Genine Hayden

I’m in a similar boat in northern Michigan. The mobile home that was on the property when I bought the acreage seemed ok, (it was set in 2005 by former owner),  but with every winterfreeze and spring thaw the house began to twist on itself. Additionally, the mudroom they built attached to the front is detaching.

So the replies are spot on. The contractor who prepared the area foundation should’ve known this and is responsible for insuring home will be stable. While this can turn into a tragedy, unless the builder takes immediate responsibility, my experience in the legal system (paralegal) knows the wheels of justice move slow as hell and retaining a GOOD lawyer is a must should the builder decide to let it go to litigation.

There were quite a few good links, and some solid suggestions I’m going to use for my own issue.  But I would look at consulting your soil erosion department, the DNR and a professional landscaping engineer to see if there’s something you can do to mitigate the issue.

I am wondering if you have a good gutter system on the home? Try using rain barrels to catch the extra water and some good tubing to attach to barrels to carry water further from home. This might help keep things together while you go through the process with the builder?

I’m new to this entire thing, from farming/ranching to these forums. Nutshell?

Bought my “dream place” in 2012 in rural Mid/Northern lower peninsula Michigan (Marion area), 37 acres, about half wooded. Aesthetically beautiful. Creek (usually dry in summer) cuts through front half of property. Twelve foot deep pond in backyard (rough shape, still is). Nice hill going up to back of property. About 20 acres hay fields. Older, mobile home at end of long driveway (winds) rough shape but was planning to build a nice homestead for entire family on other side of creek toward front.  Fenced but no livestock barn. (Again, build)

Home had water barrels and (cheap) plastic tubing system that fed to pond. Seemed PERFECT! The first three or four years it was. Not much snow and not big spring rains. Creek rose a bit during melt off but it was kinda nice not to have to water horses for a couple of weeks.

Found out while it’s beautiful, my naïveté May have been costly. Ground is all CLAY. Horse field, even in summer dry time gets soaked where the horses have removed grass (by gate and along some fencing). HIGH water table (thought that was good!?) where in many areas in the two acre backyard, digging more than a foot down brings water pool. Found out this entire area was a gravel pit (explains why there’s not soil or sand) and the last two years, with heavier snows and spring rains, entire area floods, including the actual road I’m on. The entire 37 acres, minutes about 10 at the very back of the property, is at the bottom of a slow grade hill (I’m talking my entire property and the one neighbor who is close), so badly that I was locked in my property for two days this spring, road and driveway washed out entirely.  The rain barrel system fell apart (plastic piping was cheap) the year after I lost my job, so haven’t replaced yet and I now have a small creek running right off my back porch complete with cattails growing. Guessing this area where the house is located was pretty much swamp.

Can I engineer my way out of this? HELP! (Grew up in Detroit for 35 years of my life and in over my head literally!)

I’ve included one pic of how the backyard looked when I looked at home before buying and one recently.