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Emergency repair of sinking brick piers, verandah and roof in Pennant Hills

Our Brief
This Pennant Hills home was a typical single-story villa with a brick cavity construction built in the 1930s. In the month before she called us, the owner and occupant had observed the lean of the brick verandah piers growing dramatically.
Out of desperation, a local carpenter who had been fixing something else in the house, built a temporary timber brace for the homeowner in an attempt to stop the leaning. The carpenter’s solution didn’t work. We were called in to diagnose the real problem. When we arrived we found the brick piers wobbling. Both the verandah and its roof were about to come down!
Our Challenge
Due to the severity of the leaning, we classified this as an emergency repair job. We didn’t want anyone to get injured so we got to work right away. Through our in-depth analysis, we discovered a combination of factors had caused the piers to lean, bend and sink over the years.
The first factor was faulty stormwater drainage which had resulted in erosion of the soil and a destabilising of the ground. The second was the removal of a large tree root from underneath the piers and verandah years before. The removal of the tree root had aerated and weakened the soil, giving room for the piers to move.
Lastly, West Pennant Hills Road was only four metres away from the verandah. Countless heavy vehicles had passed by at high speed for decades causing the vibrations that would shake the foundations apart.
Our Solution
The leaning of the verandah piers was severe. Through application of force to the side of the piers, we were able to replumb, lift and realign the bending piers. Injecting our very own unique ground stabilising solution, GeoPoly™, we compacted and solidified the aerated, eroded soil foundations underneath the piers to stop them from sinking any further. GeoPoly™ also proofed the piers against future vibrations caused by heavy vehicle activity from West Pennant Hills Road. Any cracked brick work was repaired with our HelicalBars™. Using masonry beams we redistributed the load of the verandah wall for a totally stable structure.
The Outcome
Most builders would have knocked the verandah and its piers down entirely and charged the homeowner a fortune for months of labour. We completed these repairs in a single day.
With our special solutions, we were able to save the piers, the verandah and its roof without rebuilding or taking anything apart. Most importantly we saved the homeowner tens of thousands of dollars. The homeowner used to be worried about the piers collapsing on her car in the nearby driveway. No longer concerned, she now confidently parks her car under the verandah with the knowledge that it’s nice and stable.