Wonky hen house (garage and workshop subsidence)

DB1

Joined
7 Oct 2012
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Location
Essex
Country
United Kingdom
Hi,

I am buying a late Victorian house in Essex. It has a large garage and workshop, which are two old chicken houses which have been pushed together and joined. The garage is OK'ish and the owner told me that it was built on footings. But the workshop was just built on top of a concrete slab. Over the years the slab has sunk/slipped in the far left hand side rear corner (i.e. the one corner you can't see in the photo I added! Sorry it's the only photo I have at the moment). As a result the doors and walls are out of square and it looks poor (doors broken - doesn't open etc). The soil is clay based and also close to a village pond and has a ditch running down the side... and an old well pump close by... No wonder the concrete slab sunk! So I am planning my assault on the property and thinking about what to do for the workshop. I could do with some ideas and advice... budget is tight. So the challenge is to do this on a shoestring. It's also in a conservation area so minimum (discrete) work preferred rather than seeking permission to demolish an old building and install a new one.

Option 1: Rip the whole lot down and dig up the concrete base and start again... with proper footings!
Option 2: Could I take down the wooden structure, then underpin the rear and side section of the concrete base and then level out the dipped corner by laying a new leveling layer of cement (it would be 6 or so inches thick at it's deepest) then re-build the wooden structure.
Option 3: Could it have stopped sinking and I just lay a leveling layer on top? and then re-build as above.
Option 4: Could I drill through the concrete slab and install some kind of pilings.
Option 5+: Any other bright ideas?

P.S. I have zero building experience other than I can plaster and I once built a wooden shed but after this experience I expect to know much much more. :eek:)

 
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Prop the roof over a large span and hoik it up to its correct level. Temporary rsj maybe or strongbacks bolted together.
Then hire in as large an excavator as possible (rock hammer piped) and dig out the subsided area till you hit hard ground.
The siding may hang there. If not then secure it also.
If the propping span is too short then found that section and move on to the next section.

You can let the wall collapse and use it as back fill or retrieve some of it. Up to you?
Then fill back with hardcore and whacker plate or vibrating roller to pack it down.
Then reinforced concrete foundation maybe or finished floor in one go.
You'll probably brick the wall back up. We would shutter it with concrete but thats our speciality.
Difficult to say what method would be best without seeing tho.
If the timber is in good condition then why pull it down?

Any subsidence or risk of subsidence we come across is dealt with in three steps. Excavation, retaining (shuttered) wall and back fill. Job done.
 
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