HOW TO WIDEN FOOTINGS FOR A GARDEN WALL

[polydave]

Hello
I hope someone can help me, I have had a garden wall knocked down, it was a double skin wall about 800mm high, I want to replace it with a wall with fencing on the top, so I want to put some brick pillars in the wall, the footings will need making wider for the pillar which will be 11/2 bricks wide all round and 2 metres high.
What I want advice about is the footing, can I dig round the existing footing and widen it to suit, or do i have to dig up the whole footing?

Regards

Dave.

[welsh brickie]

Really its best to dig out the original foundation as you dont know the depth,The foundation should be 225mm thick. If it is that thick ,Dig out the ground along side the foundation to the width you want and under the original concrete as much as you can,Concrete all the excavated area and over the existing foundation

[yeswecan]

Welsh brickie why tell him to dig out the original foundation as he does not know the depth ? polydave if you just dig a small trial hole to see what the depth of the existing concrete you will know, this wont take that long. As far as welsh brickie saying to dig the original foundation out, dont waste your money and time, if what you have is sufficient. As far as a garden wall is concerned 150mm of concrete is plenty, as long as the depth of the dig has hit good ground and the concrete is spread well enough either sideof the wall. If your existing foundation is ok you can dig extra width for the pillars and as a precaution you could drill into the existing foundation and resin some dowel bars so both foundations are held together. At the end of the day it is only a garden wall.