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Reply to "From Sea Level to 10,023 ft"

Oh, Stan-of-many-ailments (and suddenly I feel like I'm doing pretty darn well, health-wise):

Look on the bright side (at least for the house across the street).   You've only had some minor foundation problems to overcome.

There is a vein of the mineral Pyrrhotite running widely north/south through the middle of Massachusetts.  What is Pyrrhotite, you ask?  I had never heard of it either but it is a naturally occurring mineral that, when exposed to oxygen and water, crystalizes and expands over a long time to many times it's original size.  It was included, unknowingly, in the gravel used by some companies to make concrete for home and business foundations in some Connecticut and Massachusetts towns starting in the 1980s up until about 2015.  It causes the concrete footing, foundation, floors or slabs to literally crumble after about 20 years.  It's become a big deal here as more and more people are finding their house foundations just falling apart.

The only solution to this problem is lifting the entire house up off the ground, digging out the crumbling foundation, filling it back in with good concrete, then setting the house back down. This is an extremely expensive process, with quotes starting around $200K and quickly climbing.

Here's an article on it from one of the local TV news feeds in western Mass:

https://www.wwlp.com/news/i-te...ng-local-homeowners/

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