A few years ago a big house did have partial collapse on Clapham Common west side.
You could see right through it!
Apparently the builders were lucky to escape unharmed.
Just shows that you can’t be too careful.
Even when employing qualified professionals you still get problems due to human error.

For example- Not for a basement, but a highly qualified and recommended surveyor miscalculated the steels requires for our side return because he wrongly made an assumption of the wall thickness. Luckily our builder spotted it and pointed it out.

Sometimes it can be bad luck.

Hi

We are the developers on 29-31 Cathles Road SW12 , who inherited the collapsed properties. I am pleased to say we have now restored the properties to their former glory and sold 5 out of the 6 flats. Just a 2 Bed left


We worked closely with our neighbours, who were magnificent and very patient.

We are looking for similar projects in the area.


N

DHE Developments Ltd

Great info - looks like they are numbers 29-31

Not sure what numbers but they have been turned into 6 flats and are the ones currently being marketed by Winkworths - opposite entrance to Lynn Road.

Not sure what numbers but they have been turned into 6 flats and are the ones currently being marketed by Winkworths - opposite entrance to Lynn Road.

What is most shocking is that the ‘professionals’ involved won’t have bothered checking if the ‘basement company’ had any *relevant* insurance cover.

Basement insurance cover is totally different to general build insurance. General build cover goes down 1.2m for standard foundations and drains.

Basement insurance will generally go down to 7-10m for non project specific covers.

It is also impossible to get basement insurance for new entrants to the market: because of issues like this.

There are a lot of ‘basement companies’ offering Design and Build contracts. Only problem is they don’t have any Professional Indemnity cover (for the design bit because they can’t get it) and rely on the fairy story that the architects and engineers have it so that is OK.

It isn’t OK - they are simply working with no insurance cover.

Yup, I own a basement company and I get quite fed up with paying £6k month for insurance covers, which pushes the prices of the jobs up, and being undercut by others, who don’t have cover, because they ‘did a great job on my mate’s house’.

Not all basements are equal in complexity. Some are very technically demanding to do.

So you get some companies that do a few simple basements and build up a ‘reputation’ for doing basements. Then they get over confident and do something too complex…

Ummmm but this basement is quite complicated……they know what they are doing….really?…….they did a great job for XYZ……walk away.

I know this is a very old thread but can anyone remember which house numbers were affected?

Has anyone found out which basement company was carrying out the work?

Anyone know which company we're doing the basement?

This is a shocking situation and extremely distressing for the owners of all the properties concerned. I am not commenting on the cause of the fault, however, I will re-iterate the importance of engaging professional Architectural Designers/Project Managers from the outset on basement projects who can ensure qualified specialist with deep skills/expertise are engaged at the right stages of the project including Structural Engineers, Geo-technical Surveyors, specialist basement contractors, etc.

I'm not surprised, if it's in the hands of building companies like some that are advertised on sites like this... That's all I will say.

Council building experts were called in to save two family homes in Balham that were in danger of collapsing.

Work being carried out in a basement at a terraced property in Cathles Road disturbed the foundations and prompted fears that both it and a neighbouring property could partially collapse.





Firefighters who’d been called to the scene by the builders immediately summoned staff in the council’s building control service who pumped tonnes of concrete into the basement and then erected scaffolding to stabilise the two stricken buildings.


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