in advance.

Hmm, if it hasn't gone too far you can probably fill it back slowly with dirt...it will settle, more fill, etc.

But: now is the time to permanently and decisively solve the problem about runoff...if left unchecked major problems can result!

What caused toe hole to develop in the first place? I have a gutter on the eave of my house that needs the end capped and it is eroding the soil below check for a similar problem. Will an 80 lb bag of quickcrete fill it?

Filling with dirt and then checking the grade may be enough. But if you really want to keep the water away, you will probably need to put in "french drains" -- basically a trench, landscape fabric, gravel, perforated pipe, more gravel, fold over the fabric, and fill the rest of the way with dirt. The perforated pipe should be pitched to drain any water out where you want it to go. If you really have some drainage issues, you may need to invest in a dry well somewhere well away from the house. Gutter can connect to the drainage system as well.

Actually, prior to all of this -- what caused the hole? Do you have gutters, or is all the rain cascading off a hipped roof right to this point? (on edit: Delta beat me to this question!)

I'm in the "what caused the hole" camp as well. I spent alot of time chasing sinkholes at an old RR repair shop, the dirst was going down the old storm drains. YOu'd pile in more dirt, it would rain, the hole would come back. You don't happen to have a sanitary line in the area that might have a hole in it, do you?

If you need to locate your sanitary line, get a couple of coathangers, then.......

Seriously, I might suggest a little exploratory excavation in the hole if you can't find another cause.

Also agree on the french drains... one finer point that is counter-intuitive - the pipe only has holes on one "side" - the holes go *down* on top of your gravel bed. Keeps dirt from filling up the pipe over time. If you can live with exposed gravel, you don't need to fold the landscape fabric over the top of the gravel this way, and it will drain a bit faster.

Find out what is causing the hole. Usually it is water off the roof or it is being undermined. Make certain the grade around your house is 1" per foot for 6', for a total of 6" over 6 feet.

and how old is the house? if it is only a few years old then this is normal settling of uncompacted dirt. If the house is older then???
Bill D.

Thanks for the replies. The cause of the hole is somewhat of a mystery. My thinking is drainage from the guttter and down spou and a small animal---like ground squirrel.
We moved here 7/7/77 (got to be a good omen) and the house was brand new. We had 20 tons of dirt brought in about 25 years ago and changed the slope so water would drain away from the house but this hole is near a drain pipe and we are thinking of "quickcrete" as an answer. The slope away from the house if fine---except this hole.

I raise sunken concrete for a living......

stuball48 said:

Our home has a half basement and the ground by the front steps (only three steps high) has developed a 6" inch hole. This hole has caused "runoff" water to seep into the dirt under our home. I want to fill the hole and guide the drainage water along the side of the house away from the half basement--where I have a couple of lathes. Any suggestions on material to use or steps I should take to solve this problem of wet ground under the house?
Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

In most cases, the houses I work on are fairly new. We have a tough soil to compact, but it can be done. Generally, the bulk of the "natural " compaction takes place in the first 3 or 4 years. Downspouts and water only accelerate what would have occured anyway. When I see a new hole, on a home as old as yours, it usually means a new problem of some kind. I'd try to locate the sewer line, maybe by finding the outside cleanout. It should be up against the foundation directly above where the sewer line comes out of the house. If that line is close to the new hole, you may have a leak in the line which is taking soil away. If that's not the problem, find the water line and be sure that isn't the problem. If water is going down the hole, and ending up leaking into the basement, I'd mix bentonite into some local soil...dampen it and ram it under the step until the hole is filled....I wouldn't use a concrete mix.....if that fails you really have a mess to take out. It's important to figure out why the hole showed up now.
Jim