Challenge
A historic water leak caused the internal floor slab to settle, cracking walls throughout the ground floor while threatening expensive finishes, underfloor heating and the property's habitability.
Solution
Geobear injected geopolymer beneath the slab through 27 precisely positioned points, filling voids, restoring support and protecting underfloor heating without excavation, demolition or removing internal finishes.
project completion
Injection locations
Treatment below slab
Geobear was appointed to stabilise a detached two-storey property in Co. Kildare after a historic water leak caused significant settlement of the internal ground floor slab.
The affected slab extended beneath the kitchen, hallway, lounge, sitting room and bedroom. As the slab settled, the internal loadbearing walls constructed upon it also moved, resulting in widespread cracking throughout the property.
The issue had existed for some time, and the homeowner was seeking a permanent, cost-effective solution that could be delivered quickly while avoiding major disruption to the finished home.
The conventional solution was to excavate and completely replace the affected floor slab.
This would have required the removal of the staircase, demolition of five internal walls and the stripping out of high-quality floor finishes throughout the ground floor. Following reconstruction, the property would have required extensive reinstatement works and would have been uninhabitable for several weeks.
A further challenge was preserving the property's underfloor heating system during the repair.
Geobear designed a non-invasive geopolymer injection solution to stabilise the internal floor slab.
A total of 27 injection points were installed on a 1 metre grid pattern across the affected slab. Small access holes were drilled to approximately 100 mm beneath the underside of the slab, allowing expanding geopolymer to be injected into the underlying fill material and any existing voids.
Before work commenced, thermal imaging cameras were used to accurately locate the underfloor heating pipes, ensuring they remained undisturbed throughout the installation.
As the geopolymer expanded, it filled voids, strengthened the supporting ground and restored support beneath the slab, stabilising the structure without excavation or demolition.
The entire project was completed in one day.
The internal floor slab was successfully stabilised while preserving the property's finishes and services.
Compared with complete slab replacement, the Geobear solution delivered significant practical and financial benefits:
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