I need ideas!!

[Tab M. Wilcox]

Okay, got called out to a condo which was occupied and saw something I have never seen. The bathtub was full of dirt. It appears that the dirt was built up behind the wall, and eventually the weight of it pushed the drywall in. Observed damaged drywall and dirt in an adjacent exterior storage room. I think it may have possibly been caused by Gophers from the field that is right next to this side of the condo. I saw signs of recent mounds in this field. I think they may have burrowed under the slab and got under the tub through the pipe opening in the slab. I do not know why they would do this or exactly where the huge amount of dirt came from. If anyone has ideas, please share. Thanks. Unfortunately I cannot post the unbelievable pitures I have....

[Michael Larson]

Originally Posted by Tab M. Wilcox

Okay, got called out to a condo which was occupied and saw something I have never seen. The bathtub was full of dirt. It appears that the dirt was built up behind the wall, and eventually the weight of it pushed the drywall in. Observed damaged drywall and dirt in an adjacent exterior storage room. I think it may have possibly been caused by Gophers from the field that is right next to this side of the condo. I saw signs of recent mounds in this field. I think they may have burrowed under the slab and got under the tub through the pipe opening in the slab. I do not know why they would do this or exactly where the huge amount of dirt came from. If anyone has ideas, please share. Thanks. Unfortunately I cannot post the unbelievable pitures I have....

You need to re-size your pics before posting.

Let's see them.

[James E. Braun, CMI]

Call the greens keeper from Caddy Shack.

[Steven C. Waskewicz]

Picture Resizer

This is a great little utility to resize pictures, and whole batches of them at once...
Once executed, it puts another line in your "right click on a file" dropdown, saying "Resize pictures..."
and allows you to choose the file size for batch processing.
I've uploaded 800 X 600 to this message board successfully.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx

Enjoy,

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Originally Posted by Tab M. Wilcox

Unfortunately I cannot post the unbelievable pitures I have....

That's too bad because most of us can't comment without 'pitures'.

[Tab M. Wilcox]

I would like to post pictures, but in the Posting Rules box it says" You may not post attachments" I figured thats part of the new rules for non members....

[Michael Roberson]

Email them to me, I will post them.

Pioneer@homeinspectorpro.com

[Michael Roberson]

Here we go....

[Michael Roberson]

Part 2

[Mark A. Timpani]

yikes!!!

[Michael R. Boyett]

Depending upon the elevation of the soil on the other side of the wall this could very well be a broken water pipe causing this. The middle photo in Part 2 shows wet soil which is strange. There are also moisture stains in the tub as well. Is that tub below the exterior ground level?

[Bruce A. King]

that was caused by the rare gopherslingusmudus species.

[Tab M. Wilcox]

The condo is on grade slab. Yes there was a leak, but that pipe is at least 30 feet from the bathroom where this tub is located. There was an ~ 1/4" hole in the pipe about 18" below grade. We dug under the slab in three areas to see if the leaking water had significantly undermined the slab. We did not observe anything out of the norm. The mositure on the dirt in the tub was caused because the owner of the condo turn the mixing valve on. I failed to include the picture of the adjacent storage room. The dirt has come through the wall there as well. The owner emoved at least wheel barrows full of dirt from that room. I kinda ruled out the water leak because we saw know signs of undermining and the area I could see under the tub (from the storage room hole) was not wet. Thanks for any input you can give and thanks to Mr. Roberson for helping with the pics.

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Dirt dobbers?

[Greg Veal]

I was going to offer up "Termite Infestation" as a possibility, from your initial post. After eventually seeing your pics, and the amount of displaced earth, I'd be looking for something else. What... I have no idea.
Let us know what you finally come up with.