Basement extension house collapses - oops!

Basement extension house collapses - oops!

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Discussion

hornetrider

Original Poster:

63,161 posts

204 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
Builder claims 'it's nothing to do with the works, it's just an old house' laugh

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3335283/Si...


Funkycoldribena

7,379 posts

153 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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That'll be out of service for a while..

JJ55

649 posts

114 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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They do a lot of these basement conversions near me. Always wondered if this could happen. Hope their neighbours homes haven't been structurally damaged.

Zod

35,295 posts

257 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
English Heritage should prosecute him, the architect and the builder.

dudleybloke

19,717 posts

185 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Oops.

randlemarcus

13,507 posts

230 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Zod said:
English Heritage should prosecute him, the architect and the builder.
For what? Boggo unlisted house in a nice spot is replaced by boggo unlisted house in a nice spot. Meh.

Du1point8

21,604 posts

191 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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There was one in South London on a normal terrace and the owners wanted a useable cellar (room, bathroom, etc) and the developer fked up... the developer turns out he didn't have insurance and said sorry nothing he can do..

Couple are pissed off with him for not having insurance...

I would be knocking heads if I owned the top flat... the crack goes all the way through the building and because downstairs went with cheapest quote, builder doesnt have insurance and they said to top floor flat, sorry you need to take it up with them.

FourWheelDrift

88,381 posts

283 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Aimee Duffy, there's a name that's dropped off the radar for a while.




Oh and good builders can do basements and lower basements without buildings falling down.

Justayellowbadge

37,057 posts

241 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Doesn't mean anything preservation wise.

There's a new build round the corner from me, that replaced an older house, somewhat incongruously they kept the plaque that the old house had.

vonuber

17,868 posts

164 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Surely the HSE should investigate (if there are any officers left)?

kev1974

4,029 posts

128 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Zod said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
English Heritage should prosecute him, the architect and the builder.
Seen several people tweeting that they think this was a "deliberate accident" but I am not so sure. As it happens I walk past this house almost every single day for the last two years as it is just a few doors down from me. It has been under reconstruction/refurb for the whole of that time and all the digging out work was done months and months ago, and the most recent planning permission was done and dusted about a year ago. In recent months there has been a hell of a lot of concrete getting pumped IN. If you wanted an "accident" of that sort to happen surely you would do it much earlier in the build process, like about three years ago in this case (the last resident Duffy moved out four years ago). In fact all the scaffolding just went back up on it last week (they changed scaffolding contractors or something) with a load of expensive beams so my guess is they have attached that new scaffolding to the building somewhere and it's stressed some weak wall differently. That or there were pretty high winds last week so maybe they weakened something crucial.

Feel sorry for the family in the lovely adjoining house next door who only moved in a couple of months ago, after a massive year long refurb on their place as well. There is some talk that their house may be fatally weakened and have to come down as well, we will see.

I would expect that the nature of the location and the age of the house will mean that it will have to be rebuilt to look exactly as it did before the collapse.

Has caused traffic gridlock all day frown

Huff

3,141 posts

190 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Likely no architect involved (not that they would be directly liable, actually, if the design & construction management plan was basically competent).

The point is, there have been no shortage of such 'basement extensions' collapsing in London in the last 5yrs or so it has become popular - because they /are/ being executed by utter idiots trading as 'basement extension specialists' to seve a greedy, narcissistic market. It is a technically-difficult thing to do safely, let alone well: but most will engage a contractor on cost alone. Guess what happens. It often leaves the owners with real difficulties becasue it'll turn out the bloke doing the digging with a couple of 2x4s has no clue as to appropriate techniques, let alone insurance... and if it falls down, you fold the company vehicle for this job, carry on with the one up the road anyway. Owner left chasing losses against a few sheets of letterhead.

So, yes, HSE is /very/ interested in the whole market, for obvious reasons. Just rmemeber the HSE couldnt care less about financial losses arising of course, and neither does anyone else. Except the mortgagee - caveat emptor.

Edited by Huff on Friday 27th November 00:40

TheInternet

4,703 posts

162 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Huff said:
It is a technically-difficult thing to do safely, let alone well...
My ex-neighbour decided his lower ground floor flat wasn't big enough so one day just made a hole in his kitchen floorboards and started digging. Spent over two years on it pissing everyone off but always made me wonder if it was an appropriate DIY project.

Huff

3,141 posts

190 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Sure it is, just like licking the meter tails to make sure the 'leccy is still on in the street...

a_bread

721 posts

184 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Du1point8 said:
downstairs went with cheapest quote, builder doesnt have insurance and they said to top floor flat, sorry you need to take it up with them.
Try that on in court. "Downstairs" is in exceedingly deep st.

audidoody

8,595 posts

255 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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i'm guessing that hundreds of ex-Phones 4U employees will be setting up a JustGiving page for the poor owner.

Camoradi

4,285 posts

255 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Daily Mail journo's notebook .....

"Ex-Phones4U boss's £3.5mtownhouse"

"Ex-Phones4U boss's £3.0m townhouse"

"Ex-Phones4U boss's £2.5m townhouse"

"Ex-Phones4U boss's £2.0m townhouse"

"Ex-Phones4U boss's £1.0m building plot"

a_bread

721 posts

184 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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In referring to where a person lives, the estimated value of the property always has to go in! Is this a peculiarly British approach to journalism based on our obsession with house prices or does everyone else do it too?

Camoradi

4,285 posts

255 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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I think it's just the Daily Mail. It's like Rightmove with girls in bikinis smile

iphonedyou

9,234 posts

156 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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audidoody said:
i'm guessing that hundreds of ex-Phones 4U employees will be setting up a JustGiving page for the poor owner.
He's had a fairly terrible time of it recently.