> 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/

> 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.)