The Met Office announced this week that this summer will ‘almost certainly’ be the UK’s warmest on record. Furthermore, figures show that so far, the UK as a whole has only had 72% of the average summer rainfall so far.
This will come as no surprise to anyone, with parched gardens and parklands testimony to the unusually warm and dry conditions over the past few months. And it is not just the areas in which we live and play that have been affected; land development projects and construction sites are also impacted, especially when it comes to soil desiccation, which can be a potential risk to building foundations.
Soil desiccation testing can be crucial where new foundations in clay soils are very close to former or existing trees, or where the formation has been left exposed to the sun for prolonged periods. This is because clay soils shrink when dried and swell when subsequently wetted, causing subsidence and then heave. Desiccation testing is used to determine the extent to which clay soils have dried out, or desiccated, which can significantly impact the stability and structural integrity of buildings if the foundations are not deep enough to fully penetrate the desiccated zone or where suitable heave precautions have not been used.
So, this is a final reminder (for this year!) from all at GRM: Keep an eye out for dry, hard, and cracked soils at foundation design depths and ensure that heave precautions are installed, where appropriate, as heave can start soon after pouring a foundation. And for those who are still in the design stage, where foundations are to be placed very close to former/existing trees and hedges, the optimal time to undertake desiccation analysis is after the summer.
GRM can provide ground investigation, foundation design and site inspection services which can help manage the risks posed by tree or seasonal desiccation, as unnecessarily allowing for these, or recovering from the effects of them can be very costly. If you have any development or construction projects, then please get in touch to find out how we can help save both time and costs. Please use your main point of contact at GRM or for new enquiries email richard.upton@grm-uk.com or call 01283 551249.