are my footings deep & wide enough for 2 story ext

[intheflesh]

Hi I hope someone will be able to help me here.
after a kitchen fire I have decided to take the single story kitchen down and build up to 2 story.
I think the footings are deep enough as it was built with adding to it in mind 25 odd years ago. But im sure regs have changed.

They go down about 18 inch from the bottom brick (4th down) as seen here.


the spade is where the footings stop and the top brick is about ground level.

The second thing that bothers me is the width of the footings which as you can see here by the two courses of brick is only about 250mm wide (very narrow cavity). Is this wide enough for a two story?


the ground is what I would describe as sandy clay. It is quite dense although if i push hard I can get my finger about 3cm deep into it.

Any views would be greatly appreciated.
cheers

 

[jeds]

The minimum depth of a foundation in clay soil is 900mm but there is no specific rule on width. The width depends on the total load and the load bearing capacity of the soil. From your description I would say your clay is on the soft side. It should be quite hard to push a finger in beyond about 10mm. If you were building this new you would be looking at a minimum 450mm wide foundation - possibly more.

 

[stuart45]

My guess is that the Bco will not accept them.

 

[intheflesh]

yeah afer digging more today i realised that the ground underneath is really soft and also has a leaking sewage pipe underneath so am going to rer do it all anyway.
Cheers for your comments