New extension nightmare

[laracroft]

Hi All

My name is Lara, We are building a rather large extension to the side of our house, it is a two storey extension and also extending the exsisting back of the house by 4.8meters. Plans have all been approved until some mentiond DRAINS, we dug down to see how far they run and have had a survey done with cameras etc and they are fine no damage BUT and there is always a BUT! the sewer pipe is 7ft deep, so the building work hasn't even started and what I want to know (being a female and not sure about these things) do our foundations have to run that deep? the man hole is in next door neighbours garden. Our builders say it is not safe to dig that deep incase the next door neighbours wall collapses (We live in a Semi).

THe drain at the side of the house which means that unless its moved or redirected it would be smack bang in the middle of my kitchen - is it expensive to re-direct drains or any solutions and ideas would be helpful

Thanks

 

[^woody^]

Yes, foundations need to go to what is called the drain invert level ie the bottom of the drain.

You may need the water suppliers permission too, so check this first

Pile foundations may be a better option

Talk to your designer, as he should sort this all out as part of his job

 

[jeds]

Lara, I'm not sure how you've got this far without sorting out the drain issues. I assume you used designer. Please ask them why they did not investigate the drains and have half a plan to deal with them before getting to this stage.

 

[laracroft]

Thanks for the reply

Yes we are thinking that steel pyling would be the best answer but it sooo expensive we had one quote for 85000 apprentley we need 27 of them! which sounds alot to me so having some more quotes.

I am cross with the designer as he didnt pick any of this up and on the orignal plans we just assumed where the drains where, we havent laid a single brick yet and we have this 7ft hole in my garage and beginning to think if it is all worth it and just sell up and move

 

[laracroft]

Hi John

Luckily we havent laid a single brick we just have this 7ft hole in the garage to see which way the pipes were running so I suppose thats one good thing.

We are cross with designer for not picking this up in first place we have a good builder who advised us before he even started so trying to decide which to go just tidy house up and move or carry on

 

[laracroft]

Thanks for the reply

Yes we are thinking that steel pyling would be the best answer but it sooo expensive we had one quote for 85000 apprentley we need 27 of them! which sounds alot to me so having some more quotes.

I am cross with the designer as he didnt pick any of this up and on the orignal plans we just assumed where the drains where, we havent laid a single brick yet and we have this 7ft hole in my garage and beginning to think if it is all worth it and just sell up and move

 

[tony1851]

Was £85000 a typo?
Twenty-seven mini-piles is far too much for a job that size.

As per the others, designer should have picked up on this, or were his drawings just pretty pics for Planning plus some cut-and-paste for the builders?

 

[^woody^]

You would only need piling for the parts influencing the drain

 

[laracroft]

Hi

Defo a typo! 8500 is what it was and Yes I thought 27 of them was far too much for the side of the house is where the drainage etc is and also where the two storey will go so dont think its needed to for the other part of the extension which is the back of the house??

 

[laracroft]

If your right !! then you have given me the best new ever!! and my extension that we have been saving 23 years for can go ahead as it will be within budget.