So, anytime I am facing a dilemma or problem of some sort, I say to myself, “Self – you should ask the mockdockers what to do. They know everything.” Because there have been many times that I’ve asked y’all what to do in a certain situation, and one or more of you seems to have exactly the right answer.
So it’s time for another Ask The Mockdockers question.
Here’s the situation. We have a hole in our backyard. It’s a fairly large hole – about softball size, and it’s been there for years. It poses a danger, obviously, because it’s not something you generally see until you’ve already tripped over it.
Mr. Mock has tried filling it with dirt and simply growing grass over it, but almost overnight, it’s back. He once tried filling it with sand, but poured bags and bags in and it never got full. This sort of freaked us out, so we decided to see what would happen if we put the garden hose in there and turned on the water. You know what happened? We let water pour in there for like an hour, and it never even PUDDLED around the hole. It’s like a never ending hole to nowhere.
We have no idea what, if anything, lives in it, but we’re pretty sure something does, because it seems like an awful waste of time to create a giant never ending hole only to just leave it.
Do any of you have any ideas about what we should do to get rid of this hole? Do we call animal control or a landscaping company or pest control? We have no idea.
Has anyone experienced a never ending hole in their yard before? Help.
Plug it with cement?
WakeUp – but it’s a never ending hole. It has no base (that we can get to). We could potentially need like miles of cement.
All I have for you is the confirmation that this indeed strange and I am glad it is not in my back yard because I would have dug the entire back yard up trying to find out exactly what the heck was going on.
I would call a landscaper, but I would ask local friends who to use first. Maybe they could tell you if it is a pest/animal problem? Could it be a sink hole?
Gopher hole! It is connected to tunnels which is why it won’t fill up. If you got it partly covered and it didn’t last, it’s because the gopher opened it up again. That’s one possibility. Could be a mole, but the same problem would be tunnels. Try a broomstick to see if it goes straight down deeper than that. Try other things if it does and try and determine it’s depth. You could then take a landscape timber and cut to a sufficient length to plug about a foot and a half from the surface.
Then stuff some sort of material like old towels, plastic, ect. enough to prevent cement from pouring to the bottom and fill it up to about 8-10 inches with cement. After it sets, top off with dirt and plant grass. If that doesn’t work, just put this up.
Mock, you can buy a gadget at the hardware store that has a camera at the end of a long, thin tube that you can feed through small openings. There is a tiny viewing screen on the handle to see what the camera sees. We got ours at Harbor Freight. Maybe something like that would help you determine what’s underground back there?
Don’t listen to these guys. It’s clearly a sinkhole and your entire neighborhood will eventually fall through it. It’s probably best you move far away.
In a completely unrelated note, I may or may not have an irrational fear of sinkholes.
It goes to China… my Mother always told me if you dig straight down, you will end up in China. Think of all the things you can do!!
Or else call your city management and ask them. They just love **** like that.
Make the opening big enough to drop a neighbor’s kid down it with a walkie-talkie and have him report back to on what he sees. It is cheaper than hiring someone else to look at it.
I like Charlie’s idea. If a neighbor of mine had asked me to do that 40 years ago, I’d have been down that hole so quick…
Practically speaking, though, I think BB has a great idea.
Put a nice gazebo over it. Viola! Problem solved.
I can’t say what you have living in your yard, Mock, but it could be a mole, gopher, or vole. You’ll have to read this Gopher Goner site and see if something looks familiar. The name cracks me up, by the way. http://gophergoner.com/faq_gophers_and_moles.shtml
Might want to really check this out. If your neighborhood was out in the country way back when it could be an old well casing. Put a weight on a string and see if it drops straight down. Might go many 10s of feet, might go 100+ feet. If it does go straight down dig around it a bit and see if you hit pipe or concrete. You can call a well company to come out and cap it for you.
Easy. Cut a 6inch deep by 3 ft area around the hole. Cover with board.. Recover with dirt, seed water and walla. Send check to GPW
Actually, you may want to consider having it surveyed with some of that CSI kind of ultrasonic gadgetry. What if it is a sinkhole. Those things just “go” at a random moment. A sinkhole collapse could cause you to lose your house if it’s too close to the foundation.
If I had a hole like that in my yard, I would worry about a kid or a pet or me getting sucked into it. I would have to have it checked out and filled or covered.
That is really creepy. I would totally do the camera thing because I WOULD HAVE TO KNOW what is at the bottom (or is there a bottom? Or an animal? Or…????) Keep us posted. Inquiring minds want to know.
Try BB’s suggestion. Had a similar gopher problem. You quite possibly have the gopher from hell. Don’t let Mock Dog near it or he will break something.
OIL!!