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Huge hole under concrete outhouse

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  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    edited June 2020
    How are your brick laying skills?
    Fill footing with rubble if you have any, concrete, build brick wall, build summer house on top using sterling board, source second hand windows, sterling board roof, felt roof and add shiplap to exterior, paint. Sit back or inside with a glass of wine. Job done.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Looking at the galvanised metal meshes in the hole, I suspect it was a space used to keep chickens or the like.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • K67 said:
    How are your brick laying skills?
    Fill footing with rubble if you have any, concrete, build brick wall, build summer house on top using sterling board, source second hand windows, sterling board roof, felt roof and add shiplap to exterior, paint. Sit back or inside with a glass of wine. Job done.
    My brick laying skills are reasonably okay, not a master builder but I can get by. 

    Although you make it sound easier than it probably will be! Ha! But I’m hoping that over the next two months I can transform the garden ready for August. 
  • Looking at the galvanised metal meshes in the hole, I suspect it was a space used to keep chickens or the like.
    That actually would make sense, as we’ve dug around it we have found what I can only describe as thousands (literally) of egg shells. 
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Interesting!  Do you actually need to demolish the structure or isn't it structurally sound? I think I would have investigated whether it was salvageable and could be used as a shed/summerhouse. Would save all the hard work in knocking it down and the not inconsiderable nuisance of disposing of all that concrete. A properly built outbuilding would far outlast a wooden shed.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • Lizzie27 said:
    Interesting!  Do you actually need to demolish the structure or isn't it structurally sound? I think I would have investigated whether it was salvageable and could be used as a shed/summerhouse. Would save all the hard work in knocking it down and the not inconsiderable nuisance of disposing of all that concrete. A properly built outbuilding would far outlast a wooden shed.
    Unfortunately the building is collapsing in on itself due to years of neglect, huge cracks running across it so it is best if we remove it to the base (the concrete slab at the bottom looks good) and then build something on that. 
  • MeltemiMeltemi Posts: 6
    Get  your water supply and drains checked professionally...any previously undiscovered leakage could have washed away the soil over time..did the structure have guttering? That could also have done it.
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    Although you make it sound easier than it probably will be! Ha! But I’m hoping that over the next two months I can transform the garden ready for August. 
    Thats exactly what my husband says!
  • Meltemi said:
    Get  your water supply and drains checked professionally...any previously undiscovered leakage could have washed away the soil over time..did the structure have guttering? That could also have done it.
    We double checked this initially. No guttering but the huge mound of soil to the right of the structure is likely from underneath, plus the hole is only under the structure and no pipes run near it, so fortunately we don’t think it’s an underground leak washing away the soil. 
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