Are these conservatory footings deep enough? - pictures.

Hello,

I've got a uPVC conservatory attached to the rear of my house. It has a 3 course engineering brick base, upon which the uPVC conservatory sits.

I'm thinking of pulling the uPVC part down, and replacing it with a single skin brick summer room with windows (so there will be no cavity wall).

The roof will be Marley concrete tile to match the rest of the house.

My question is; are the existing footings deep enough (8 inches)?





I've lifted a paving slab, and dug to the bottom of the footings. The foundation has small stones in it, making the base concrete, but it doesn't extend out laterally beyond the brickwork - it only seems to be the same width as the brick.

The brickwork that will eventually sit on this will reach 4.6m high to the rear, and 2.4m at the front (for the sloping roof).

I have searched the forum for similar scenarios, but there are many ways to build a conservatory (uPVC / brick / cavity wall), and I'm sure this affects the foundation requirements.

I have approached some builders, but they want to rip everything up (including the foundations and tiled floor) which will increase the cost significantly. None of the builders that have estimated knew anything about the foundations either, as I've dug them up today to have a look. There's nothing wrong with the existing floor so I'd like to keep it if I can to reduce costs.


Thanks.

Are you intending to get Building Control involved?

I think the less intervention by the state the better..

BTW, what are the potential problems?

Your foundation if complying with the regs would be around 1m deep and 150mm wider than the wall each side. One concern may be frost damage but as you don't care bout the regs and its sat there quite happily for a while it'll prob be ok. It doesn't look wider than the wall so sit a brick wall and roof on it at your own risk.

Bottom of foundation looks to be 400mm below ground level in clay soil with no concrete width to the side of the wall which is only single skin.
As said if you dont want a proper job with regs etc then go for it
Your builders are talking sense, any one that tells you this is ok to build from is a muppet.

could it be a pad?

if you want to keep the floor you could always pour another foundation outside the existing footprint and then make good the gap and infill the tiles etc..

2 choices. do it cheap and regret it later and pay again or pay more, do it right and have peace of mind


you need a new tape measure by the way!

Thanks for the replies.

I think I might go with ColJack's idea, and dig around the foundation to create a new one, and then build up from that. I can always get creative with some boarder tiles around the edge.

Thermo, I've had that B&Q value tape measure for 5 years - I'm not giving up on it now!

did it come with the stick?