Thread: which came first? how to tell

I have a house, on a slab foundation that has foundation issues. Many cracks and unlevel floors. For insurance issues, how do you determine if a leaky sewer line caused the foundation to heave or the moving foundation caused the sewer pipe to break. Also, how can I prove the previous foundation repairs did not break the sewer pipe. It has been four years since it was leveled and there has been no problems with backed up sewers.....usually indicating a broken sewer.

First it seems you do not know if the sewer was leaking or is leaking. So you have to determine the sewer status.

Second the soil type has to be determined.

Third the slab construction has to be evaluated as to method and design for soil type.

You had it leveled and and no sewer problem but you do not know actual physical status of sewer. You are more into the what if or chicken and egg speculations.

Bring in a plumber and have sewer lines run with a camera and obtain copy of video.
Bring in an engineer to evaluate and report on foundation status and address your concerns. If the first engineer doesn't answer your questions to your satisfaction get two more opinions. At that point you should have your answers to any claims you may bring to insurance company or liability for you issues.

Get all the documentation from the previous foundation repairs.
You should have a diagram showing pier placement, elevation survey, and plumbing clearance test.

You should have before and after elevation surveys and with better foundation repair companies a before and after plumbing clearance test.

Even with this, it would be hard to prove which came first (especially to an insurance company)

I assume you have done a current plumbing test to ascertain that there is a current leak.

I see many foundation problems in our area that are both caused by plumbing leaks and plumbing leaks caused by the foundation movement but proving causation is almost impossible in many instances.