If you are building or extending your property and it is in a coal mining area, it is very important to get a coal mining report from The Coal Authority, as soon as you start planning your project. The reports are inexpensive (around £20 or so) and they can be ordered on line. There may even be a copy of a coal mining report with the planning permission, because the Coal Authority are consultees in the planning process.

If you need a translation of what the report actually means, and what effect it will have on your proposals, then we can do this quickly and easily. We will provide you with clear guidance on any special precautions you will need to take with your foundations, or any other investigations that you will need to carry out before deciding on the most appropriate type of foundation for you project.

We can't emphasise this strongly enough, this should all be done most definitely before work actually starts on site and preferably even before you get prices or sign a Contract for the work.

We have come across cases where houses have been constructed with traditional footings, and the houses actually completed, when the coal mining report referred to the possibility of there being shallow unrecorded coal workings beneath the site. For some reason, in a few of these cases, this was not actually picked up by either Building Control or the NHBC until the properties were actually finished! We are not sure of the legal position here, but we are sure its better to not get into that unfortunate situation in the first place.

We need the following information to advise you on what a coal mining report actually means:

a copy of the coal mining report

If you need a coal mining report or more information on coal mining, then click here