One of the most costly mistakes we see in Brighton construction is assuming the chalk bedrock is uniform and free of solution features. That assumption leads to piles that punch into a void, or a foundation that settles unevenly after the first wet winter. The White Chalk Subgroup beneath much of the city is notoriously variable, with dissolution pipes, flint bands, and weathered zones that a standard site investigation can miss. Before any pile design reaches the drawing board, the ground needs to be interrogated properly. Our lab team processes core samples from across Brighton, from the Kemp Town slopes to the Shoreham Harbour redevelopment, and we know where the typical problems hide. When the chalk is puttied or the overlying Coombe deposits are saturated, the pile behaviour changes completely. A solid design here depends on linking the test pits observations with the SPT drilling data to build a reliable ground model.
In Brighton, a 2-metre variation in chalk grade can alter the pile capacity by more than 40% — that's the difference between a safe foundation and a long-term settlement problem.
