piled underpinning - a case study

Kingsley Place, Highgate, London N6

Where site investigations indicate that soil has been affected to such a depth that traditional underpinning techniques would be inappropriate, our in house Engineers give consideration to providing either a pile and ground beam system or a piled raft solution.

At this subject property, a very large and mature ash tree growing close to the rear wall of the building had adversely affected the moisture content of the clay below the existing foundations causing severe subsidence damage to the walls above.

Due to the large size and proximity of the tree, traditional underpin pads would necessarily have to be taken down to depths in excess of 5 metres to ensure that the new foundations would have been unaffected by the tree root action.

Such pads would have been very time consuming to construct, and thus costly, as well as potentially damaging the tree root system endangering the healthy survival of the tree.

As only the rear part of the property had been affected, a pile and ground beam was considered to be the most suitable solution, both in technical and economic terms. This solution also had the advantage of being quick and thus cost effective to install as well as causing minimal disturbance to the tree roots.

By adopting a cantilevered piled system it was possible to site the majority of piles outside the property considerably reducing the amount of internal disruption.

Access to the rear of the property was severely restricted necessitating the piling rig and plant having to be tracked through the lounge and rear patio doors into the back garden. Due to the compact and lightweight nature of the piling rig this complex and tortuous manoeuvre was undertaken in very little time, with minimal disruption and the entire piling operations were completed in three days.

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