Subsidence & Underpinning in Bruntsfield

Why Bruntsfield keeps us busy

Every working week we are somewhere in Bruntsfield, often within a short walk of Bruntsfield Links and the Meadows. The building stock here has its own character, and the ground beneath it has its own habits. Knowing both is the difference between a fix that lasts and a repair you have to revisit.

Bruntsfield's long sandstone tenements are well built, but the bay windows on the corner blocks rotate forward as the underlying clay shrinks each summer. Crack stitching and targeted underpinning are the usual mix here.

Subsidence & Underpinning done properly

Cracks above lintels widen month by month. Skirting opens up. The bay window sits lower than the rest of the front wall. Subsidence rarely fixes itself. Foundations keep moving until the cause is dealt with, and the longer that takes, the more decoration, plaster and joinery has to come out alongside the structural work.

Find the cause first, then design an underpinning scheme to suit the building. Mass concrete suits older shallow strip foundations. Mini-piles take the load deeper when ground is soft or made up. Either way, a chartered engineer signs the design before we dig.

Three things Bruntsfield owners get from us

• Local context. We know which streets in Bruntsfield sit on made ground, which ones drain badly, and which ones have a tree problem. The first visit reflects that.
• Engineer-signed work. Every scheme we put in is signed off by a chartered structural engineer before any tools come out of the van.
• Reports your insurer recognises. Cause, scheme, photographs, costs. The format the loss adjusters in this city already know.