Footings & Excavation in Banbury, priced in writing before anything starts.
Groundworks around Banbury are shaped by two things: what the ground is, and what is already standing on it.
Ironstone ground can be excellent to found on and hard to get through, and the two frequently occur within a few metres of each other. That variability is why we put in a trial hole before the design is fixed rather than pricing off an assumption. It is the single most useful hour spent on a project here and it turns the biggest variable in the price into a known figure.
The second factor is the existing building. Old stone walls sit on very little foundation, sometimes on nothing more than a slightly wider course of stone bedded straight onto the ground, and they are entirely intolerant of a trench opened alongside them in one go. Excavation next to them is done in short lengths, supported where necessary, and never rushed to suit a hire rate. Where the wall is shared, that is party wall territory and needs proper notice.
The usual tree considerations apply on top. On shrinkable ground a foundation near a mature tree goes deeper than standard, and in a conservation area that tree is protected as well.
Everything is inspected before it is covered. We book the inspections and we do not pour over an unseen trench. Our footings and excavation page explains our approach.
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 Cherwell 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 Banbury street to the next.
Getting plant down a narrow village lane and onto a plot is the constraint that most often decides whether a groundworks 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 put it in the price.
Muck away needs a grab lorry with somewhere legal to stand, and on a single track lane with stone walls both sides that is a genuine logistical question rather than an afterthought.
Nothing gets dug until we know what is already down there. Village service runs are frequently uncharted, so we scan before breaking ground.
Where a trial hole finds rock rather than clay we tell you before you commit, because the machine, the breaker and the number of days on site all change with it, and that is a conversation to have over a quotation rather than a variation.
Part of our wider building work in Banbury.
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.
