Message to noseall

[nelliedee]

Hi
I have put a picture of our steel plan on our website and would be grateful if u could have a look. link removed and steels link is shown at the top of home page.
The nib on left of picture was (as far as we can tell) not going to be used to support the beam 4 above and a column has been designed to run up the front of the nib. Because we have made a mistake and not allowed enough of an area of footings to take column, we decided (on the word of a steel installer) to remove nib and use footing area underneath nib to install the column. Problem we have now is that our footins are concrete and trench blocks and they finish low down, within water table. Do you know what the minimum depth and width of concrete is needed to support the said column? I am now worried that we may be making the situation worse and our structual man is on holiday and would be grateful for some advice.
Had we left the nib in place, we would then be positioning beam 4 less than a metre in from the front and this is not allowed.
Origionally when the footins were put in we should have widened and deepened the area, so that column area would have protuded upwards further than the surrounding footings, I feel thats where the mistake was.
If we put resin bolts into original footings, would we need to bolt onto sides of wall as well? cos we would need to join a new concrete footings area to sides as well as top of footings.
In a mess and tearful
Nelliedee

 

[nelliedee]

heres the picture

 

[Deluks]

Origionally when the footins were put in we should have widened and deepened the area, so that column area would have protuded upwards further than the surrounding footings, I feel thats where the mistake was.
If we put resin bolts into original footings, would we need to bolt onto sides of wall as well? cos we would need to join a new concrete footings area to sides as well as top of footings.
In a mess and tearful
Nelliedee

I suggest you go back back and make it right, otherwise things just get messy. If you have to go and dig out around the existing footings then so be it. 'topping up' concrete will require tying into the existing, yes I would've thought resibar on top and sides necessary. You may have to make this extended section even bigger to compensate.

If your engineer is on holiday, then you should either wait for him to return or get another one for advice in before you proceed.
As this is a DIY forum, come inspection time you can't exactly say "well I didn't know what to do but this bloke on the internet said......"

 

[nelliedee]

yes I can here where u are comming from and it does feel to be getting messy. We shall have to wait for structual eng to come home. Thanks for your help

 

[noseall]

yes I can here where u are comming from and it does feel to be getting messy. We shall have to wait for structual eng to come home. Thanks for your help

this is the wisest move.

a structural engineer can recommend and indeed prove with calculations whether or not a foundation is deep enough for the task in hand.

who was responsible for the foundation dig? it was rather a howler of an oversight, i'm sorry to say.

we once had to build a brick column 450mm x 550mm that would carry a pair of steels, that were designed to carry the corner of a building. the foundation for this column was 1000mm(wide)x 900mm(long) x 1000mm(deep)

 

[nelliedee]

The original builder!!! got the push after the foundations were finished as we were quite worried at the time that he wasnt competent. We went on to iron out a few mistakes ie; every single underground pipe being smashed being one... We have now unearthed this major problem and are trying to rectify this. Thanks for all your advice guys.
Nelliedee