PROBLEM – The boundary wall was moving from its original position slowly leaning over to the neighbor’s property. This movement can be caused by different reasons which include:

• Weakened underground foundation.
• Weak underground soil.
• Continuous movement of runoff water in the drain.

PROPOSAL – Apart from re-building the wall, putting necessary special foundations on the wall, we propose that we use supporting brick pillars that will support every pillar to stop further movement of the wall. The existing pillars for the boundary wall which support the structure are of thickness 230mm which is proving to be insignificant looking at the amount of load the pillars are supporting. Therefore, the need to support the pillars from the leaning side by a 460mm-width pillar which is double the current pillar width. The rear boundary wall will also need to be joined to the side wall with reinforcement bars to further strengthen contraction force that prevents movement of the wall.

WORK DONE – After setting out we targeted 10 pillars from which were adversely affected. We then excavated a foundation of diameter 1m x 1m, on each support pillar. Upon reaching the existing foundation, we discovered that the existing foundation was a strip foundation rather than the recommended special foundation of bases and columns considering that the area is a wetland. We then excavated deeper by 300mm below the existing foundation so that our new footing grips with the existing foundation. We were pretty much working in water which was hard and took time to complete the excavations.

We then prepared our concrete mixture and poured in a concrete layer up just above the existing concrete footing. We then went on to build our base. Our base support was 920mm in diameter so as to give a better support system below the ground. It stretched up to the ground level which was at most 10 brick lines from the concrete footing.
Furthermore, we built up our pillars of 460mm thickness supporting the pillars of 230mm existing thickness. We supported the pillar up till the top to reach the existing wall height.

Lastly, we joined the rear and side wall so as to further strengthen the walls and stop the movement of the walls from both sides. We poured a concrete mixture with reinforcement bars to strengthen the tensional forces which will prevent the stretching or movement of the wall to any of the sides. This process is usually referred to as toothing in the construction field..