Red Ash Floor Problems

Properties include burnt colliery spoil red ash or red shale furnace bottom ash black ash.

Red ash floor problems. Sometimes the colliery shale would come from tips which had caught fire and this is where the names red ash or burnt shale come from. I had a red ash survey done on a house i wanted to buy some years ago and it would probably have put me off buying if the test had been positive. Issues generally arrises when you try to borrow funds against the property for example to release equity or when selling it. Some homeowners can live with the small buldges or cracks in the floor.

The remedy i imagine would be to have the foundations dug out and relaid. Do they have to dig up floors if it has got a problem arising from red ash. I really cannot cope with all this at the moment but we have been trying to rid this damp problem for years. When the sulphate in the hardcore becomes damp it causes a chemical reaction with the overlaying concrete floor and can blow the floor causing it to crown or heave.

I have spoken to our next door neighbours and they had their floors dug up some years before we moved here but it seems from a problem with a water pipe. The problem of sulphate affected floors is caused by the use of industrial waste materials used as hardcore infill under concrete floors in domestic properties built between 1940s and 1972. Apparently we are in an area where it is a common occurance in domestic buildings built between the mid 40s to the early 70s. Hi i am currently purchasing a house 4 bedroom detached 1930 s solid wall.

You legally can sell a house with red ash without a problem. This is due to waste materials such as burnt colliery shale blast furnace slag and red ash being used as fill in material for concrete floors. Minor red ash problems generally do not pose a great risk to your property. The survayor said thhat because he was unable to lift the carpet he couldn t comment on the cause.

My limited understanding is that is red ash can cause foundations to expand presumably buckling the floor and walls. The hardcore should be well compacted in layers of. The material is classified in 4 main types red ash shale black ash slag and grey fly ash although other industrial materials and building rubble etc. This is because colliery shale which often contains sulphates was used for the hardcore.

Typically the problem houses are those built by local authorities in the 1950 s and 1960 s in mining areas. I am in the process of buying a bungalow built about 1930 a builder has said that it has red ash sulphate damage because one of the solid floors has an indentation of about 11 2 inch deep.