Complete slab design freedom, to virtually any shape, is easily achievable with the Housedeck and Comdeck systems from Abbey Pynford, one of the UK's leading specialist ground engineering solutions company's. These proprietary piled raft style foundation systems have been developed specifically to allow complete flexibility of size and shape - square, rectangular, curved, angled and even circular are all possible.

By their nature, works using traditional piled foundations are not usually considered overly eco-friendly, so it is refreshing to hear of an alternative cleaner, leaner approach from Abbey Pynford. The company is one of the UK's leading specialist ground engineering solutions company's and has developed proprietary piled raft style foundation systems known as Housedeck and Comdeck.

The government is forecasting that an additional 3.8 million new homes will be required by 2018. It has also been calculated that up to half of all sites involved in the UK have had some previous development and according to a Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) report, over 360,OOOha.of this has been contaminated. As if this weren't enough, many of the assigned growth areas are also susceptible to highly shrinkable clays.

John Bartlett was determined to build a new holiday chalet next to the Thames at Bourne End in Buckinghamshire. The problem was that he knew the land would flood. The foundations were therefore a critical consideration and the various companies contacted insisted on using traditional methods. However, once specialist foundation and ground-engineering company, Abbey Pynford, got involved. Their innovative Housedeck system was evidently the answer.

Disposing of the excess soil generated when traditional foundations are dug out can be a real problem in certain parts of the country. Mike Dorman, Sales Manager at Abbey Pynford, looks at the solution his company has developed to overcome this particular problem – and many others as well.

Abbey Pynford has just finished installing Housedeck at the King Alfred School in North London, where contractor Vascroft is constructing a new Craft & Design Technology building housing two new workshops together with computer studios at ground floor level. The land on which the extension is being built was never previously developed because of the difficulty of working around existing trees.