Jodie

Thanks again Gus. I really appreciate your advice. The builder is the owner, he’s building to sell. We had our foundations vibro compacted. It was done in a few hours and been perfect for 21 years up to now.

It was two weeks of torture, every second the ground pulsated and the house shook. Every second, 8 hours a day for two weeks. It’s not about repairing damage, it’s about insidious future problems that will manifest maybe in 12 months or 12 years. This is our home that we built and have lived in happily for 21 years. Why should people be allowed to come and wreck other people's property. They knew the soil wasn’t build worthy but steamed ahead regardless.

Here’s the piling drawing, stating 4 metres depth!

Thank you for the time taken to reply Gus, it’s really appreciated. I will take your comments and put them to the chartered surveyor. He hasn’t been back to photograph since. I have taken videos and photographs of how bad it actually was. I feel really stressed about the situation. We have been here 22 years after building the house ourselves. We’ve never had any issues with movement. I will be devastated if this now happens.

They’ve finally finished today! Does anyone know a rough estimate of how much it will have cost for the piling and concrete? I’m intrigued. Piles were 168mm diameter, 20m deep.

Apparently it used to be a large pond across where we built 21 years ago and next door’s garden. They knew this like we did when they had the surveys done but still went ahead. We had our land vibro compacted. It was done in a day and has remained sound for 21 years.

We’ve asked the agreed surveyor to request the report 👍🏻

Thanks everyone. The piling has finally stopped today. They never seemed to have a site supervisor. Just two guys looking at their phones all day while the pounding went on, unless they were doing a bit of welding. There was a vibration monitor, they put it on the concrete base of one of our fence panels. They said the highest recording was 7mm/s (which was the piles located closest to our property), with an average of 4mm/2 up to now. I’m struggling to believe this as it’s been horrendous. There used to be a pond on the garden which they knew about and the land survey suggested the ground was incredibly soft. Some cracks have appeared around a couple of window frames and there is one on the wall of the stairs around 4 inches long but it is on a corner join. The cosmetic things are disappointing but it’s the long term damage to foundations that really concerns me.

I live adjacent to where building work has commenced to build a small two storey property. We were served with a party wall agreement, as 5 of the piles are within 3 metres of our home and others are 6 metres, the furthest being around 14 metres. We appointed a joint chartered surveyor with the builder. The piling has differed to that stated in the piling RAMS of a depth of 4-5 metres, in that the piles are going much further into the ground than first anticipated, with all going as much as 20m below ground level. There are a total of thirty piles in a very small area. It has taken 11 days so far. It goes without saying that there is significantly more piling undertaken to that which was proposed and has caused a significant level of additional vibration to our property. I feel the builder is inconsiderate. He is piling 20 metres deep, causing intense vibration every second of every working day, up to 8 hours, for the last two weeks. We have cracks around our window frames and soil deposits appearing in between the block paving path. The continuous pulsating under the house and shaking within every room makes me feel sick with worry. I feel powerless to do anything and don’t know what repercussions we will have in the future. Can anyone advise?