Building Regs for Extension

stuart45

I had a similar problem with Leylandii and had to go down 2.2 metres from the base of the trees, which were luckily a bit higher than the footings side.
https://www.contractortalk.com/attachments/phpu7raujam-jpg.44798/

scaredofdebt

Seems like they make it up as they go along, I was told we'd need to go down over 2.5 meters and the hedge is over 2 metres from the nearest point of the foundations.  These are not Leylandii, they've been there 40 odd years, we trim them every 4/5 years and they never go over 6-7 feet tall.

Going to cost over £2k for the foundations digging deeper AND the hedge removed and a fence putting up, can you get a second opinion on this type of thing?

stuart45

It was the hot summer of 76 that brought in the changes. Up to that point most were 2-3ft deep. I've got an old cottage that had an extension built in the 60's. Apart from the Leylandii there is a Hawthorn quite close as well. First BCO I spoke to told me the area had medium to high shrinkable clay and I couldn't use a strip foundation. Another one told me that it would be medium or possibly low. I didn't know the area that well as we moved here from a chalk subsoil. 
Cost me £40 for a soil test in Dorchester. The paperwork does not say high, medium or low, just gives a load of technical stuff like plasticity index. The technician did tell me that it was probably a medium, but close to being low.
I took down to the Building control and showed to one of the younger ones telling him that it was a low shrinkable clay. He passed  it to the senior man there who heard what I told him. I could tell he didn't know what he was looking at, but he made out he did. Told me ' what you have here is a really low shrinkable clay and agreed at  2.2 metres from the base of the tree.




 

scaredofdebt

Do the buildings reg people put their reports in writing or are they scared of incriminating themselves?  Seems amazing in this day and age that something so important is done verbally, talk about Chinese whispers.

scaredofdebt

So we have a digger back in our garden to dig the foundations deeper and a fencer coming Monday to replace the hedge, incompetence is costing me £2,5000 - I wouldn't mind but it's not my incompetence on this occasion!

Appealing the decision regards the building regs can take about 3 months so I'm not going to bother, don't want to look at the hole in the garden for that length of time.