Large Residential Property Foundation Piling – Goff’s Oak

Mr Hakan approached Fallon & Co Piling to kick off the process of creating his dream home. He had come to us based on a friend’s recommendation, and was keen to get started on making his plans into reality. This wasn’t Mr Hakan’s first foray into building his own home, and he had a clear sense of what he wanted to achieve. 

Goff’s Oak, where Mr Hakan has his land, is a wonderful bit of rural seclusion located in Hertfordshire. With plenty of green space and English countryside views, it was the perfect place for Mr Hakan to go about constructing the luxurious home he’d always dreamed of. But before you can construct a house, it needs foundations – and that’s where Fallon & Co came in. 

The plan was essentially to build Mr Hakan’s new south-facing home on his land beside his current one, which ultimately would be knocked down once the new home was complete. The job proved to be an interesting one for the Fallon & Co Piling team, full of challenges that required us to think creatively and come up with alternative solutions to various problems. Let’s take a look at how it all happened. 

The Job‍

Mr Hakan’s plan was to build a 5-bed luxury home on his land, with a double garage and annex. 

We needed to lay the foundations for Mr Hakan’s dream home at Goff’s Oak, and the thing that would make this a challenge was obvious from the get-go. The ground was extremely undulating, with the house set on such a steep hill that the back of the house was effectively about three metres lower than the front.

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This meant we couldn’t use a rapid raft foundation, a common and useful type of foundation that we’ve used for many other jobs. Instead, we had to use a traditional piled beam foundation, but stepped, and then levelled to create a secure, sturdy foundation on which Mr Hakan could construct the new five-bedroom home. Stepped foundations are a tried and tested method of establishing foundations on sloped surfaces without having to radically alter the composition and shape of the ground. This is not only cost-effective, it’s also a timesaver, and makes it that much easier to make dreams like Mr Hakan’s into reality.

The Result‍

Mr Hakan was thrilled with the results of Fallon & Co Piling’s work. In fact, we’ve worked with him on several jobs since this one, and have connected with new clients on the back of Mr Hakan enthusiastically recommending us. 

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One of the best compliments a client can pay us to recommending our services to others, so we were thrilled to have played our part in making Mr Hakan’s dream home a reality. It also goes to show that even a daunting technical challenge like undulating ground doesn’t have to stop you from dreaming big when it comes to home improvement and construction. It just takes a little creative thinking.

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If you’ve got a home improvement project in mind and think that Fallon & Co piling might be able to help, get in touch with us today…