Trial holes to check foundations

mickman

Hi GUys

If you wanted to check there are adequate foundations in a house, what is involved ? cost and time ?

Thanks

Kevhog1988

mickman wrote: »

Hi GUys

If you wanted to check there are adequate foundations in a house, what is involved ? cost and time ?

Thanks

I do a lot of this sort of work. Is there plenty of access for a mini digger??

mickman

theemigrant wrote: »

I do a lot of this sort of work. Is there plenty of access for a mini digger??

Yep

Kevhog1988

mickman wrote: »

Yep

A day for a guy with a mini digger to dig a trial hole in a few locations and you can gauge depth. Only thing you cant see from this is the strength of the concrete used but i think its fair to say there would be a minimum risk of a low strength in the concrete

Kevhog1988

I know a guy in your area who might be interested. Ill txt him now

mickman

Sound thanks

Gumbo

theemigrant wrote: »

A day for a guy with a mini digger to dig a trial hole in a few locations and you can gauge depth. Only thing you cant see from this is the strength of the concrete used but i think its fair to say there would be a minimum risk of a low strength in the concrete

And an Engineer to check the Foundations and confirm what can or cannot be placed on them.

Kevhog1988

kceire wrote: »

And an Engineer to check the Foundations and confirm what can or cannot be placed on them.

Pictures , depths etc can be emailed to an engineer. They will charge a fortune for site visit.

Gumbo

theemigrant wrote: »

Pictures , depths etc can be emailed to an engineer. They will charge a fortune for site visit.

And rightly so. I would not sign of a building to be built up and over on photos of existing foundations. I would want to be there at the time. And I seriously would not recommend any builder that doesn't get the foundations checked properly before commencing work.

My 2c.

Kevhog1988

kceire wrote: »

And rightly so. I would not sign of a building to be built up and over on photos of existing foundations. I would want to be there at the time. And I seriously would not recommend any builder that doesn't get the foundations checked properly before commencing work.

My 2c.

Who said anything about building on top?? i have read a few of the op's threads and he has purchased an unfinished property. He never mentioned building on or up but merely to check that the foundations were to the correct depth etc. From reading his post i would envisage this is for piece of mind so i was simply offering him my 2c as to the most cost effective solution.

Gumbo

theemigrant wrote: »

Who said anything about building on top?? i have read a few of the op's threads and he has purchased an unfinished property. He never mentioned building on or up but merely to check that the foundations were to the correct depth etc. From reading his post i would envisage this is for piece of mind so i was simply offering him my 2c as to the most cost effective solution.

My apologies, I thought the OP wanted to carry out further works to existing walls. In that case then, how old is the house etc

If it's still standing, their fine

mickman

kceire wrote: »

My apologies, I thought the OP wanted to carry out further works to existing walls. In that case then, how old is the house etc

If it's still standing, their fine

Ha ha. Built in 2008 . Sti standing

Engineer did check foundations during build but never wrote the Cert. It looks like engineer was going to write cert at end saying he checked everything etc but house was never finished so no cert was written then

Would this be a common occurrence that rngineer would wait until end? Spoke with engineer and he says he did check ground and foundation etc

Drift

If the engineer is still in business and was happy to talk to you it sounds like he is standing over the supervision he provided at the time. Great news!

I'd ask him for a certificate to say he designed and supervised the installation of the foundations. Politely ask him for a copy of his PI insurance also.

mickman

Drift wrote: »

If the engineer is still in business and was happy to talk to you it sounds like he is standing over the supervision he provided at the time. Great news!

I'd ask him for a certificate to say he designed and supervised the installation of the foundations. Politely ask him for a copy of his PI insurance also.

Well his company folded and gave me the impression that he didn't want to be overly helpful

Builder was superb and gave me a summary of materials and insulation used

If engineer isn't in business can he still write a cert for me saying 'at the time house was built ' etc

Drift

In theory he can but I'm 99.99999% sure he won't because if the company has folded he probably doesn't have any insurance to back a certificate he would write.

It's unfortunate but at least you got to talk to him and he answered some questions. You wouldn't believe how many times in recent years I've heard:

"The engineer who designed it is in Australia/Canada now."

( In many cases I suspect the "engineer" in question might have been playing a little fast and loose with the word "engineer" )

mickman

Drift wrote: »

In theory he can but I'm 99.99999% sure he won't because if the company has folded he probably doesn't have any insurance to back a certificate he would write.

It's unfortunate but at least you got to talk to him and he answered some questions. You wouldn't believe how many times in recent years I've heard:

"The engineer who designed it is in Australia/Canada now."

( In many cases I suspect the "engineer" in question might have been playing a little fast and loose with the word "engineer" )[/quote


I know. I'm very lucky. Builder was a gent. Still no guarantees without Certs but have much better peace of mind now