groundworks

Hi all, I am in talks with the water authority re the position of a public sewer manhole at the rear of a proposed single story extension. As it stands, the extension is planned to be built right up to the chamber cover. The water authority have agreed that we can make adaptations to this...

Hoping someone may be able to offer some guidance on some groundworks drainage here. Close to completing on a new property and plan to complete a double-story side and single story rear wraparound extension. The image below shows the existing house as the red box, with the new extension in...

Hi, was wondering if anyone out there can give me a rough idea of how many tonnes of spoil (manly top soil and spoil, not clay) they think are in these trailers. I am paying a ground worker to take away spoil from my site and I wanted to check the tonnage he's agreed to take per load was honest...

Hello all, I’m having my first attempt at building a raised deck in the garden. It sits between 20-40cm off the ground (sloped garden). My support posts are all in and now I’m laying the weed suppressing fabric. What I want to know is if I can just use any old ballast and sub base that’s lying...

Morning We have just commenced the build of an orangery off the back of our property. The plan and quote was to have a 7m x 4m beam and block base with an air gap of around 150mm, so a fair bit of excavation. However when the builder turned up he suggested a slab as it worked better with the...

Digging a basement. There is a door at street level into the space. Finding v large granite rocks as I dig down which have been used as a ground filler for the original workings. I've been drilling lines across each large granite rock and using steel shim and wedge set to split these into...

Hi, I am looking at building an extension at the back of our house but the area where we would build has the public sewer that runs along the back of the terrace of houses. At the back of my house it’s very close to the surface and then goes down the side of our end terrace house to the road...

Hi, planning on a Balau hardwood deck, 4.2m x 6.8m, to be installed at ground level. I intend it to last as long as possible. So far as I can see the weak point will be the wooden posts that will hold the frame in position which will rot in time (I understand this will be many years, but they...

Hi, I would very much appreciate you input on my project. Project: I am building a side extension which incorporates a new WC. My build will go over existing sewer pipes and manholes. Status: I have planning council permission and now I wish to obtain Thames Water Build Over permission...

Can i put a step in a drain run? Down obviously not up, i would assume it needs to be rod-able from both directions but would it work? I have a reinforced ground beam to get over. The invert of the drain is the same height at the middle of the ground beam so i was proposing 110mm pipe over the...

Hello, Is there a maximum depth below floor level a ground beam can be cast? The reason for asking is there need to be waste pipes which would pass right through the ground beam, obviously weakening the beam and probably causing the waste pipe problems in the future. If i install the beam...

Hello, We just got planning permission for an annexe in our garden after a year battle with planning, hurray! So now we are thinking of the practicalities. The annexe will be over 30m away from the main house. The house connects to the mains sewer via a manhole located in a shared drive at...

Some general guidance please. To the rear boundary of my garden is a 1.8m high concrete block wall which is on the other side of the boundary line i.e. it is my neighbor's property and he insists that it remains untouched. It's footings are circa 200mm deep. I don't know how wide the footings...

I have a client who wants to build a faux inglenook feature in their kitchen. The floor it is to be built off is block and beam (bison beam) and so would need reinforcing somehow. Anybody come across this before? I havent in my 10+ years in the building trade and so am a little stuck in how best...