Basement Excavation
The building next to me is vacant and undergoing a down-to-the-brick renovation. That includes carrying out yards and yards of dirt from the basement. Should I be concerned that they might be endangering the foundation?
The building next to me is vacant and undergoing a down-to-the-brick renovation. That includes carrying out yards and yards of dirt from the basement. Should I be concerned that they might be endangering the foundation?
The master plan for my basement renovation is that there is no real master plan. Just a bunch of ideas, measurements, and images in my head. I know I will be renovating the entire basement in two phases. Phase one, which is well underway at the time of this writing, is the “front half†of the house.Just go through this site [URL=”http://mybasementrenovation.com/”]Basement Renovation[/URL] you may get all necessary help from here.
In older homes, basements are often dark and moist,
with dirt floors and low ceilings. Creating safe storage under these conditions can be challenging. Newer homes are more likely to have solid concrete floors and walls,
with higher ceilings and fewer moisture problems.
The MacDonough Street property had a competent architect involved and permits were pulled. it seems that the excavation work was being done without the architect’s knowledge.
Get over there and ask for the architect and engineer’s name, make sure everyone is insured and ask if you can hire an architect to inspect for yourself. If something does go wrong with this it will be your worst nightmare. If all is in order and they are doing excavation that doesn’t undermine the foundations, then it won’t be a problem.
Is this on Fuller Pl? Walked by yesterday, and there was a huge (car sized) mound of dirt mixed with brick and rubble. Looked to me like excavation, just wondered if this was it.
Either way, hopefully you have called DOB a long time ago.
As long as the building is not underpinned (dropping below the footings) people need to stop filling this poor neighbors head with terrible thoughts. If they have an Alteration Type I permit pulled the building has a professional architect or engineer on board and you should be fine. TRI or TRII/IIIs are almost always required these days.
I had an experience with this kind of thing, that turned out ok (in part because neighbors on both side of house in question got involved), but you should take it seriously because old rowhouses (brownstones) do not have the best foundations and weakening one side can impact the party wall, which means your house too. As others have said, check permits, make sure construction people know what they are doing, and don’t cut them any slack until you are sure the job is being done correctly.
I AM LIVING THE WORST CASE SCENARIO… How about taking out a home equity loan now to pay your future legal bills before the rates go up?
Seriously, The enema nozzles should have inspected your property prior to start of construction.
DOB film forum:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/news/buildsafe_video_lynch.shtml
And, please, let us know what you find out.
Yes, you should be VERY concerned. Particularly if it is right next door!
Let us know what happens!
Call 311!
Look for permit, they should be posted in plain site, otherwise you can look on the DOB BIS website. First off see if any permits were pulled. If not, all bets are off. There may be several as usually structural would be a separate permit and even shoring and underpinning may be on its on permit too. That is what you are looking for. Look under documents filed, TR-1. See if underpinning, structural stability – structural stability and/or excavation – sheeting, shoring and bracing was checked off. If would definatly be on the architect’s TR-1, but there should be another one by the structural engineer or testing company. None of this may be required if they are not digging below the foundation wall. Maybe you and the oppsite neighbor is actually deeper down than the one under construction. This happened to one of my past clients and they called me a few days too late to ask what they should do. One side of their house shifted and then the SWO was issued and they were forced to move out while the lawyers sorted it all out. Good luck.
Jock deBoer, AIA
deBoer Architects