The owner of the home (and its sole occupant), contacted us after she had called a local handyman for reparations to her home. Having noticed the problematic brick arch out the front of the house, the handyman built his own temporary prop to stop it from coming down. Upon his recommendation and recommendations from family friends, the homeowner contacted us for a more permanent solution.

When we arrived, the problem was visible from the street. It was obvious that due to subsiding walls, the brick arch had broken. Both the arch and the walls were unstable and needed reparation work right away.

After a quick analysis, the reason for the subsidence which led to the cracked brick arch was clear. Because the road and footpath were slightly elevated, storm water had been running underneath the footing of the house for years. Even though the local council had altered the drainage system years before our arrival, the soil erosion damage caused by storm water still remained.

As the brick arch and walls were about to fall apart, our top priority was to stop the walls from sinking any further as soon as possible. To do this, we injected the ground with our own unique geopolymer resin solution, GeoPoly™. It worked. Having stopped the walls from sinking we were able to get to work on repairing the walls. We installed our own HelicalBars™ into the walls which solidified them and gave them rock-solid stability.

We also used HelicalBars™ to re-enforce the lintel. Masonry beams were installed to stop the broken brick arch from coming apart. This also diverted load evenly through the arch and down each side of the wall right down to the footing. Any cracks that sat above the arch were also stitched with our HelicalBars™ for further stability. To give it that final touch, we tidied up this project by patching up the wet dash render and giving it a new lick of paint. We left our props at the site for a week to make sure everything was stable and a week later we went back to remove them.

To give it that final touch, we tidied up this project by repointing the brickwork and patched up the wet dash render which allowed a local painter to simply apply a new lick of paint.

In the end, it was as if the subsidence and crack in the arch had never happened! To complete this reparations project, we didn't knock any walls down or rebuild the arch. We were able to re-lift the arch without removing a single brick from the structure. The walls, the brick arch and the ground that the structure sits on is now rock-solid. The homeowner feels safe within her own home.

Got a crack over an arch, a window or a door that's been propped, filled or ignored? A free assessment measures the crack, checks the ground under the footing and tells you whether the wall, the ground, or both need fixing.