Services from the Rochdale depot

The six ground crews of IHB Groundworks Ltd

Every service below starts with a peg rail, a stretched tape line and a level reading taken from a bench mark. The crews work from 206 Wardle Road, Rochdale - OL12 9JB, United Kingdom (GB), and travel across the valley with their own plant, locators and depth tags.

Foundation Trenching Crews

Foundation trenches are the first promise a building makes to the ground, and the crew that digs them carries the whole weight of that promise. Our teams arrive with the engineer drawings pinned to the trench board, walk the footprint with the client, and set the corner pegs well outside the spoil line so that nothing knocked about during the dig can move the reference. Trench width comes from the wall or pad dimensions on the drawing, and depth is proved against a painted bench mark before a single bucket is lowered.

Strip footings for house extensions, pad foundations for porches and garages, and stepped trenches for sloping gardens all receive the same treatment. The sides are trimmed by hand where a machine would overcut, the bottom is cleaned of loose material, and any soft spot is reported before concrete is ordered. Where ground conditions suggest a deeper dig, the crew leader records the change and telephones the engineer rather than pressing on with an assumption.

Once the trench is true, the crew sets depth tags at both ends and at the centre, logs the readings, and photographs the open trench for the file. The result is a footing that can be inspected without argument and poured without delay.

Drainage Pipe Lays

Drainage is where small errors turn into expensive repairs, so our pipe lays begin with the invert levels and the fall, not with the machine. The crew sets out the run on the peg rail, checks the connection chambers against the drawing, and confirms the location of every existing service with a locator sweep before the first cut. Trenches are dug to a width that leaves working room around the pipe while keeping the excavation as tight as the drawing allows.

Beds are formed in compacted granular material graded so the pipe sits evenly along its length. Clay and plastic pipe are laid with the sockets facing the direction of flow, joints are lubricated and seated fully, and the surround is placed in layers so no void forms under the barrel. Marker tape goes in above the surround, and the trench is backfilled in controlled lifts with the compaction recorded.

As-built levels are taken at every chamber and junction and typed into the site file the same day. The certifying engineer receives a clean sheet showing what was buried and where, which shortens the sign-off conversation considerably.

Site Clearance Strips

Before a dig can be set out, the ground has to give up what is on it. Site clearance strips remove topsoil, scrub, old paths, broken hardstanding and the accumulated debris that gardens and yards collect over decades. The crew works in controlled passes, lifting the topsoil first and separating it into a stack that the landscaper can reuse, then stripping the subsoil and hard material into its own pile for removal.

Where the plot sits close to a boundary, the crew works inside the peg line and keeps the excavator track clear of fences, drains and the roots of protected trees. Services are located and marked before the blade moves, and any unexpected pipe or cable stops the work until it has been identified and recorded.

Arisings leave the site in weighed loads, with transfer notes filed the same day and copies available to the client on request. What remains is a clean, level plot with the spoil where the next trade needs it and a clear line recorded for the setting-out crew that follows.

Slab Base Preparations

A slab is only as flat as the ground beneath it, and preparing that ground is a discipline of its own. Slab base preparations begin with a reduced dig to the level shown on the drawing, followed by a geotextile layer where the ground is soft or the design calls for separation. Sub-base stone is placed in layers and compacted with a plate or roller suited to the access available, and each layer is checked for level before the next is spread.

The tape line goes across the full bay and readings are taken at the corners, the quarter points and the centre, so a high spot cannot hide in the middle of a wide base. A thin sand blinding is screeded over the stone to give the damp-proof membrane a clean bed, and the edges are kept square so the follow-on formwork sits without packing.

The crew hands over the base with a sheet of levels and a note of any soft spot that was excavated and replaced. Builders receive a surface they can set out on immediately, and floor layers receive a base that will not rock under the first panel.

Driveway Sub-Base Works

Driveways fail in predictable ways: water stands where the crossfall is wrong, edges crumble where the stone has nothing to hold it, and the surface sinks where the sub-base was too thin. Our driveway sub-base works are designed against those failures. The existing surface is broken out or stripped, the formation is shaped to a crossfall that sends water to a drain or a soakaway, and the stone is laid in compacted layers of a depth matched to the traffic the drive will carry.

Kerb, edging and haunch are set along the tape line where the ground cannot hold its own edge, and the whole run is checked for level at intervals short enough that a dip cannot develop unnoticed. For farm tracks and yard access the crew works with wider formations and heavier compaction, always leaving the surface ready for the finishing trade.

Each drive is handed over with a note of layer depths, stone type and the drainage arrangement, so the client knows what is under the surface and what to expect when it is maintained.

Retaining Wall Footings

Sloping ground is the reason most retaining walls are needed and also the reason most of them fail. A footing must be wide enough and deep enough for the wall height and the load of the ground it holds back, and it must sit on material that will not move when the season changes. Our crews trench for retaining wall footings, stepping the base where the slope is steep and recording each step on the setting-out sheet so the wall can be built true.

Where the ground is clay, the trench is kept open only as long as necessary and concrete is placed the same week. Drainage behind the wall is planned from the outset, with a gravel backfill and a weep path to keep water from building pressure behind the masonry. The crew leader checks the footing level against the wall drawings and confirms the dimensions before the pour.

Boundary walls, garden terraces, raised beds and driveway revetments all leave the site with a recorded footing and a wall line that the bricklayer can follow without re-measuring the whole plot.

How a job moves from drawing to dig

Enquiry and walkover

The client sends a plan or a photo. A crew leader walks the ground, checks access, services and spoil space, and writes the key dimensions onto a trench board.

Quotation and setting out

Depths, lengths and waste allowances are written against each line. Pegs go in, the tape line is stretched, and the bench mark is agreed before plant is booked.

Dig and check

The crew digs in passes, trims sides, sweeps for services and takes level readings until three checks agree. Depth tags are set and photographed.

Records and handover

Levels, dimensions and any change are typed into the site file the same day. The client and the engineer receive a clean sheet with the work signed off.

Send your plan and book a crew from Rochdale