How strong is your foundation?
 

walls look fine , some monkey didnt bother propping the floor up :rolleyes:

surely the inspectors would have checked this at the time of the build...

I remember they checked every stage when i was having my extension made..

They were on about this on the news saying that the regs are very tight on new builds but not on renovations.


Glad she was ok!

Foundations are fine....the walls are still standing and go a good few feet below the damp course and floor level.

Its teh floor that has failed, not the foundations! Thats sufferred concrete rot. Old house with solid floor, maybe not adequately steel reinforced either. If you note its all failed around where it meets the wall, so its probably an issue with damp comming up the walls and into the floor combined with lack of support and increased weight loading from a newish kithcen and heavy appliances (i.e range cooker and vibrations from a loaded washing machine on spin).

Stick some block and beam lintols in and pour down a new floor in and it'll be fine.


PS note the gas pipe is still connected...I hope they turned the gas off :eek:

Depends, Was chatting to a surveyor on this just yesturday and if the renovation can be seen as building works then all associated works done in that area at that time must be upgraded to current regulations, but maintly thats for ventilation, fire, damp and services (gas eleccy etc). Thing is anything existing that isn't touched, doesn't need to be upgraded.

TBH honest I wouldn't know how a kitchen fitter or floor tiler would check the soundness of construction of an existing concrete floor. But the report did say a surveyor picked up on something about the floors and I think this is the reason why the insurer is refusing to pay out - any excuse and they'll use it to get out of paying - thats the core of their business strategy.

I remember our integrated garage had a thin-spot in the concrete where a square metre area was only a few centimeters thick, directly under where the nearside front wheel of the car parked on top of. That could have failed at any time as it was flaw during construction. The rest of the floor was solid though...needed to hire a bigger pneumatic kango to break it up as the electric kango wouldn't touch it.

We only found out when we dug up the floor to address a heave problem due to underground water flow and clay/ash soil infill expanding pushing out the gable wall. The actual root cause was replacing a tarmac solid drive with a shale drive, so surface water drained through it and under the house! The only sign of this happening was gable end brickwork below the dampcourse shifting.

Cost a fair few bob to fix, including a huge underground concrete barrier across the front of the house to prevent underground water flowing under the house. Drainage, replacing soil infill, repointing brickwork, new garage floor, and tarmacing the drive.

Problem now is next door had their tarmac drive replaced with shale....and guess what - now our back patio is shifting! Coincidence?

Couple bags of ready mix concrete in that crater and that kitchen will be as good as new:thumb:

I reckon they were in the middle of christening the kitchen and the earth really moved for both of them.

@SamUK, don't think it's an extension, just a refit in a 1930's house.

The earth under the floor must have been washed away with time? otherwise there is nothing to counter the earth pressure on the outside of the foundation brickwork.

The surveyor may have checked for mesh with a covermeter and detected no reinforcement.

There about 5ft of airspace under the downstairs floor boards of rear rooms in our house.....outside ground level is about 1ft below the damp course.

Makes it much easier to do the plumbing :D







.....and hide the dead bodies

No one else think shes fit?

check my earlier post, or was i being to subtle?

It's a good opportunity for a cellar conversion.

She looks like a Borrower in the first pic.

:lol:

That's what i was thinking,it must be awful for her for that to happen,but i just find that first pic amusing. :lol1:


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/...73_964x641.jpg

Founds have stayed, its the sub thats failed. Love the solum :D
Ps she aint fit just run of the mill :norty:

...

They could have tidied up before the photographer arrived. :o