He said: “This was an interesting
project and it has been wonderful to
deliver such a beautiful family home
for our client.
“Creating such an extensive basement
level in this part of north London
meant we had to go to great lengths
to guard against the possible presence
of small underground streams, drilling
more than 120 secant piles to a depth
of 13m.
“As well as the reinforcement cages
used in the piles an additional 97
tonnes of reinforcement were used to
build the base slab and retaining walls
around the site.
“When we took over the project
we also had to address a number
elements, essentially the internal
layout and the roof which was
designed as a butterfly roof.
“We managed to simplify the roof
structure and made it into a crown
roof that by itself provided 700sqft of
additional usable space but at a lower
cost.
“We also extended the basement to
house a larger swimming pool. These
alterations allowed for the lift shaft to
extend to the second floor as desired
by the client.
“The changes we made increased
the size of the house from 8500sqft
to 10500sqft internally without
significantly affecting the overall
budget.”
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