OT: Cost of underpinning?
GB
deep - that's 30cm for people who can't do imperial any more. The house is
standing up fine despite that, but we are thinking of deepening the cellar
to make it habitable. To do that, the surveyor advises underpinning to
provide an extra foot of foundations. He estimates the cost at £500/ linear
metre, which seems quite a bit to me for only digging down a couple of feet.
Any thoughts on this, please? I would add that this is not work we would
contemplate doing ourselves. Also, we are in London, which might affect the
price a bit.
--
Murphy's ultimate law is that if something that could go wrong doesn't, it
turns out that it would have been better if it had gone wrong.
Phil L
> We have an old victorian house with a cellar and foundations a whole
> foot deep - that's 30cm for people who can't do imperial any more.
> The house is standing up fine despite that, but we are thinking of
> deepening the cellar to make it habitable. To do that, the surveyor
> advises underpinning to provide an extra foot of foundations. He
> estimates the cost at £500/ linear metre, which seems quite a bit to
> me for only digging down a couple of feet.
> Any thoughts on this, please? I would add that this is not work we
> would contemplate doing ourselves. Also, we are in London, which
> might affect the price a bit.
He's talking through his arse, it's at least double that, and treble if
you're near London, in other words, forget it.
--
some diy tips, but mostly filthy jokes:
http://tipsntricks-phil.blogspot.com/
Tim Lamb
<neverc...@hotmail.com> writes
I know a friendly groundworks contractor who specialises in this sort of
thing. Hand dig with air spading. Mostly work for insurance companies
dealing with actual subsidence but also those well to do folk who have
retro-fit basement cinemas in their London mansions.
Roughly whereabouts in London and can you get a skip close?
regards
>
--
Tim Lamb
The Natural Philosopher
> We have an old victorian house with a cellar and foundations a whole foot
> deep - that's 30cm for people who can't do imperial any more. The house is
> standing up fine despite that, but we are thinking of deepening the cellar
> to make it habitable. To do that, the surveyor advises underpinning to
> provide an extra foot of foundations. He estimates the cost at £500/ linear
> metre, which seems quite a bit to me for only digging down a couple of feet.
>
Lucky you. £1000 a meter is more the cost here, on boulder clay. eed to
go a biot deeper usually I guess.
> Any thoughts on this, please? I would add that this is not work we would
> contemplate doing ourselves. Also, we are in London, which might affect the
> price a bit.
>
Dont piss about. Underpinning is skilled and heavily manual work. You
can only do it a bit at a time. because you have to dig out UNDER the
existing foundations, fill with concrete, then wait then dig teh nect
bit out. You cant magically lift the house, strip dig with a machine and
fill and then plonk the house back.
Its pickaxe and shovel work mostly. Often you cant even get more than a
barrow of cement near either.
Bite the bullet and do it, or abandon the project.
>
>
Matty F
wrote:
> You cant magically lift the house, strip dig with a machine and
> fill and then plonk the house back.
A wooden house along my road was raised in one piece.
They slid steel beams under the house and had hydraulic pipe jacks
that could lift up a few metres, on the ends of the beams. All the
jacks were connected with long pipes to a truck that pumped them all
up at the same time.
GB
Finchley, and if we dig the front garden out first, it should be possible to
get the skip extremely close indeed.
>
> regards
The Natural Philosopher
Aden house is
(a) light and
(b) has some inherent structural integrity.
Yes it can be done..are they not doing something like this is Pisa?
But it takes more than magic :-)
Tim Lamb
<NOTso...@microsoft.com> writes
>> I know a friendly groundworks contractor who specialises in this sort
>> of thing. Hand dig with air spading. Mostly work for insurance
>> companies dealing with actual subsidence but also those well to do
>> folk who have retro-fit basement cinemas in their London mansions.
>>
>> Roughly whereabouts in London and can you get a skip close?
>
>
>Finchley, and if we dig the front garden out first, it should be possible to
>get the skip extremely close indeed.
Convenient. He is based not too far from Hatfield. I'll try to find out
if he would be interested, tonight.
regards
--
Tim Lamb
Tim Lamb
<t...@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk> writes
Right. Busy but interested:-)
Give me a mail addy and I'll pass on his contact details.
regards
--
Tim Lamb
Roger Chapman
> Matty F wrote:
>> On Feb 9, 8:57 am, The Natural Philosopher <t...@invalid.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> You cant magically lift the house, strip dig with a machine and
>>> fill and then plonk the house back.
>>
>> A wooden house along my road was raised in one piece.
>> They slid steel beams under the house and had hydraulic pipe jacks
>> that could lift up a few metres, on the ends of the beams. All the
>> jacks were connected with long pipes to a truck that pumped them all
>> up at the same time.
>
> Aden house is
A wooden House?
> (a) light and
> (b) has some inherent structural integrity.
>
> Yes it can be done..are they not doing something like this is Pisa?
If you mean the leaning tower ISTR a report a few years back that they
were experimenting with freezing the ground on one side in order to
reduce the tilt but that hopefully is intended to stay in the same place.
>
> But it takes more than magic :-)
Much closer to home there was that redundant South Coast lighthouse that
was jacked up off its foundations and dragged back from the brink. Not
magic but some serious money required.
The Other Mike
<ro...@nospam.zetnet.co.uk> wrote:
>Much closer to home there was that redundant South Coast lighthouse that
>was jacked up off its foundations and dragged back from the brink. Not
>magic but some serious money required.
12 years ago it was GBP180,000 for 55 ft
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/292656.stm
http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/houses/lighthouse.shtml
--
Tim Lamb
<t...@invalid.invalid> writes
The soil scientist responsible for Pisa lives locally. AFAIR the
intention was to stop it leaning further and the cure was a huge amount
of lead carefully positioned in the basement.
>
>But it takes more than magic :-)
regards
--
Tim Lamb
Tim Lamb
Unfortunately the actual digging/filling costs are likely to be
submerged in overheads. Somebody will have to take responsibility for
design and implementation. His insurers need paying!
I had some engineer specified concrete pads laid under the brick
foundations of a Victorian barn here. The pads are intended to support a
steel frame carrying the weight of the loft floor and roof.
The holes were hand dug, roughly 1m cubes, back filled with barrowed
hand mix concrete. Labour cost per hole was less than £250.
The job was inspected by building control but did not involve insurers
or architects etc. because it is agricultural and not a dwelling.
regards
>
--
Tim Lamb
Jim K
wrote:
> GB wrote:
> > We have an old victorian house with a cellar and foundations a whole foot
> > deep - that's 30cm for people who can't do imperial any more. The house is
> > standing up fine despite that, but we are thinking of deepening the cellar
> > to make it habitable. To do that, the surveyor advises underpinning to
> > provide an extra foot of foundations. He estimates the cost at £500/ linear
> > metre, which seems quite a bit to me for only digging down a couple of feet.
>
> Lucky you. £1000 a meter is more the cost here, on boulder clay. eed to
> go a biot deeper usually I guess.
>
> > Any thoughts on this, please? I would add that this is not work we would
> > contemplate doing ourselves. Also, we are in London, which might affect the
> > price a bit.
>
> Dont piss about. Underpinning is skilled and heavily manual work. You
> can only do it a bit at a time. because you have to dig out UNDER the
> existing foundations, fill with concrete, then wait then dig teh nect
> bit out.
er... or you stagger your work sections and work around in "alternate"
bays....
Jim K