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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:19 pm
by jjay
I'm having a garage built at the back of my property approx 5m x 5m in size. There appears to be concrete laid down already and the builder has advised that if I want to save costs then he can lay down concrete blocks face down as footings and then build a single skin block wall on top that. Do you have an opinion on this ?
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:17 pm
by MatthewWakeman
Could lead to a lot of problems in the future. Do the job right and sleep at night, Dig the footings pref into the clay min 500 wide and 500 deep concrete min 300 deep and build out of the ground. The problem with building from exisitng concrete slab is that it may well heave or shift and with a single skin wall it will only take slight movements to cause cracking. I am sure the existing concrete slab is not on clay or 300mm deep.
Fail to prepare prepare to fail
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:53 pm
by Tony McC
Aaah! A student of the Keano school of philosophy! You don't follow his thinking on anatomy as well, do you, Matthew? 
If the builder could prove that the existing concrete is suitable, ie: that it is thick enough to take the weight, not riddled with cracks, and not crmbling away, and if they were willing to write an insurance-backed guarantee should there be any movement in the next, say, 10 years, then I might be prepared to listen.
Otherwise, I'd want to rip it out and do the job properly.
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:23 pm
by jjay
Thanks