In the backyard of a Western Sydney battle axe property, a newly constructed granny flat no more than 6 years old had broken in half. The flat was thought to be built to the highest of standards.

An obvious source of the granny flat's breakage was force of gravity. But the owner, furious with her builders, suspected more was at play. Knowing our expertise in the re-levelling of residential structures and ground stabilisation, she called us in to pinpoint the exact reason for the breakage.

The exterior brickwork of the granny flat was lined with expansion joints at opposite ends. Upon entry, the floor had an obvious downward slope. Downward force of the structure had also broken all the drainage underneath.

As subsidence never occurs this quickly under newly constructed buildings, especially small ones, we suspected ground stability was the issue right away.

We discovered the granny flat was built upon a waffle slab poured on top of unevenly compacted soil. Upon closer investigation, the soil was well compacted in certain spots but poorly compacted elsewhere. This was causing uneven sinking and the granny flat had snapped because of this unevenness.

Repair of the granny flat was the responsibility of our client's builders. However, before they could proceed with their repairs, it was up to us to stabilise the flat's foundations so building repairs could proceed.

To help our client and her builders, we began by determining exactly which spots were well compacted and which ones weren't. This allowed us to inject our proprietary geopolymer resin solution, GeoPoly™, at the correct measurements in the correct places. This gave a flat even surface on which the granny flat could sit for years to come.

The simple mistake of not compacting soil properly had caused structural damage to the granny flat and significant monetary loss to the owner.

We were able to curb these monetary losses with our techniques.

Through a fast diagnosis of the problem and speedy implementation of GeoPoly™, the granny flat's foundations were stabilised. Our client's builders were able to carry out repairs soon after we had left the site. The granny flat is now stable.

A new build that's sloping or cracking in its first few years is usually sitting on ground that was never compacted properly. A free assessment finds the soft spots, and underpinning with GeoPoly™ fills them before the builders come back.