Fort Lauderdale Sinkhole Repair

Solid Foundations proudly serves the Fort Lauderdale, which is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War.  Fort Lauderdale is home to over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.  The area is host to over 12 million visitors a year due to its perfect climate and coastal sanctuary that draws in national and international tourists alike.  With this many feet on area in a year, foundations are bound to shift.  At Solid Foundations we are dedicated to making sure that the foundation of your home or business is on solid ground and free from any sinkhole issues.

Sinkholes occur all around the world, with the most damage from sinkholes in the United States happening in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, but the most recorded sinkholes in the country have happened in Florida. Florida is an ideal location for sinkholes due to the natural features of Florida’s terrain.

What is a Sinkhole?

Sinkholes are depressions or holes in the ground caused naturally by the collapse of the surface layers as the result of a variety of events. Sinkholes form naturally when soluble bedrock such as limestone is removed gradually through the process of erosion instigated by moving water. Sinkholes can also develop when a cave roof crumbles, the water table lowers, or groundwater dissolves the rock below the land surface and carries away loose particles so that a void appears. Sinkholes do occur in dry conditions as well because the lack of rainfall, or an excess of rainfall in a short period of time, can disrupt the earth and cause openings. Human activity can also incite the creation of sinkholes. In urban areas, water mains breaking, old pipes bursting, sewers slumping, and water-drainage patterns changing can lead to sinkholes, and these sinkholes can sometimes occur to the detriment of the surrounding neighborhoods.

The Three Maine Kinds of Sinkholes in Fort Lauderdale:

Solution sinkholes: These sinkholes form slowly when the bedrock of limestone is exposed at the surface by a lack of vegetation or soil and endures dissolution, which means that rainwater saturates the ground and creates a depression through the erosion of the bedrock.

Cover-subsidence sinkholes: These sinkholes also form slowly in areas where sand on top of the bedrock slides down into openings in the bedrock and lowers the land surface. The size of the depression grows as erosion continues.

Cover-collapse: These sinkholes involve bedrock covered by clay at its top layer and dissolved into an underground cave by water beneath its bottom layers. These bottom layers of sediment erode over time to increase the size of the cavern until only a thin layer remains between the underground opening and the surface of the ground. This type of sinkhole forms rapidly when that thin layer falls in and opens up a sinkhole that swallows everything above it.

How Do We Solve Your Sinkhole Issue?

Compaction Grouting

With compaction grouting, Solid Foundations is able to stabilize the soil under your home and fill in sinkholes that may have formed. By adding a thick mixture of cement and grout deep into the soil with the use of a limited access drill, we are able to increase the load the soil can bear. This mixture permeates the voids in the soil to maximize the density, fills the hole to erase the damage, and seals the top of the limestone layer to steel it against future complications.

Void Filling

Solid Foundations employs void filling to lift and repair the concrete slabs on your property that could be or have been affected by a sinkhole. The process of void filling pushes a high strength structural polyurethane foam beneath concrete slabs or behind below grade concrete structures through the use of a pump. This polyurethane material floods any empty spaces and steadies the concrete against any outside forces. With void filling, Solid Foundations can cover a large area in a small amount of time and with minimal disruption and leave all of the soil below the concrete extremely dense and sturdy.

With our tried and tested sinkhole repair tools and techniques, Solid Foundations can recover the safety and security of your property.

At Solid Foundations our goal is to put your Fort Lauderdale Property back on solid ground in the aftermath of a sinkhole, so call Solid Foundations today to receive the most successful and valuable sinkhole remediation services in Florida.