Are other Clarence homes in danger of foundation collapse?

Sep. 28--It was every homeowner's nightmare.

The back foundation wall of a home on Newhouse Road in Clarence abruptly collapsed one week ago, forcing a family to swiftly flee to safety.

The Lalimes aren't able to return until investigators figure out what caused the collapse and what repairs must be done to make the home habitable.

Several possible causes are under examination: Work performed on and under the home's basement by a pair of contractors in recent months; a subdivision under development across the street; soil conditions in the area; and the nearby presence of a former gypsum mine.

The developer of the subdivision and the owner of a company that shored up the home's foundation last month, for their part, both insisted they had nothing to do with the wall's collapse.

"I did a job a month prior to this happening," said Frank DiMaria, owner of Frank's Mr. Plumber and Frank's Basement Systems, adding, "I did it to the 'T.' "

Should other homeowners in this section of Clarence have to worry? The town engineer said he believes this is an isolated incident.

But news of the wall collapse brought back memories of the sinking homes problem that spread through north and east Amherst more than a decade ago.

"These cases do happen. You have to do some forensic engineering to get to the root cause," said Anthony Tessari, an assistant professor in the University at Buffalo's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences whose research focuses on geotechnical engineering.

Jim Lalime told a Buffalo News reporter the back wall of the house sank and collapsed around 9 p.m. Sept. 18, when a series of loud, cracking noises prompted Lalime, his wife Judy, and three of their children to run out of the home at 5765 Newhouse Road and call 911.

"We heard all this twisting noise," Jim Lalime said last weekend. "We just got out the front door and the whole thing collapsed."

He described a scene of stairs separated from walls and large spaces that opened between the floor and baseboard. And a portion of the backyard appeared to sink into the foundation.

A town code enforcement officer found the structure unsafe and the utilities were turned off. The Lalimes said they will stay at a hotel until they can find a house to rent.

The family has lived in the four-bedroom, four-bath home since 2011. The structure was built in 1985.

"The engineers have never seen anything like this happen," Judy Lalime said previously.

Jim Lalime did not respond to messages seeking a follow-up interview on the collapse and the investigation.

Clarence Town Engineer Timothy Lavocat said he doesn't believe neighbors on this section of Newhouse Road, between Clarence Center and Roll roads, need to fear something similar happening to their homes.

Lavocat said it's up to the Lalimes' homeowner's insurance company to lead the investigation into the cause, what repairs must be performed and whether it makes more sense financially to fix or replace the home.

But, he said, based on his understanding of what happened, there's no reason for widespread concern. Lavocat noted the home has stood since 1985 without serious incident and the owners were having renovations done at the time of the collapse.

"At this point in time I'm treating this as an isolated incident, specific to this property," Lavocat said. "I have no reason to be concerned beyond that."

The Lalimes in the earlier interview offered several potential causes for the wall collapse, including renovation work performed in their basement.

DiMaria, of Frank's Mr. Plumber, said the Lalimes hired his company because the back of the house had sunk by about 2 or 3 inches.

DiMaria said the company has performed bracing and stabilizing work on more than 2,000 homes. He said the company followed its standard procedures in stabilizing the foundation. This included retaining a structural engineer before beginning the work, obtaining a permit from the town and having the work inspected after it was finished about a month ago.

DiMaria said he went out to the home on the night of Sept. 18. He said he doesn't believe the collapse has anything to do with what his crews did at the home and he said it was a different company that, more recently, was installing an egress window in one of the basement walls.

"I've never, ever had a problem like this," DiMaria said. "We do it all by the book."

For another possible cause, the Lalimes previously pointed to site work taking place across Newhouse Road for the Legacy Woods subdivision of 50 homes expected to go for $800,000 and up.

Crews are putting in utilities and have installed the road that will serve the 11 homes in the first phase of the equestrian-themed community, have started clearing and grading the 60-acre site and begun digging retention ponds, said the developer, Dr. Greg Daniel.

Daniel said experts retained as part of the development and approval process found no issues with the soil on this, the west, side of Newhouse. And he said he doesn't believe the site work now underway at the property contributed to the wall collapse across the street.

"I think it's inconceivable to think that anything on this side of the road really impacted what they're doing over there," Daniel said.

Investigators also likely will look at soil conditions and the presence of the former gypsum mine as possible causes.

Judy Lalime said earlier that neighbors down the road a few doors have had sinking areas in their backyard.

The soil in this section of Clarence and Amherst, particularly the layers of clay in the ground, is very weak, said Tessari, the UB expert who is also a licensed professional engineer.

Speaking generally, Tessari said, extreme changes to the groundwater table -- either removing or adding water -- can put stress on the clay soil.

Clay and other soil types typically are less stressed when they they are submerged in water. Removing water from the layer of clay soil can destabilize or squeeze the clay soil, leading to settlement that causes a portion of the structure to shift, Tessari said.

This shifting can take place over the span of decades, he said.

It's reminiscent of the problems that led to sinking homes in a section of north and east Amherst that drew wide publicity starting in late 2002.

Some homeowners and officials had pinned partial responsibility on the former gypsum mines. Numerous homes in Amherst and Clarence were built over the mines, which were filled with water after they closed in the 1970s.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study released in 2005 blamed the problem that affected hundreds of homes in the town primarily on poor soil conditions and inadequately designed foundations.

Tessari said homeowners should keep a close eye on any cracks or lines forming in the walls of their basements and call in an expert if they see a problem developing.

He deferred to the structural and soil engineers who will need to determine what happened on Newhouse Road but said, "I don't think there's reason for alarm."

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