Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
She fears snakes have slithered through gaping holes that have formed between the walls and floors of her house since the foundation started pulling away.
Hoban, 66, hates snakes.
Two engineers have told her that her house is sinking because of a city drainage canal that runs behind it. But the city claims no responsibility, suggesting the house was poorly built.
``This is really scaring me,'' Hoban said. ``This has been going on since October and everyone says, `Sorry, it's not my problem.'''
Hoban works two days a week as an emergency-room nurse and is raising her 16-year-old grandson, Justin, whose mother was killed by a drunken driver.
Hoban bought the brick ranch 13 years ago with insurance money from her daughter's death. Her daughter's dying wish was for Hoban to buy a house and raise her son.
Hoban was aware of the city-dug canal that ran behind the house and the 54-inch drainage pipe under the side yard that carries storm water into the canal from a nearby shopping mall's parking lot.
The house was sound, she assumed, or the mortgage wouldn't have been approved.
But over the years, she noticed that her back yard was sinking and starting to slant toward the canal.
``My shrubs are leaning that way,'' Hoban said. ``My clothesline is leaning that way. My yard has sunk five to six inches since I moved here.''
But the real trouble began last summer when Hoban found several sink holes just over the pipe. Big holes: 4 feet across and a foot or 2 deep.
The city blamed cracks in the pipes and fixed them. Hoban said she had to fill the holes, first with concrete, then with dirt.
Then she noticed a crack in her chimney. In the past several months, the chimney has pulled so far from the house that it is useless.
She also discovered that the floor was pulling away from the walls. Hoban can slip her hand between the carpet and the wall and feel the outside air.
Hoban first called her insurance company, which sent an engineer who determined the canal has contributed to her settlement problems.
So she called the city, which also inspected her house but said the canal is not to blame.
``It appears the footings [of the house were not] properly poured,'' said Robert Esenberg, the city's risk manager. ``Unfortunately, we see that around the area.
``It's just one of those situations that seem to occur over time. Houses will settle.''
Hoban's next call was to a real estate lawyer, Jerry Mack Douglas Jr.
``We're going to make the city responsible for its actions,'' Douglas said, noting that the house was built before the canal was dug. ``No other houses in the neighborhood are sinking. And no other houses are that close to the canal.''
Douglas and Hoban hired their own engineer.
Lewis H. Bridges Jr., a structural engineer, said the earth is sliding into the canal. ``It doesn't take much movement in this direction to cause problems with the foundation,'' he said.
While the damage to the house is not a hazard yet, it's unlikely anyone would buy the house.
``I'm stuck,'' Hoban said, ``with a house that's coming apart at the seams.''
by CNB