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Some Victorian houses don’t have foundations, but this is not the norm. There is often a problem with cracking, but this is often to do with the river plain th

Some Victorian houses don’t have foundations, but this is not the norm. There is often a problem with cracking, but this is often to do with the river plain that London is built on (many rivers are actually now subterranean now). Changes in water content of the soil has an undermining effect on foundations.

aries1980 7y ago
> Some Victorian houses don’t have foundations, but this is not the norm University of West England seems to disagree: https://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/elements/print.htm https://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/elements/print.htm > Many local authorities were slow in adopting Model Bye-laws; even where they did, building control was fairly lax. This meant that the nature and quality of foundations varied considerably. The graphics below show typical foundations at the end of the 1800s. The depths varied according to circumstances but generally they were shallower than their modern counterparts. This means, they are shallower than other parts of the world of the same era. Also: https://newmanbuildingsolutions.com/bowing-walls/residential-victorian-properties-part-1/ https://newmanbuildingsolutions.com/bowing-walls/residential... > The Victorians often didn’t use this method of construction for foundations and instead used to build shallow footings out of a course of 5-6 bricks in a ‘pyramid’ shape spreading the load across the ground and in some cases the footings are no more than 200mm’s deep. > [...] The problems with the shallow foundations arise due to the shrinkage and heave of the clay soils that are found across London and the South East So the roots. Energy-wise the lack of insulation on the foundation is also an issue. Heat can escape downwards as well. (And slugs, rats, spiders up, but that's an other story.)
- hardlianotion 7y ago
  I don't see a contradiction! And yes, trees have a really big effect on the soil moisture content.
gerdesj 7y ago
My aunt and uncle's house has 1642 written on it, which was when it was last rebuilt from scratch. For the last few hundred years or so it has been simply patched with more mud, straw and horse piss. It too has no foundations to speak of unless you count the rather hard earth on which it stands. I tried smacking it with a lump hammer and once I'd stopped vibrating, I could not see a dent in it. One day I'll get a decent sized masonry bit out and see just how hard it really is but I suspect it is harder or at least tougher than the modern concrete base in my 1920s job. Back on topic, we have a 50' walnut tree in our garden that we tend to. It gets a feed every other year. Next door is a 100+ acre park, mostly woodland: oak, ash, beech, horse chestnut etc. It is really starting to look lovely after a 10 year plan to get rid of the laurels, which were planted about 150 odd years back but have turned out to be invasive, poisonous and left unchecked nearly took over completely.
- aries1980 7y ago
  Not many dwelling from that era can satisfy the EPC rating B, like your aunt's. On https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207196/20130613_-_Hedonic_Pricing_study_-_DECC_template__2_.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... , on page 13 you can find the distribution of EPC ratings by age.

aries1980 7y ago

> Some Victorian houses don’t have foundations, but this is not the norm University of West England seems to disagree: https://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/elements/print.htm https://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/elements/print.htm > Many local authorities were slow in adopting Model Bye-laws; even where they did, building control was fairly lax. This meant that the nature and quality of foundations varied considerably. The graphics below show typical foundations at the end of the 1800s. The depths varied according to circumstances but generally they were shallower than their modern counterparts. This means, they are shallower than other parts of the world of the same era. Also: https://newmanbuildingsolutions.com/bowing-walls/residential-victorian-properties-part-1/ https://newmanbuildingsolutions.com/bowing-walls/residential... > The Victorians often didn’t use this method of construction for foundations and instead used to build shallow footings out of a course of 5-6 bricks in a ‘pyramid’ shape spreading the load across the ground and in some cases the footings are no more than 200mm’s deep. > [...] The problems with the shallow foundations arise due to the shrinkage and heave of the clay soils that are found across London and the South East So the roots. Energy-wise the lack of insulation on the foundation is also an issue. Heat can escape downwards as well. (And slugs, rats, spiders up, but that's an other story.)

hardlianotion 7y ago
I don't see a contradiction! And yes, trees have a really big effect on the soil moisture content.

gerdesj 7y ago

My aunt and uncle's house has 1642 written on it, which was when it was last rebuilt from scratch. For the last few hundred years or so it has been simply patched with more mud, straw and horse piss. It too has no foundations to speak of unless you count the rather hard earth on which it stands. I tried smacking it with a lump hammer and once I'd stopped vibrating, I could not see a dent in it. One day I'll get a decent sized masonry bit out and see just how hard it really is but I suspect it is harder or at least tougher than the modern concrete base in my 1920s job. Back on topic, we have a 50' walnut tree in our garden that we tend to. It gets a feed every other year. Next door is a 100+ acre park, mostly woodland: oak, ash, beech, horse chestnut etc. It is really starting to look lovely after a 10 year plan to get rid of the laurels, which were planted about 150 odd years back but have turned out to be invasive, poisonous and left unchecked nearly took over completely.

aries1980 7y ago
Not many dwelling from that era can satisfy the EPC rating B, like your aunt's. On https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207196/20130613_-_Hedonic_Pricing_study_-_DECC_template__2_.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... , on page 13 you can find the distribution of EPC ratings by age.