First time here so hello everyone!
We have a house in Greece (not UK, but I hope its fine) that is at least 100y old and its built from big (and small) stones with what looks like red sand in between the stones. The sand is very soft and can be rubbed away with the finger very easily. The roof is "new", maybe like 40 years and made from concrete and in good condition. We plan to make an extension to the house and that required excavations on one side of the house. It was made with a rock drill attached to a tractor… The excavation happened very close to the house and naturally removed some plastering from the lower part of the wall, exposing it to rain. And most likely the vibration and changes in support caused some cracks and movement of some stones on the corner of the house.
Now the plan is to fix the cracks, renew the plastering and perhaps most urgently to add some more support to the corner of the house, it looks like it might collapse with more rain and minor earthquakes that happen here occasionally.
What kind of support would you suggest and what kind of materials?
We have an engineer who suggest to drill stainless steel rods to the base rock and the big corner stones, glue them with epoxy and possibly make a some sort of concrete support to the corner… For the cracks he suggests lime based mortar in a quite liquid form to reach deep in the cracks… Any thoughts on this?
Before the excavation
Backside after the excavation
The problematic corner, right you can see bedrock, left is a big corner stone that needs support. Here you can see the soil that is used between the stones. Above the red soil is still some plastering left.
Close-up of the corner and one of the cracks. Below the corner stone there is a bit of red soil/sand and below that, some very thick clay.
Another close-up, under the clay, theres solid rock.
Thank you in advance!!!
We have a house in Greece (not UK, but I hope its fine) that is at least 100y old and its built from big (and small) stones with what looks like red sand in between the stones. The sand is very soft and can be rubbed away with the finger very easily. The roof is "new", maybe like 40 years and made from concrete and in good condition. We plan to make an extension to the house and that required excavations on one side of the house. It was made with a rock drill attached to a tractor… The excavation happened very close to the house and naturally removed some plastering from the lower part of the wall, exposing it to rain. And most likely the vibration and changes in support caused some cracks and movement of some stones on the corner of the house.
Now the plan is to fix the cracks, renew the plastering and perhaps most urgently to add some more support to the corner of the house, it looks like it might collapse with more rain and minor earthquakes that happen here occasionally.
What kind of support would you suggest and what kind of materials?
We have an engineer who suggest to drill stainless steel rods to the base rock and the big corner stones, glue them with epoxy and possibly make a some sort of concrete support to the corner… For the cracks he suggests lime based mortar in a quite liquid form to reach deep in the cracks… Any thoughts on this?
Before the excavation
Backside after the excavation
The problematic corner, right you can see bedrock, left is a big corner stone that needs support. Here you can see the soil that is used between the stones. Above the red soil is still some plastering left.
Close-up of the corner and one of the cracks. Below the corner stone there is a bit of red soil/sand and below that, some very thick clay.
Another close-up, under the clay, theres solid rock.
Thank you in advance!!!