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Hi

I am building a conservatory onto the back of my house. I have established that I do not need planning permission and am not governed by building control. I even spoke with building control about what foundation stipulations I would have to follow, and they were quite frankly not interested at all.

I began digging my trenches for the foundations this weekend only to find that my house is supported on 150mm slab sitting on piled foundations. This has sent me into complete confusion as I was going to copy the foundations used on my house.

Do I need to introduce piled foundations for my conservatory or should I keep digging what I would image to be extremely deep trenches to find hard ground?

Your comments would be very much appreciated.

Thanks Jim

I have just had an extension built and had to have the foundations piled at a cost of £500 per pile.

The guy that fitted my windows also quoted for a conservatory and said if I was going to have one built then he would reccomend Mini Piles as there is a lot of weight in a conservatory.

[quote="Jimbo2008"]Hi

I am building a conservatory onto the back of my house. I have established that I do not need planning permission and am not governed by building control. I even spoke with building control about what foundation stipulations I would have to follow, and they were quite frankly not interested at all.

I began digging my trenches for the foundations this weekend only to find that my house is supported on 150mm slab sitting on piled foundations. This has sent me into complete confusion as I was going to copy the foundations used on my house.

Do I need to introduce piled foundations for my conservatory or should I keep digging what I would image to be extremely deep trenches to find hard ground?

Your comments would be very much appreciated.

Thanks Jim[/quote]

Hi Jim

Did you ever get this resolved?

I have the same issue, and I am wondering if you went with the piled foundations or not?

Cheers Mark

This is a hard question to answer because I cant see what the ground is like.
When building a house or extension building regs comply but a conservatory does not come under the same stringent rules.The conservatory installer is right about using piled foundations,but the weight is only half the ammount of an extension,so he is just covering his back.
At £500 a pile thats a lot of money,Why not go for a raft foundation it will be cheaper.
hope this helps

[quote="welsh brickie"]This is a hard question to answer because I cant see what the ground is like.
When building a house or extension building regs comply but a conservatory does not come under the same stringent rules.The conservatory installer is right about using piled foundations,but the weight is only half the ammount of an extension,so he is just covering his back.
At £500 a pile thats a lot of money,Why not go for a raft foundation it will be cheaper.
hope this helps[/quote]

£500 per pile is a LOT to pay, if the house is piled then pile the conservatory even if when you dig and it seems hard this is very likely to be a crust over softer ground.
A raft is an option but this needs to be designed properly and there is a lot of digging to do if done properly and a lot of waste to get rid of and replaced by very well compacted stone and steel reinforcement.

i suggest you opt for a reinforced concrete raft and turn the reinforcing into the founation edges. i cant see why you would need mini piling for the loading of a conservatory. use a polysulphide joint between the conservatory and the house.

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