Area to Avoid for Sinkholes
 

Which areas of The Villages should we not consider purchasing a home due to sinkholes? Is there an area of the community where sinkholes are more prevalent? What are they doing with the homes near the sinkholes?

Do a search on this site and you will get far more information than you will want to deal with...….

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Sinkholes can appear anywhere in Florida.
In fact, didn't one just appear at the White House in Washington?
It seems to be impossible to tell where one will happen next.

My feelings is that you want to stay away from ponds. If the liners leak I think over time they can lead to a sink hole. I think there is ground radar that can be used to test the land but I do not know if it is reliable so you could do some research on how to identify good building sites. I do know one builder that does use the radar to test all of his building sites.
In addition to ponds I think "dry" retention areas could have a risk as more water will drain through this area than would have if no building was done.

Maybe the better questions would be:

What type of insurance (and what carriers are the most reliable) do I need to protect my investment from the risk of sinkholes?

How much should I expect to pay (annually)?

...Then buy the house you like, get the coverage you want and worry less.

I agree with comments above, however, if this is a major concern, contact a geologist, and have a discussion with them. As for the villages, IMHO most if not all areas have an equal chance for a possible sinkhole, you may need to go outside of TV to eliminate or limit the possibility.

As a point of interest, we moved from PA, the neighborhood we we lived had around a dozen "sinkholes" over the 30 years i was there, one was 300 feet from my house, so my point is these occur in many locations. Just buy the additional 'sink hole coverage", and then enjoy TV.

I don't worry about those things. Which part of TV is most likely for a lightning strike, a tornado, flooding, etc. You can worry yourself to death and that's not what living down here is all about. Termites, can someone name one house in TV that has had an infestation of subterranean termites, a documented case. We all pay for the continuation of a guarantee for these but no one has ever had them as far as I have found. Not worried about them either.

I guess to be somewhat safe, just avoid the area from The Villages to Crystal River down to Tampa/St. Pete if you want to increase your odds. However, nowhere in Florida is completely safe where there is limestone and sand base that is effected by water movement. The panhandle which has more of a clay base would be the safest area. When I lived in Pensacola we were over 100' above sea level and were less than a mile from Pensacola Bay. They have shorelines that are like California with steep cliffs.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/04/fe...ad78b24319.jpg

To the OP. Find the home you like in the area you like, and buy it. Sinkholes are like lightning. You never know where they will occur.

If you figure out the non sinkhole area, we will all be intrigued.

To the OP, you're much more likely to be struck by lightning...than to be affected by a sinkhole.

So all you can really do, is to find the house/area you like, purchase sinkhole insurance along with your home...and sleep well.

A more legitimate safety concern, is to ensure that you're not outside (including on a lanai)...when you see lightning and/or hear thunder. :shrug:

Agree. If the thought of a sinkhole will keep you up at night, Central Florida may not be the place for you. We all have our individual risk tolerances and it’s best to know what those are before making an important decision. Perhaps renting for a while would help you evaluate the risk objectively. Good luck.

A few years ago we had a home in Oak Run Ocala, we were no where near any retention ponds. The bad news was a sink hole opened less than 2/10 of a mile from where we were located. I guess the point I’m trying to make is what others have they can happen but like lightning you never know where.

We never felt threatened that the home we were in would sink.

Exactly.

To avoid sinkholes one must first avoid the ground.

This isn't very helpful information. We'll be doing the lifestyle visit this year and sinkholes are a big issue for me. Primarily because the biggest sinkhole I have ever personally experienced is a 1-foot depression in my front yard. It's mostly just a minor inconvenience when I'm mowing the lawn.

Insurance is well and good, but doesn't really address the personal health to human beings issue. I would really hate to step out of my back door in the morning for my cup of coffee with my nose in a book or reading the newspaper, only to discover that I'm 3 feet down a broken ankle and arm because the lanai sunk into a sinkhole while I was sleeping last night.

I've read three threads so far about sinkholes and have over a dozen more, in my search for "where the majority of the sinkholes are in the Villages."

When I first moved here, I was shaken when a house burned down from a lightning strike. I was concerned about buying a house that could withstand hurricane winds.

I have been here five years and don't sweat these issues anymore including sinkholes. One must control their anxiety or else you will never move here.

No place is safe from weather conditions and wanting a ironclad guarantee is unrealistic.

Good luck in what you decide to do.

When someone figures out how to predict where a sinkhole is likely, I'm sure they will create a service offering and make a pile of cash off of it. Until then, the science of predicting a sinkhole is about the same as predicting the precise location of a spot where lightning will strike twice. If the prospect of a sinkhole will keep you up at night, the best thing to do is find another state to live in. Then you can find other natural occurrences to try and predict, like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires, mudslides, etc.

I think TomC was trying to help as have others but you’re not hearing what you want to hear. You sound exasperated rather than grateful with posters who are just trying to help you.

From your posts, you seem very nervous about sinkholes. That’s ok. I don’t think a Lifestyle visit will erase your fears. I truly think the best advice for you is to look to retire somewhere other than Central Florida. Why put yourself through all this stress? I hope you find peace with your final decision. Namaste.

There is a very helpful map posted on TOTV with yellow dots marking where sinkholes in the Villages have been (search for it on either TOTV search or google) Currently we have a problem with sink holes in the village of Calumet Grove.....not that you can ever predict where future sink holes will be, but that is just good knowledge to have when you are shopping for a home. Please don't let the threat of sink holes stop you from choosing to visit or buy in The Villages. It is not something you can control, but you can get insurance to safeguard your investment.

Clarification
 

If there a village that has more sink holes than other villages?

According to the unmentionable news source CDD 4 is going to be picking up a pretty hefty tab for the sinkhole remediation needed on McLawren Terrace. The district does not carry insurance to cover such occurrences.

I really think asking where a sinkhole will form is like asking someone in tornado pron areas where will a tornado form. People don’t mean to not be helpful, we just dont know.

All true. If there were "sink hole prone" places, it would become common knowledge very quickly.

[QUOTE=villagetinker;1548902]I agree with comments above, however, if this is a major concern, contact a geologist, and have a discussion with them. As for the villages, IMHO most if not all areas have an equal chance for a possible sinkhole, you may need to go outside of TV to eliminate or limit the possibility.
[QUOTE]

Why would avoiding the Villages help?

That was my first post. This is my second post. It's also the first time I've even visited this website since the first time I posted.

Meanwhile, I've seen people tell me not to move to the Villages because they think I'm stressed out about sinkholes. And one claiming that since no one can predict weather problems anywhere, I shouldn't be concerned about this. Pro-tip - sinkholes aren't a weather condition.

I've scheduled my lifestyle visit and will continue watching and reading the news to see if there are any new collapses. Til then, I've already figured out which parts we should avoid trying to buy in, because they are the -most likely- to see more collapse, compared with the rest of TV. Does that mean I think if I move there my home will be swallowed? Nope. Does it mean I think if I watch the patterns I can reduce my risk? Yup.

I have kept a close eye on this as well for ten years now and see no discernable pattern or cause. The Villages are NOT as sinkhole prone as the area around Tampa. Central Florida is the lightning capital of the whole U.S. and we in The Villages have the best credit rating in the whole U.S. We also have the lowest birthrate. We are known as drinkers with a golf problem too. And I have NEVER seen so many old-er people before in one place.

Welcome Jazz, be sure and share your information with us and good luck. Sinkholes scare the liver out of most of us.

:024::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:Keep your eye on the Sinkhole situation. That’s way you won’t think about Gators and Snakes and Weather like I did. Thank God for the same people who are helping you. We barely survived two years. It’s been really rough. :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::a040:

Bada bing, bada boom. LOL


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IMO there difference between sinkholes and development land ground collapse. IMO ground collapses gives natural sinkholes a bad rap. IMO I also think most sinholes you see around here and over the world in developed areas are ground collapses from water pressure lines, street drain tubing failures, and structural drainage problem. IMO most the time is waY for engineers and insurance to blame nature for engineered failure and who would think insurance would cover natural occurrences?

IMO I haven't seen natural sinkhole since I been here. IMO all related to retention ponds and under ground drain tube failures. If it looks like duck, quakes like duck, and walks like duck, most likely it's a DUCK. As for the question any developed area in time could have sinkholes aka ground collapse. :wave:

We had LOTS of STINKholes (among other ----holes) in NJ, that's why we left ........ ever drive down RT 1 in Carteret? Right Nucky? :D

Ohhhhhhhhhh ... never mind, that was SINKholes!

Sinkhole
 

http://img.thrfun.com/img/077/019/sink_drain_l1.jpg


:D

IMHO if you have a home in Florida, you may be affected by the formation of a sinkhole. See all those white water spots in the shower, the kitchen sink, and on the car ? That is dissolved Florida bedrock, which is water soluble. At any time, water erosion can cause weakening of the bedrock and a new sinkhole will appear.

Ok ,let's leave politicians out of it. :22yikes:

I think this is where misinformation ends up taking over threads, yes agreed 100%. I contributed to it by using the term sink holes. And of course it's true - it's absolutely more likely to be struck by lightning, than lose your home to a sinkhole, in the Villages. But it appears a lot more likely to lose your home, or parts of it, or parts of your property, or parts of the road in front of your home, to a ground collapse, than it is to be struck by lightning in the villages.

How many people have been struck by lightning in the villages, in the last 2 years?
Compare with how many ground collapses have occurred in the last 2 years?
How many ground collapses have occurred in the villages, as compared to another really highly developed property - let's say, Disney World, and Epcot, for example, in the last two years? Or how about in Leesburg, in the last 2 years?

How many have occurred on the west, and southwest, half of TV, as compared to Spanish Springs and the northeastern and southeastern corners of TV, in the last 2 years?

What I've seen, is that the area northeast of the Spanish Springs town square hasn't seen any activity with ground collapses. The oldest area has had no ground collapse activity, while the newer sections have enough to make national news.

What's different, other than the fact that the older section has a whole lot of double-wides?