Victorian house foundations

[jenjen]

Hi

We want to do a loft conversion. Our house is a three bed semi-detatched victorian building. The foundations are only 220 mm deep - bore holes were done about 9 years ago when a tree root caused minor probs. Will this be a problem or cause subsidence?

We have spoken to structural engineers and are having plans and calculations put in for a full plans submission to building control. They all said that loft only add a small amount of weight.

The loft will be a hip to gable conversion. The extra weight of building the gable end will hopefully be offset by the removal of the chimney stacks and replacing our roof tiles. At the moment the tiles are concrete but we're going to use tiles that are a third of the weight.

The gable end will be built up using London stock on the outside with stud work inside but we will need three steels...

J

 

[noseall]

there may be one or two engineers on this forum who could maybe give guideline advice but i would imagine each house would have to be assessed upon its own merits.

this would no doubt involve a site visit or some pretty good photo's.

 

[joe-90]

If the house has stood for 100 years without sinking, the amount of extra weight you are talking about isn't even worth thinking about.
A large wardrobe and a couple of fat people would weigh more than that.

Besides, it's not the depth of a foundation that is important - it is the substrate that the foundation sits on that takes the weight.