A friend of mine is having a detached garage built but I fear the builder may be somewhat of a cowboy.
The concrete floor is laid directly onto the ground, some of which is backfill. The floor itself is only about 1" thick. Is this enough? She says he made a trench about a foot deep for the foundation, then poured concrete into this and built walls onto that. I can't see a DPC in the wall and she tells me she did not see a membrane go in under the floor.
Now I am by no means an expert on such things, but I recently built a conservatory and advice I got was far from what he appears to have done. I was told foundations should be 1m deep with 150mm of hardcore, then 300mm concrete, then build up to just below ground with concrete blocks and finally build up to the DPC with engineers brick. For the floor, 100mm hardcore, 50mm sand, damp proof membrane, 50mm insulation, 100mm concrete and finally a layer of screed.
Did I waste a lot of time, effort and money? Or is she being ripped off? The ground in both cases is wet clay but quite firm.
The concrete floor is laid directly onto the ground, some of which is backfill. The floor itself is only about 1" thick. Is this enough? She says he made a trench about a foot deep for the foundation, then poured concrete into this and built walls onto that. I can't see a DPC in the wall and she tells me she did not see a membrane go in under the floor.
Now I am by no means an expert on such things, but I recently built a conservatory and advice I got was far from what he appears to have done. I was told foundations should be 1m deep with 150mm of hardcore, then 300mm concrete, then build up to just below ground with concrete blocks and finally build up to the DPC with engineers brick. For the floor, 100mm hardcore, 50mm sand, damp proof membrane, 50mm insulation, 100mm concrete and finally a layer of screed.
Did I waste a lot of time, effort and money? Or is she being ripped off? The ground in both cases is wet clay but quite firm.
