Complex groundworks - Options?

[Russell griffiths]

I have a 1.5 tonne machine that is fairly high spec, so it has a zero swing counterweight, so it turns within its own footprint, it also has variable track width so it’s nice and stable for working but will squeeze through 900mm- 1m cannot remember exactly. 

 

I would get a man and machine, owner operator as he will be quick on it which will save money, just concentrate on shifting the stuff. 

[PeterW]

If you can temporarily widen the track to 1200mm then you can get a bobcat down there and it would make muck shifting and loading a much quicker and easier job. 
 

Out of interest how are you planning on getting the rest of your materials to site..?? I’m assuming there are no big windows etc ..?? 

[Randomiser]

Who owns the land either side of the path?  Can you get agreement to create a wider track for a period of time?  Is there something you can do for them in exchange for letting you move the fence over just a metre or so for the duration of the build?  Then you will be able to get much bigger plant to site which will ultimately save you a lot of time and probably a reasonable amount of money.

[andyscotland]

14 minutes ago, Randomiser said:

Who owns the land either side of the path?  Can you get agreement to create a wider track for a period of time?  Is there something you can do for them in exchange for letting you move the fence over just a metre or so for the duration of the build?  Then you will be able to get much bigger plant to site which will ultimately save you a lot of time and probably a reasonable amount of money.

 

And might also be a selling point to them that it would also probably reduce the disruption/length of time they have to put up with the build...

[Tony K]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

If you can temporarily widen the track to 1200mm then you can get a bobcat down there and it would make muck shifting and loading a much quicker and easier job. 
 

Out of interest how are you planning on getting the rest of your materials to site..?? I’m assuming there are no big windows etc ..?? 

 

The path can't be widened.

At the end of the footpath is my development site, which is next to my current house and my neighbours house. Adjacent to our houses (and the site) is a garage block serving a private cul-de-sac. The residents of that cul-de-sac are nice people, and have put up with myself and my neighbour bringing HGVs down their private road to unload building materials when we extended our houses over the last few years. For some obscure reason, freehold ownership of the roadway and garage block in the cul-de-sac was never passed to the current residents (normal practise is that you buy a share of a management company along with a house in a private street), and so they struggle to arrange repairs to the roadway. End result is, I will take materials down the cul-de-sac when they can't go down the path, but won't abuse the generosity of the cul-de-sac by trundling 100m3 of soil up and down it, or bringing grab lorries to it. 

 

Putting boards up to protect the fences has occured to me, but its an 80m pathway with fences down both sides, so 160m of boarding! Thats a lot of board.

 

 

[Temp]

Crazy thought but would a crane make sense? Eg to lift skips over neighbors property?

[Tony K]

12 minutes ago, Temp said:

Crazy thought but would a crane make sense? Eg to lift skips over neighbors property?

 

I wouldn't have anywhere to put one, and to get the skips to the highway is over 80m, so it would be a huge crane.

 

It's a shame none of the nieghbours need a mountain of clay soil!

 

All the advice on here has firmed up my initial instinct. I will split the groundworks up into parts rather than one big contract.

I will hire a mini digger and driver, along with a mini tracked dumper (and possibly driver), or even two. The dumper will be the one with the greatest capacity possible that can still fit down the footpath, but need not have a shovel fitting.

The earth will be dug out, and taken away down the footpath to the roadside, where it will be wither piled up, or placed in skips or a large container.

Muckaway lorries will come and collect the muck. Frequency of collections will relate to how quickly the skips can be filled up. 

Once the levels are correct I will get a piling firm in to pile it. Either they or I will deal with the muck generated by the piles using same method as above.

I will contract a groundworker for the slabs. They will do the formwork, including rebar, void formers and arrange for cement to be pumped in down the footpath.

 

I will give notice to the neighbours, and pledge to make good any damage to fences or to the path itself. 

 

Thanks all.

 

[scottishjohn]

I take it the plot will not have a garage if acces is so narrow

[Tony K]

2 hours ago, scottishjohn said:

I take it the plot will not have a garage if acces is so narrow

 

No, but then neither does my existing house and we’ve lived here happily for 17 years. 
There's a story here though...

The new build plot is basically a detached second garden which came with our house - it used to be the bottom end of an adjacent garden, but was bought by a previous owner of our house years ago. I work in planning, and for years discounted the idea of ever building on the land as there is no vehicular access, so certainly no parking spot or garage. 

The chronic need for housing is such that planning standards are more realistic now. They just can’t miss out on the prospect of a new house being added to the overall stock just because there isn’t vehicular access. Where I live this used to be a deal breaker. It isn’t now.

 

My planning application started life with plans showing the use of a nearby neighbouring bit of land for parking, just to show that we were not adding to levels of local on-street parking. The owner of that land messed me about a bit, and so following a conversation with the planning officer when he came to see the site, I amended the proposals to discount his land, instead providing a parking survey using the Lambeth Beat method to show that there was plenty of room for me to park on the street locally. Permission granted. 

 

A house with its own parking is of course more valuable and sellable, not to mention convenient for many, but the above is worth thinking about if the lack of parking access is the only major drawback on an otherwise good plot.
 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Tony K

[Russell griffiths]

Look at different piling methods, if you go for a driven pile there will be no muck away with this as opposed to drilling a hole. 

[Tony K]

2 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Look at different piling methods, if you go for a driven pile there will be no muck away with this as opposed to drilling a hole. 

Thanks but I feel I'm too close to neighbouring houses to drive piles. 

[Patrick]

On 06/03/2020 at 22:08, Tony K said:

Thanks but I feel I'm too close to neighbouring houses to drive piles. 

Ours was around 15cm from walls at some point and we build over sewer, so not creating to much vibration was vital. What our guy done, he predrilled the first 2-3m and driven the rest. At that depths, with careful "soft" blows, the vibration should be minimal.

 

What I still don't fully understand is, why you go through all the trouble removing the spoil. Why not build a house that sits above it all. Suspended floor. Either timber or Concrete.

 

[Tony K]

40 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Ours was around 15cm from walls at some point and we build over sewer, so not creating to much vibration was vital. What our guy done, he predrilled the first 2-3m and driven the rest. At that depths, with careful "soft" blows, the vibration should be minimal.

 

What I still don't fully understand is, why you go through all the trouble removing the spoil. Why not build a house that sits above it all. Suspended floor. Either timber or Concrete.

 

 

The house has to sit in a slightly excavated position to ensure that the building isn't too tall in respect of neighbouring properties. That was a key part of getting it through planning. The other issue is threshold level for building regs.

[Oz07]

You don't always need level threshold for building regs. Plot specific. 

[Tony K]

1 hour ago, Oz07 said:

You don't always need level threshold for building regs. Plot specific. 

 

No but I'd struggle to demonstrate any good reason not to have one, plus I kept the heights down for planning (even more so) first time round, then went back in for what I've now got.