Underpinning Costs

T

Trixsyme

Guest
This is great! I feel some of the problems people are encountering and posting are literally verbatim to what we are experiencing currently.

Our house was built in circa 1930. We have large cracks on the interior and exterior of the house which is localised to one side of the masonry. It was exacerbated by a leaking pipe from the sink pipe and bath (which adjoin) which was blocked and causing the water escape under the ground of the kitchen and adjoining garage (cctv and excavations carried out with supervision of engineer) washing away the founds. The house is semi-d and the extent of the damage is on the detached side of the house. We appointed an engineer who I will not name as it could defame, but they ended up costing us a great deal and jeopardised our claim with our insurers. We paid this engineer €9,400, which they did not enlighten us with before embarking on any reports which proved futile. Once the loss assessor got in on the job (8 months later after ditching the engineers with a result of their findings our insurers offered us a settlement figure circa €13k) it was dealt with accordingly. The claim was only finalised only in December 2009, when it was submitted in July 2007.

The only gripe we have now is the actual costing of underpinning, grouting micropiling. Which, from what I hear, is a less costly variation of underpinning - the construction company (Cork based with Dublin rep) recommended by our own loss assessor has quoted extortionate rates. Would you be able to give guestimates on the worst case scenario of costing for underpinning in this current climate. We would not want to go for something sub-standard which would prove more costly down the road for ourselves. This is a Dublin area issue. The area is not prone to subsidence. Primarily caused by a silent cracked pipe.

Also:
Should we tell construction companies when tendering that this was an insurance claim, as I feel contractors quote far more in this case - we agreed a settlement figure (which is quite low).
How do I access the scope of works now that the current construction company recommended are too pricey, in order to tender to other sources?
General tips on saving money and not making foolish mistakes like the situation with Engineer mentioned above?

Sorry if this seems vague, feel free to question or even recommend contractors which are affordable and who supply certificate approvals on completion of works.

Thank you.
 
I assume that the systems are different over there from here in England.

We had a problem with subsidence and contacted our insurance company who sent out a loss adjuster. He commissioned investigations via CCTV, identified probable cause and appointed a contractor to make the necessary repairs.
The total cost to me was £1000.

Why, given that you have insurance, did you think it necessary to appoint an engineer yourself?
 
its all depending on what the engineer recommended as the best possible method to fix this issue.. the construction company normally cant issue a cert of approvals, the engineer does this ..the construction co works to his guidelines ad therefore the engineer stands over his solution
 
Your problems to date appear to be tangled up with your engineer and its possible that a referral to the governing body is in order.

You should not be proceeding with this work without an engineer IMO, assessing tenders, all of that - stick to what you're good at.

This is specialist work and you need an engineer to stay on top of it.

I don't know why you're worried about the fees, the insurance covered it.

Try and separate the several strands of your current situation and see each clearly.

The engineer gets paid for liability he takes on and if he's messed up he's liable under the law.

Can I seriously advise you to retain competent people to oversee this work and a solicitor may be needed to redress any previous wrongs.

ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matters at hand.
 
Thank you all for your feedback. I had been away and have only received these messages today. In answer to your question on the insurer paying for the engineers fees, the answer is no. Our insurer insisted that they were not liable to pay for the engineers findings or reports (from which only one page was relevant) in relation to any 'drainage' specifications - only provide payment for findings of the damage incurred by the water. I am not entirely sure of the technical issues concerning this, but what I do know via feedback from our personal loss assessors and his construction team referred, is that the engineer company proved to cost us money, time and totally hindered our claim. We refused to pay this firm and they threatened with the sherif. We had to ask the insurer for a prepayment of our settlement to clear this debt. this was a large amount taken from our settlement and not to mention the loss adjusting fees also. It all adds up.

Time is of the essence and the best time to tackle the work is in the dry weather, so we would like to have this done in the summer. The only thing is costs. We did not anticipate that the underpinning would be as costly as mentioined.

We have three seperate quotes being prepared at present, but from their guestimates it looks like their costs are in the region of 40k without even fixing the interior and exterior of masonry.

Each contractor has appointed their own engineer. We will not be dealing with the previous crowd. period.

We may consider a solicitor in this case with the previous engineers as their findings were futile and caused such a stir in our case.
 
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