building under trees

[Gaz]

Hi,

I want to build a small building in my garden as a recording studio. I suppose it's like a kitchen extension but not attached to the house. I'll use bricks, breeze blocks and soundprrofing insulation in the cavity.

However, I want to build it at the back of my garden under the trees. I know I have to dig up foundations and fill in with concrete. My question is, can I have foundations without digging? I want to protect the tree roots. Can I build up a small wall of bricks on the ground and fill that with concrete to act as the foundations or do foundations *have* to be underground?

thanks, Gaz.

[Peter Ashby]

You can lay a concrete pad and build on that which will not entail going very deep.

Peter

[Hugo Nebula]

From the chaotic regions of the Cryptosphere, [e-mail] (Gaz) wrote on 28 Jul 2003 04:17:13 -0700:

If the floor area is less than 30m², then it would be exempt from the Building Regulations, so the depth of the foundations would be whatever you think is sufficient. If it's over 30m² then you need an application, and Building Control will want to see adequate foundations. If you want a building that's not going to start cracking after the first few weeks, then it needs some foundations onto something that will bear its weight.

The fact that you want to build it "under the trees" sends alarm bells ringing. Anything built near trees in any kind of ground could cause problems, and if the ground is clay, then the foundations need to be several metres deep to avoid potential shrinkage problems.

[Mike Taylor]

Unfortunately another person on here with what is called "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" Just cos the building is under X sq metres does NOT make it exempt from building control, It may or may not make it exempt from Planning but that depends on many other factors. Any structural alteration to your house that may or may not involve a habitable or "permanent structure certainly would require to be built under the control of the building control section of the local authority.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mmm. First of all you can get away with cutting thjrough tree roots without killing teh tree, as long as you ae not TOO close, but you MUST go deep, as the cutting of teh roots will increase local mosture content, and, on clay espceailly, give rise to swelling ground - heave.

The most environnatally nice way to do what you want - is expensibve - and consist in drillng hoes and putting in DEEP plies, and bridging them with beams of concrete. Youy can then lay a suspended concrete floor over that lot and leave an air gacp umnderneath. If you don;t want to be ablke to see under it, you trench a little bit to lay the beams in on top of teh piles, or backfill later on to raise the ground level.

I'd get a structural engineer in to advise you on teh options.

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Mike Taylor writes

Err.... have you been around here long? Think you might find if you look back on Hugo's (many and helpful) previous posts that he is a building control officer in real life, so he would probably know.