Footings & Excavation in Stratford-upon-Avon, priced in writing before anything starts.
Groundworks in Stratford carry two considerations that most towns do not, and both belong in a budget rather than in a surprise.
The first is archaeology. In a historic town centre the council may attach an archaeological condition to a permission that involves excavation, usually a watching brief, meaning an archaeologist attends and records while the dig proceeds. It is a cost and a diary constraint rather than an obstacle, and the way to keep it small is to programme it properly rather than to call somebody at short notice with a machine already standing idle.
The second is what you are digging next to. Historic buildings and garden walls here sit on very little foundation, built in lime mortar, and they will not tolerate a trench opened alongside them in one go. Excavation next to them is sequenced, supported where necessary, and never rushed to suit a hire rate. On a timber framed building the sill beam sits close to ground level and is exceptionally vulnerable to being undermined or wetted during works.
Where flood risk applies to a site it can affect floor levels and therefore the whole ground works design, which is another reason the water question comes before the foundation drawing rather than after it.
Everything is inspected before it is covered. Our footings and excavation page explains how we approach foundations and site preparation.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the Stratford-on-Avon District Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our footings & excavation page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Stratford-upon-Avon street to the next.
Getting plant into a town centre plot or down a walled village lane is frequently the constraint that decides whether a job is a machine dig or a hand dig, and the difference is several times the labour for the same hole. We establish it at the survey and price it honestly.
Muck away needs a grab lorry with somewhere legal to stand, which in the town centre is a highway matter for Warwickshire County Council and a pedestrian management question as well.
Nothing gets dug until we know what is already down there. In a town rebuilt in stages over centuries the service records are poor, so we scan before breaking ground.
On a timber framed building we protect the base of the frame during groundworks as a matter of course, because a sill beam that gets soaked through a three week dig is a repair bill nobody budgeted for.
Part of our wider building work in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
