Soil analysis halfway through build could someone help me with this please

babyblade41

So we have had planning permission for our barn conversion since early January this year.

Parts of the planning application were bat survey ( understandable) plus soil sample analysis . Both of these were completed sent off to council planning and planning granted

Building inspector did the first inspection in the living area for the depth of the holes for the mezzanine floor construction and all was well .


3 weeks later whilst construction of the porch and BI wants another soil analysis and won't allow anymore work on that area until the soil analysis has been done again

Surely his isn't necessary  is it ??

Section62

Is it something like oil or diesel they are concerned about?  What was in that location when the barn was in use?

Edit: Or could it be a backfilled pond or ditch?

babyblade41

Section62 said:

Is it something like oil or diesel they are concerned about?  What was in that location when the barn was in use?

Edit: Or could it be a backfilled pond or ditch?

Who knows.. the  stone built barn was used for storing apples and later potatoes.  I thought that having one full analysis would be enough so not sure what they want it tested for 

The base of the barn has solid concrete then solid stone about  12 inches thick...just doesn't make sense

Considering the soil analysis was done previously and PP granted it seems odd at the very least  

Section62

babyblade41 said:

Section62 said:

Is it something like oil or diesel they are concerned about?  What was in that location when the barn was in use?

Edit: Or could it be a backfilled pond or ditch?

Who knows.. the  stone built barn was used for storing apples and later potatoes.  I thought that having one full analysis would be enough so not sure what they want it tested for 

The base of the barn has solid concrete then solid stone about  12 inches thick...just doesn't make sense

Considering the soil analysis was done previously and PP granted it seems odd at the very least  

I was thinking it is possible the inspector has seen or smelled something which makes them suspect the possibility of very localised ground pollution.  Depending on what that is, it could have an impact on the concrete in the foundations, or you could have a situation with gas/vapour entering the living space.

For the planning consent the planners would only be interested if there were a significant pollution issue which needed remediation as a condition of the planning consent.  I guess initially you were only asked for a few trial pits/samples.

Once you get the the construction stage it is possible contaminants are found which were missed by the original survey (construction groundworks is effectively a huge trial pit so often picks up something new).

If a backfilled pond/ditch were involved then there's a possibility of having organic material much deeper than normal - which you'd normally want dug out to virgin ground.  These again are things that might be picked up by chance in the original survey, but are possibly more easily found when you start digging for real.

babyblade41

The barn has been here for about 70 years  so no recent ponds, the house which was built 50 years ago is on the same land and no ones died yet !!

Our whole village has radon in it so fully inspected to find that

daveyjp

As above.  You can only test a small proportion of the soil prior to the work.

If once works starts there is any suspicion of contamination further tests may be required.

On larger development sites testing will be an ongoing process.