DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

hi all
trying to cut down on the cost of erecting a garage by digging out the footings myself,have had three builders in and they have all come up with different detphs/withds and ideas so a little confused.is there any sort of formula for working this out bearing in mind that we only have to dig no more than eight inches and we are hitting pretty solid compacted material that has to be removed with the aid of a breaker.

See the project on foundations. Depths vary with ground conditions and it is extremely unlikely that your garage is not covered by building regulations asa permanant structure. This means foundations should be approved by the building control officer of your local council. See the projects on planning permission and building regulations.

hello again
followed through on your reply and found it quite imformative,as for building regs we managed to just keep the garage area under 30 sq metres to avoid more cost but my wife has spoke to our local officer and he has said that a trench of 600 mm deep and 200mm wide then filled with concrete to 450 x 200 should be ok and then i suppose you start the blockwork 150mm below ground level but am not 100% sure.