Building ground - foundation recommendation

Good day,

I need your help,

I have a property with an old building and now want to build a semi-detached house there.

It should be a house made of timber frame construction, so not a solid house.
For that, a soil investigation is of course necessary, which I have commissioned.

The soil looks like in the picture, meaning one side is quite okay, the other has considerable peat layers.

Are there alternatives to an extremely expensive pile foundation?
In this settlement, hardly any house has a pile foundation, as these houses were all built in the 90s and less attention was paid to it back then.

I would be grateful for alternatives. However, soil replacement is not an option, since groundwater is to be expected from 1 meter depth.

Thanks in advance for your creative suggestions.

:)

Hello and welcome here,

the foundation recommendation should be included in the [Baugrundgutachten]. In my opinion, this is independent of whether it is built with solid construction or timber framing. Pile foundation is expensive. We realized a slab with frost protection edging, but the groundwater was lower. Again: check your report, if nothing is mentioned about this, ask the expert.

Should the foundation slab be retained or redone? However, you will not find a construction company that does anything contrary to the recommendation in the soil report.

The recommendation of course states that there should be a pile foundation. Therefore, I’m asking if you possibly know of any alternatives? The construction companies either follow the recommendation or say that you have to take care of it yourself up to and including the base slab, which of course also has something to do with the warranty. The old strip foundation is to be removed and then it should be completely rebuilt. Thanks in advance for the answers. It’s a shame if there’s no alternative and 60 houses around didn’t need a pile foundation – but oh well :D

Of course there are alternatives. But no one can advise you on this, because a) no one knows the exact circumstances and b) nowadays warranty plays an important role, and it only exists if you follow the recommendations of those who professionally deal with it.

The recommendation naturally states that there should be a pile foundation.
Therefore, I am asking if you possibly know of any alternatives?

The construction companies either follow the recommendation or say that you have to take care of everything yourself up to and including the base slab, which of course has some implications for the warranty.

The old strip foundation is supposed to be removed and then completely rebuilt.

Thanks in advance for the answers.
It's a pity if there is no alternative and 60 houses around didn’t need a pile foundation – but oh well :D

Normally, the soil report also contains an alternative recommendation from the soil expert. If this is missing now, then perhaps there is no alternative at all? Please contact the soil expert/geologist; he is the specialist and has the samples in front of him. This also doesn’t cost anything extra.
What I don’t understand is that there is supposedly no possibility of soil replacement due to the water conditions. From my layman’s technical point of view, I can’t imagine that. The pit would simply have to be pumped dry during the construction period. Otherwise, I don’t see how you – as you hope – can switch to a cheaper option.