"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
.217...
(Nick Maclaren) wrote in
:

In article ,
DaveDay34 wrote:
Other than the man shot dead for putting some clematis clippings in
the wrong place, I think that the council contractors who carried out
work (weeding and removal of some shrubs) that led to a house needing
to be demolished had to be the worst story on the whole programme.

How on earth did they achieve that? Pull out a mature laurel from
next to a 17th century cottage with a mechanical digger? I can't
think of much else that could do the job.

Pretty much that, I think - though the house wasn't that old (30's at a
guess?). Apparently they used a very big mechanical digger right next to
the foundations, where there were a lot of mature shrubs. There was a
shot
of a trench which looked like it was right next to the house wall.

But it also said that the council had not admited liability, and it did
seem a bit odd that a house of that age would collapse just because of
digging next to the foundations.

It was not what you'd call a balanced program, so there may already have
been some problem that the diggers made worse.

Victoria

The foundations provide a supportive base for the building and the type of
soil depends on the type of foundation.
Also surrounding soil, plants etc. affect the stability of the foundations
..... hence distances of trees being planted close/far to a house as they can
use up quite a lot of water and a reason for when removing large trees to do
the tree removal in stages.
Changes and shifts in surrounding soil can affect the stability of the
foundations ... and you should be very careful about digging a trench right
next to a building especially where it has the potential of undermining the
stability of the foundations as my guess would be that it would act like a
kind of subsidence.
I didn't see that part of the programme but from what's been described -
mature shrubs being removed and a trench right next to the house, let alone
what damage/knocks the digger did to the house foundations when digging the
trench I'm not surprised it collapsed regardless of its age!
L