Challenge
A London school with 120m of sinking foundations needed ground improvement. Traditional piling meant closing the fee-paying school for an entire year, which was not a viable option.
Solution
Geobear, acting as Principal Contractor, injected geopolymer to a depth of 4.5m along 120m of foundations. The entire project was completed within the tight summer holiday window.
Project completion window
School closure avoided
Foundations stabilised
Maximum injection depth
A school in South West London was suffering from significant differential settlement. Cracks were appearing throughout the building as the foundations, built on high-plasticity clay, were sinking at the corners due to seasonal clay shrinkage.
The contractor and local authority needed a solution to stabilise the building, but the alternatives were unviable.
Underpinning had already been trialled in some areas and had failed. Piling to the required 15m depth was not only high-cost but would have forced the fee-paying school to close for up to one year, disrupting the academic calendar and causing a massive loss of revenue.
A fast, non-disruptive solution that could be safely completed in a sensitive environment and within the short summer holiday period was essential.
Geobear was contracted as both Principal Designer and Principal Contractor to manage the entire project. Our in-house team designed a solution using a specialist geopolymer injected along 120 linear meters of the perimeter foundations and internal load-bearing walls.
The material was injected at multiple depths down to 4.5 meters to compact the soil, fill voids, and create a stable base to halt the shrink-swell movement.
The project, including all enabling works, service location, and drainage repairs, was managed by Geobear and completed within the school summer holidays.
The project was handed back on time, with the site left clean and with no obvious signs of the work having taken place.
This allowed the school to reopen for the new term as planned, with no disruption to pupils or staff.
The building's foundations were fully stabilised, providing the client with the confidence to invest in further improvements to the asset.
The fast, non-invasive solution avoided a catastrophic one-year closure.
Don't let ground issues derail your timeline. Our engineered solutions are designed for sensitive environments and tight schedules.
