Hello,
I'm just wondering what happens when a building inspector says the depth of excavation for foundations is not deep enough. After the inspection does the inspector trust that the builder will excavate to the depth he requires or does he come back for another inspection before concrete is poured?
Thanks,
Graham
Usually the latter.
His decision not yours. he will want to see it again before you pour the concreate.
Good luck. I hope you don't get the same inspector that I had in 1984. I had gained planning permission to demolish an existing derelict garage & storeroom. To be replaced by single storey garage/workshop of 8x8M. Plans specified 1M footings. At this time a new 5 bed house was being built 20M away so I had the same building contractors do the job.
Hand dug [1] foundations to 1M. Send in card to council. Bod turns up. Intake of air through teeth- let's make that a little deeper, say another metre. Hand dig another metre. Repeat process. And when the dick turned up he told us to dig another metre. So now my workshop has more under the ground than above. Same building inspector passed 1M footings on the new vicarage 20M away.
I probably should have complained. Put it down to youth and inexperience.
[1] Hand dug necessary because of a listed 16th wall within 200mm of the curtilege. Wall 3M high, foundations 3M deep. Some scary moments.
The latter
In fact he even made us remove backfill selectively so he could check we hadn't pulled a fast one.
Unless a trial hole had been dug, there would have been no way to determine the suitability of foundations at 1.0m. I suspect any (approved) plans would have had the caveat, "or to a suitable bearing strata".
So the base of your foundation was above that of an adjoining structure? If it was within 200mm of the adjoining foundation, presumably it was on the backfill around it.
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