The Site
A beautiful two-story heritage-listed foundation home with important Australian historical and cultural significance.
This home is characterised by its use of sandstone as a building material, which is used for the foundations as well as for decorative elements such as the quoins, lintels, and arches. The house is over 120 years old.
The Issue
The building’s foundations are built on reactive clays which over time had become affected by water ingress due to a compromised stormwater pipe. Reactive clays shrink, expand or wash away depending on moisture levels in the ground. This affects the overlaying foundations accordingly.
Stress cracking had formed in the tiled roof on the left exterior side of the house and step cracks had appeared along the exterior wall. Cracked walls, especially cracks which start at windows or the corners of buildings are indicators of structural damage due to subsidence and voids under the ground. The owners knew that they needed to get the issue resolved before the damage to the foundations devalued their property.
The Resinject Solution
Resinject was chosen to bring the house back to its former glory. The objective was to raise and re-level the house. Care had to be taken not to damage arches and windows, and to close cracks in the brick façade wherever possible. It was discussed with the owners of the home that the storm water pipe had to be fixed to ensure the flooding did not occur again.
Resinject recommended remediation of the house using their RSJ170 structural resin. RSJ170 is an engineered polyurethane resin that expands and solidifies when injected into the ground.
The resin strengthens the ground and re-levels the overlaying foundations. The Resinject Team injected the structural resin from 1.5 meters down to 3 meters, at different points around and throughout the house.
Resinject’s RSJ170 structural resin (and the Team) successfully underpinned the home. The resin was also able to re-level the foundations and subsequently close the external wall crack.
Resinject completed this project in one day. There was limited disruption to the homeowner, with no need to use any excavation. The innovation method was a faction of the cost compared to traditional underpinning methods.
