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Sinking Meriton apartment complex in Ashfield re-levelled and stabilised
Our Brief
Constructed by Meriton Complex almost 40 years ago, this apartment complex in Ashfield, Sydney, had been suffering from structural difficulties for years.
Residents of the apartment complex had been deeply concerned as their kitchens and bathrooms had been off level for so long. Partial sliding doors going out to their gardens couldn’t be opened by residents without a significant struggle.
Strata had delayed building maintenance for years due to exorbitantly high quotes from local contractors to repair the Meriton built complex. Unable to wait any longer, they called us in for help.
Our Challenge
At the beginning of our inspection, we discovered some apartments in the Meriton built complex had structural problems but others didn’t.
We discovered the Meriton apartments that weren’t sinking were sitting above an underground car park. Having been built perfectly to commercial standards of 40 years ago, the car park hadn’t budged. As a result the apartments sitting above them were comfortably sitting on the car park. The car park’s bearers and rock solid concrete piers held the complex’s load comfortably.
Investigating further, we found a total of 12 apartments sinking at their centres. These sinking apartments had footings created at the correct depth with walls in superb condition leading us to inspect underneath them. There we found almost 8 brick piers to each apartment, heavily sunken.
Due to loss of moisture content over decades, the ground had contracted and shifted downwards pulling the centre of the Meriton apartments down too. Meriton’s builders could not have been foreseen these ground issues 40 years ago.
Our Solution
As the ground had sunk so much, re-levelling the ground and stabilising the brick piers became our top priority. With enough headroom under each of the apartments, our specialist technicians were able to access the ground without having to drill through the floors.
Injecting GeoPoly™, our proprietary geopolymer resin solution, into the ground saw all brick piers holding up a single apartment lifted and stabilised in less than a day.
We didn’t have to remove a single, solitary brick or damage any part of the Meriton built complex.
The Outcome
Before contacting us, our client had been quoted over $300,000 to repair all 12 apartments by builders.
Our client had been informed the floors would need to be pulled out and brick piers would need to be pulled apart and rebuilt. All before floors were put back in. The residents would have needed to move out for months.
The Meriton apartments had been built to the highest standards and did not need alteration or repair. They only needed to be re-levelled and stabilised. With our progressive, simple and cost-effective solutions, we were able to do this in less than a day with zero damage for each of the apartments.
We saved our client hundreds of thousands of dollars and didn’t disrupt the lives of the residents at all. Residents went to work in the morning as usual and by the time they got home, their kitchens and bedrooms were perfectly level by the time they got back.
The ground underneath the Meriton constructed complex has been stable since.