www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hello,

I have just bought a 1930's house and dug a hole to have a look at the foundations, it only seems to go down around 3 bricks undergound in a kind of foot i.e.

****
*******
**********

Would this be correct, is it able to be so shallow? it is on clay.

Thanks

Paul

yes
its still standing
I've just work in one old place last week and that had no foundations
the bricks were layed on the top soil.

would building reulation not say anything about it, i have uncovered them for an extention?

if your not putting any more load on them then it usally does not matter
but they may ask you to under dig the ends where your new foundations
meet, by half the wall thickness, different building control area different
standards.

Hi sutt
That is normal probably got a shallow bed of concrete mix underneath

The only trouble with this type of foundation is tree roots and bush's near
to the house that dry out the clay and cause subsidence in very hot
summers (when we get them)

the question has come about because it already had an extension done 1980's without regs i bought it a couple of months ago and have put a new pitched roof instead of the flat one.

got building regs involved to sign it all off and they have asked me to expose the house and the extension foundations so see if they are ok, house goes down about 3 bricks, extension about 1.5. there has been no movement, no cracks etc, roof is alot lighter now.

what can i expect from the inspector when he see them?

Thanks try anything, there is no trees or anything around the house

Hi I am the dreaded building control inspector! - It's doubtful we would sign off the entire extension as it's too old, the inspector wants to see the foundations due to the new load from the roof, but shouldn't need to see the house foundations unless there are new loads applied to it from the roof (doubtful). Highly unlikely they'd ask you for underpinning if it's on good clay material.

andy.pottle wrote:Hi I am the dreaded building control inspector! - It's doubtful we would sign off the entire extension as it's too old, the inspector wants to see the foundations due to the new load from the roof, but shouldn't need to see the house foundations unless there are new loads applied to it from the roof (doubtful). Highly unlikely they'd ask you for underpinning if it's on good clay material.

Hi Andy,

Welcome to UHM

Hi Andy indeed, you might be able to answer some tricky questions on here!..

our local authority (stc) usually ask us to undermine existing founds and brick up to them when we are building extensions on houses with founds that are a lesser depth than the extensions

That detail is were the old saying of footings comes from