Foundations and Structural Concrete Bases
Strip, trench fill and raft foundations, structural concrete bases and block and beam floors across Surrey and Hampshire. Established 1970.
Call 07808 781794
Foundations are the part of a build nobody sees and everybody worries about. Get them right and the rest of the programme runs; get them wrong and everything above ground inherits the problem.
We've been installing foundations across Surrey and Hampshire since 1970, mostly for local developers and private clients on new builds, barn conversions and extensions. We work from your engineer's drawings, set out on site, and take it through to slab or oversite level ready for the bricklayers.
What we install
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The standard approach on most sites. Trench fill is quicker and uses more concrete; traditional strip foundations uses less concrete and more blockwork below ground level. Once ground conditions are established we can advise on the most cost effective solution.
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Where the ground won't support a conventional footing, or where you're building over made ground or a high water table, a reinforced raft spreads the load across the whole footprint. We form, reinforce and pour rafts to engineer's specification.
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Bases for oak-framed buildings, garages, outbuildings, garden rooms and steel-framed structures. These are often the jobs where the finish matters, because the base is visible at the edges and the frame has to sit dead level on it.
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A good choice on sloping sites, where a solid slab would mean a great deal of fill. Precast beams span onto the foundation walls with infill blocks between, leaving a ventilated void underneath. Faster than a slab once the walls are up, and it takes the ground conditions out of the equation.
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Clearing, grubbing out, muck away, cut and fill, and reduced level dig before any of the above starts.
Fifty-five years in the same patch means we generally know what's under a site before we open it up. Around Farnham you can go from sand on the greensand ridge to heavy clay a couple of miles away, and the foundation solution changes with it.
Clay shrinks and heaves with moisture, which is why foundation depths near mature trees are dictated by the species, its mature height and its distance from the building — NHBC Chapter 4.2 sets out the depths and it's not a place to guess. Sandy ground brings its own problems: trench sides that won't stand and bases that need support before you can pour.
Where there's doubt we'd rather flag it at quote stage than find it at dig stage. If a trial hole is warranted we'll say so.
Ground Conditions in Surrey and Hampshire
Most of our work comes through architects, structural engineers and developers. We are happy to take control of setting out your project to the correct lines and levels.
We own and run our own plant, including Volvo excavators and Terex dumpers, and all our operators are CITB qualified. That matters mainly because we're not waiting on hired plant to arrive before we can start.
Working With Your Engineer and Building Control
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Everything between a cleared site and the point the bricklayers start. On a typical house that means setting out, site clearance and reduced level dig, excavating and pouring the foundations, laying drainage below slab, installing service ducts, and forming the ground floor — either a concrete slab or a block and beam floor. On most of our jobs it also covers the driveway, retaining walls and hard landscaping at the end of the build.
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Too site-specific to quote meaningfully without looking. The cost is driven by what's in the ground rather than the size of the building — the same house on sand and on shrinkable clay near mature trees can differ substantially, because the clay site needs deeper foundations and more concrete. Access matters too: a site a lorry can reach is cheaper than one where everything comes in by dumper. We'll give you a fixed price once we've seen it and read the engineer's drawings.
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The minimum is normally 900mm to undisturbed ground, but that's a starting point rather than an answer. On shrinkable clay near trees the depth is set by the tree species, its mature height and its distance from the building, following NHBC Chapter 4.2 — a mature oak can push foundations down to three metres or more. Your engineer will specify it; we'll tell you at quote stage if we think the drawn depth won't survive contact with the ground.
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Trench fill pours concrete almost to the top of the trench. It's faster, uses more concrete and less labour, and it's what most sites use now. Traditional strip pours a narrower footing at the bottom and builds up in blockwork below ground — less concrete, more time. Trench fill usually wins on deep foundations; strip can be cheaper on shallow ones.
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Either. Most of our work comes through architects and structural engineers and we simply build to their detail. If you haven't got that far, we can tell you what's likely to be needed and point you at engineers we work with regularly.
Common Questions About Foundations
Get a Price
Send over the drawings and we'll come and look at the site. If you need the retaining walls or the drainage done as part of the same job, we can price the lot together — most of our work is the whole groundworks package rather than one element of it.
We cover Surrey and Hampshire, including Guildford, Godalming, Alton and Aldershot. Get in touch or call Dan on 07808 781794.