Construction / Vibration
Continuous vibration monitoring for piling next to a heritage building
A construction project adjacent to a sensitive older building required continuous vibration monitoring with real-time alerts, letting works proceed without damage or dispute.
The problem
Piling risked damaging the neighbouring building, and its owner wanted independent numbers as evidence.
Our approach
- 1Installed continuous vibration monitors (geophones) at the base of the sensitive structure
- 2Set alert and stop-work trigger levels using PPV criteria from international standards
- 3Real-time alerts to site supervision when approaching limits
- 4Weekly summary reports as shared evidence for all parties
Standards applied
Key numbers
0.8 mm/s
Peak PPV recorded
5 months, continuous
Monitoring duration
21 alert triggers, 0 exceedances
Exceedance events
Outcome
The project ran a two-tier trigger regime — an alert at 0.5 mm/s and a stop-work level at 1.5 mm/s — against the 3 mm/s DIN 4150-3 guideline value for sensitive and heritage structures. The alert fired 21 times over five months of continuous monitoring, each time stopping the rig for review. The stop-work level was never reached, and the highest peak particle velocity recorded was 0.8 mm/s — 27% of the guideline. No damage occurred and no claim was made.