OUR SUBSIDENCE
SURVEYS
Prevent hidden, potentially dangerous and costly structural issues from getting out of hand – check your building’s structure with AMS Surveys. We’ll help identify and address issues before they become more serious problems, with structural surveys, inspections, engineer's reports, structural calculations suitable for Building Regulations, and structural investigations. Serving Cheshire, Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester, and across the North.
CHOSEN AND TRUSTED BY CLIENTS ACROSS THE NORTH
WHAT IS SUBSIDENCE INVESTIGATION?
Since 1971, subsidence cover has been included within household insurance policies. As a result, subsidence has since become very much associated with buildings insurance claims. Subsidence, as defined within the terms of an insurance policy, usually includes heave, landslip, and water damage (typically leakage from below-ground drainage or water supply services).
Ground and foundation movement and the associated damage brought about by these can affect the structure of a building.
This is, of course, by no means the only principal cause, nor the only possible cause of subsidence damage. Problems occurring through major foundation movements can also be due to a number of causes. For example, there may be adverse groundwater effects upon loose, granular or sandy soils, in which damage occurs through a landslip or retaining wall failure.
Subsidence is also common in mining areas, in which collapse and movement occur due to features in chalk, clay or due to the settlement or failure of made-up ground.
INTRUSIVE SUBSIDENCE- INVESTIGATION AND MONITORING
The subsidence investigation usually involves accurate monitoring of any movement of the building or structure. This includes precise datum monitoring of principal fractures and, where appropriate, precision level survey monitoring of datum fixed close to the foundations of the building or structure.
If we are dealing with sensitive or critical structures e.g. historic buildings or structurally suspect structures, controlled level and tilt monitoring can be used.
The monitoring of fractures doesn’t always allow for the extent or nature of the foundation movement. Therefore, a thorough investigation of the structure’s foundations and surrounding land is sometimes recommended. This can include using boreholes in the adjacent ground to measure the soil parameters and water conditions and using trial pits which expose the foundations for better inspection.
We would also need to look at the influence of environmental factors, including trees in the vicinity, types of soil (especially clay soils), and the location and condition of underground drainage. This work doesn’t always have to be invasive because there are non-invasive methods of excavation which work just as effectively.
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