[greeneyes]

Class Action lawsuit against the concrete supplier, and any other businesses related to it. Proper cement mixture would not have this problem. Their business liability insurance should be able to award enough to at least help.

We live on a steep hill in a sub-division. Lots of houses here after 40 years, have some cracks here and there. The builders have come and done some repairs and blamed the drought etc. for settlement problems.

We hired an engineer to come an investigate. He said all the houses are gradually sliding down the hill. None of the codes, state, county, or federal required supports to go down to bed rock, or some such.

Homes could be retro-fitted with some support from the down -hill side, but only guaranteed for 20 years. Since the cracks didn’t appear for 15 years, and weren’t bad, nor progressing rapidly, most people just shrugged, slapped something over the foundation to make it look good, and went on living there.

Feel sorry for these people.

[familyop]

"None of the codes, state, county, or federal required supports to go down to bed rock, or some such."

I've worked on builds that required such piers. They were steel structurals, were pounded to great depths and were very expensive. Wish I had a better answer for such a place. The best that I can come up with is to avoid worrying about it, fix what you can if necessary and enjoy living there. Things could be worse.

I'm sorry. Only some geologists would see such a hazard in advance. To complicate the matter further, seismicity is increasing in many areas that weren't known for it in the past (natural, once-in-great-while geomagnetic field, outer core and lower mantle change, also contributing to increased volcanism, methane leakage, drought, etc.).

When the time comes, maybe I should build the next one on an extra tough monoslab, Army style.

[marktwain]

Houses built where the earth moves is not an uncommon problem.

Trump bought up a golf course near Los Angeles that was sliding into the ocean. I am sure he got it cheap.

He hired engineers to figure out how to stop the sliding (probably before he made an offer).

They installed the necessary drainage and anchoring system to prevent the hydrolic buildup that was part of the solution, and anchored to bedrock.

The property is now one of the most valuable in the area (being on the coast).