Why are Tennessee and Southern Kentucky Prone to Sinkholes?

Sinkholes can be a real threat to your home. Learn about why they form and the process of getting them repaired.

Transcript:
Hi, I’m Kenny Williams co-owner and vice president of United Structural Systems. Sinkholes are very prevalent in Middle Tennessee, Eastern Tennessee, as well as Southern Kentucky. Recent weather patterns alternating between extreme wet and extreme dry have caused an abundance of sinkholes to appear. Some remarkable sinkholes have even caught the attention of the news media, which has made homeowners more aware than ever of the devastating affect of sinkholes.

Our region in Middle Tennessee is composed of soil underlain by limestone bedrock. This bedrock can be dissolved easily by water to form caverns. As a hole develops in the roof a cavern, soil is allowed to migrate through that hole and they washed away by the water. As the void over the cavern start, to enlarge when it gets to the ground surface, a sinkhole appears. Unfortunately, there’s no location in Tennessee that you can build a home and not have some danger of a sinkhole appearing.

Sinkholes are usually covered by your homeowners policy if you have a sinkhole and it’s caused damage to the structure. But you should still check with their insurance company to make sure you have the sinkhole rider attached to your policy. If a sinkhole is left alone, it can eventually lead to damage to the foundation or the structural integrity of the house.

The general idea behind repairing a sinkhole is to support any nearby structures, excavate down to expose the bedrock surface or the defect in bedrock, fill that crevice our crack in such a way that water is still allowed to naturally drain into the cavern but not to take any soil with it. If you think you may have a sinkhole, some things you can look for are holes or depressions in your yard or crawlspace, circular crack patterns in concrete or or asphalt driveways, a history of sinkholes in your immediate area, sudden draining a pond or stream nearby.

If you think you have a sinkhole, call USS. We’ll be glad to come out and take a look at it and verify that it is a sinkhole.