South Kensington

A major redevelopment of two properties at the end of a terrace, to form a single residence with an extensive basement under part of the property.

Working with Westgeen Construction Ltd, CDS were instrumental in developing an alternative substructure design in the redevelopment of this exclusive West London residence. The project involved redeveloping two properties, one of which was listed.

The property at the end of the terrace, of fairly recent construction, was to be demolished and the listed property was to be retained in its entirety. The original scheme comprised up to 5 metre deep underpins in terrace gravels beneath the party wall and listed garden wall. This was considered to be extremely costly and involved a high element of risk.

CDS’s alternative proposal, which gained approval from all parties, consisted of the use of Ischebeck Titan inclined Pali Radice micro-piles. These provided both vertical support to the existing masonry walls and lateral support to the terrace gravels beneath and were installed by specialist groundworks contractor, WT Group.

The piles required one level of propping at ground level to minimise ground movements. A single level of temporary bracing was installed at the pile heads to maintain overall horizontal stability until the basement had been completed. This approach also maximised space below for excavation and construction of the new single storey basement which partially extends under the adjacent listed structure.