Pathway around house sinking....

spannerzone

Bit tricky to explain so apologies: My end of terrace house has a pathway running from front to back for garden access but also access for a neighbour whose only access to their flat (converted terrace house) is via my path, no problem with that as I bought the house fully aware of this right of way.

Next to my (shared) path is a council owned footpath/track that has what I pressume was once a ditch next to my path.... my path is sinking slightly into the ditch with the pathway's tarmac cracking and sinking down as the old ditch slowly errodes. The pic shows the fencing bowing where the ground is most affected.

Now obviously tricky to say but would my househould insurance be likely to cover this sort of thing or is it just my bad luck the previous owner who built the path didn't do it properly? (the garage/bedroom was an extension built in the 1980's and the path done at the same time (I assume)

Any ideas welcome


*edit - image removed

tony6403

It seems that there is no structure retaining your path.
If that is correct, the small bank to the left of your fence naturally has an angle of repose and will , without retention , move until it reaches that angle.
I think it needs a trench digging and a concrete block wall installed to prevent further movement (unless of course it has now reached its angle of repose). Plenty of graft involved but not that difficult - it won't be seen so no need to bother about neat pointing.
Doubt that this will be covered by an insurance policy but it would be worth contacting your insurers to find out.

Hintza

Does the ditch do anything? If not fill it in. If it does put in some suitable diameter wavin pipe and fill it in.

spannerzone

tony6403 wrote: »

It seems that there is no structure retaining your path.
If that is correct, the small bank to the left of your fence naturally has an angle of repose and will , without retention , move until it reaches that angle.
I think it needs a trench digging and a concrete block wall installed to prevent further movement (unless of course it has now reached its angle of repose). Plenty of graft involved but not that difficult - it won't be seen so no need to bother about neat pointing.
Doubt that this will be covered by an insurance policy but it would be worth contacting your insurers to find out.

Thanks for your reply, there are regular bricks edging the tarmac (along the fence edge) and I can only see some concrete mix under the tarmac path/brick edge which I guess is on top of some hard core. I'm guessing the soil underneath and at the edges has eroded into the ditch as water has washed it away over time.

I guessed that it needs digging out and some proper edge support put in place, not sure how deep it would need to be but I think it's more than I can do myself.

spannerzone

Hintza wrote: »

Does the ditch do anything? If not fill it in. If it does put in some suitable diameter wavin pipe and fill it in.

The ditch seems to no longer do much, further down the lane it's a little more damp but nothing more than that, I would imagine in years gone by this lane ran down to some fields and looks to have had a small ditch eitherside and over the years it's filled with soil/plantation etc but as the who area is on a hill water drains away without much trouble.

I guess it's taken nearly 30 years for this path to start to collapse (since the extension & path was built) so guess I'll have to just get someone in to strengthen it up, probably do that when I get the driveway redone which is also tarmac. and ajoins the pathway.

thanks for all replies!