What is landslip? | Where does landslip occur? | How can I deal with landslip? | Back to landslip
Dealing with the problem of landslip under an insurance policy is more straightforward, as often the failure mode is visible and obvious, so the most awkward loss adjuster has difficulty in saying "no". If one underpins the house down to a level of soil not being affected, one may save the house. This does not come cheap, and one has to detect the level of the failure plane and make sure that another one does not exist or will not form below the level of the first one. The failure zone is often indicated by more water in the soil near the plane of failure.
In material other than clay areas where there is for example rock, erosion of the rock can give rise to weakness and thus collapse. Scouring at the foot of cliffs by the action of water can cause sudden failure of the cliff. Rock anchors can be drilled into the rock to pin back potentially unstable rock by connecting it to the more stable part, as done in Gibralter. Similar can be done with soils, such as in Hong Kong, if access for the drilling equipment is feasible, both actually and economically.
Steel or carbon fibre anchors are placed in pre-drilled holes and concrete pumped in to form a connection between the soil and the anchor. Some anchors can be driven in with an explosive charge that drives the anchor into the embankment. The means of supporting the rigs whilst working on a slope forms an important part of the cost. If the house is to be underpinned as well, the pile location and the anchor location need to be well thought out, to avoid a clash. Thus, whilst not as prevalent as subsidence, if this problem does occur, then financial consequences are worse.