Garage Workshop Subsidence

Hello Mick,

What a happy ending, surely worth a Boxing Day bonus to the old chap in the pub.

I guess you live in Yorkshire too, how do I know!

Regards

Brian

Just goes to prove the old saying;

"There,s only two ways to do a job,

A Call in the experts

or

B Get someone who knows what they,re talking about. !!

How much has the floor settled?

how far has the wall bowed out

What is the construction of the wall?

I was at a talk today.

Someone found asbestos in a solid bund along a river.

Panic! Asbestos! It must be got rid of! It was going to cost £2.5M to cap it with concrete.

A second opinion was sought and it cost £100K to carry out details site investigations and see how plentiful and mobile the asbestos actually was.

Result was that as long as the bund was left vegetated so the wind couldn't pick up dry soil, the asbestos wasn't going anywhere.

Taxpayer saving £2.4M

Neil

Interesting !!!

friend of mine's widow was advised that the asbestos ceiling of his basement workshop would have to be removed at huge cost. I contacted council building inspector who went away, took some advise and rang me back to say that we should get it sprayed with paint to immobilise any loose fibres and forget about it, so to amplify Larry's comment, get someone who knows about it AND doesn't have a financial stake in choosing the most expensive option

The comment on the “asbestos” bund brought to mind a situation that occurred when I was a governor at our village primary school. The school was undergoing a £2 million plus, rebuilding and extension, while the school was being used. During the planning stage it was found that the site during the 19th century had hosted a brickworks which meant it was deemed a contanimated site because of heavy metals etc. The development budget could not stand the huge cost involved if soil from excavations had to be disposed of off site as it would be deemed contaminated waste needing expensive disposal. The solution, bulldoze the excavated soil to the edge of the site and make a large bund surrounding the site and cover with an impervious membrane, to date I am not aware of any monitoring having been carried out to ensure no leakage of contamination.

Dave W

Also you could investigate a wall crack repair kit when you come to re-pointing. Other makes are available, and  in different diameters.

Not tried one of these myself, but used a similar method to tie inner and outer skins of a wall together.

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 23/02/2018 00:08:05

Inlaws have several out buildings covered in asbestos. Absolutly terrifying considering I used to mill, turn and band saw it with no protection before it turned deadly.

Mark, was there a point in time when asbestos suddenly turned deadly? Only joking we all know what you mean. Dave W

There are times when any attempt at rationalisation is futile, some of those OT moments can be educational though.
DaveD

It was my example of how another expensive knee-jerk solution was rationalised with knowledgable advice.

Neil

If the concrete is being relaid and the hardcore is 2' deep remove the hardcore and relay it in 4" layers compacted.It is not sensible to relay concrete without doing this as the hardcore will keep sinking down.In the drought of 1976 whole floors left the skirting in properties built on clay which dried out and shrank letting the concrete sink. hardcore was tipped in without compacting in layers before this date and the regulations were changed after this.

Another ancient builder Frank

Sometimes the best parts of these posts are when it goes down a different path. Not slighting Anyone. Just an unexpected dessert.

You could also look into having the sub base Pressure Grouted to stabalise and strengthen it.

Asbestos comes in three forms. Blue asbestos, Brown asbestos and White/Grey asbestos. They are treated in separate ways. Blue is by far the most dangerous and once confirmed after testing must be removed and only by a specialist companies. I also believe that legally the Environmental Health and Safety Department must be informed. Brown is next and is relatively safe and left alone in situ so long as their is no damage to the surface allowing fibres to escape. Obviously there can be no drilling or modifications to Brown asbestos structures once in place. White / Grey is the least dangerous and most old corrugated roofs are made from this form of asbestos. Incidentally there is a lot of low grade asbestos in older schools and left in place as long as it is untouched. At a place where I worked I was responsible for removing some old large factory heating boilers when we discovered asbestos that, after testing, proved to be Blue. The H & S Inspector shut the building down and the company who removed it shrouded and sealed the whole building in plastic sheeting and to enter you had to go through an air lock with a negative pressure inside the building to prevent asbestos escaping.

There are 6 forms of asbestos . They can be grouped into amphibole or serpentine groups depending on the chemistry of the rocks they are formed from. The more dangerous is the amphibole type. The white form, chrysotile, is a serpentine form and was previously not considered as dangerous as brown or blue as the fibers are usually shorter and less sharp. I remember being taken to an white asbestos mine (openpit) as a student and picking bits up to take home! incidentally this mine had Europes largest spoil heap at the time. One rare type called erionite, is responsible for many deaths in a village in Turkey and Amosite is an acronym for asbestos mines of South Africa.

Sugar !