Mark from Urethane Solutions just finished lifting a corner of my house today (Forestville, SA). I watched as he did the work and was there when he hit concrete – the house had obviously previously been underpinned with concrete by the previous owners, but because they hadn’t fixed the drainage problem, the concrete dropped again. No fuss or bother, he just continued drilling through the concrete, welded some extensions to his tubes and injected under the old underpinning, lifting that as well as the foundation (1920’s house, probably bluestone or slate foundation).

No mention of extra cost or complaints about the extra day on site, in Mark’s words, “I work to a result, not a time”. From his original inspection and advice to fix the drainage problem before he would do the work, he was very thorough and methodical. He lifted the base of the wall and returned the top of the wall to nearly square (previous repairs to the large cracks meant he couldn’t get it absolutely square without risking more damage).

End result, the cracks inside the house are completely closed, the larger cracks outside nearly closed, and the brick lintel in the door next to the corner which had been in danger of falling out, back to original. The screen and wooden doors which previously been skew-whiff in the frames are square again, and I only had to move the striker plate on the door lock back to it’s original position and the doors close perfectly again.

The house is tenanted and they were concerned about the disruption, imagining the hole digging and concrete pumping that would be necessary, but Mark explained exactly what he would be doing, and they are happy at the minimal disruption. There is still some cleanup to be done from foam plumes which came up through cracks in the ground and the pavers alongside the house need to be relaid because they too got lifted by at least 100mm, but I am extremely happy with the outcome.