Challenge
An engineering report found subsidence at the front of a Cork home over 100 years old, where a suspended timber floor restricted access.
Solution
Geobear ground improvement solution treated the affected foundation through small floor hatches in one day, without mass concrete underpinning.
Programme on site
Age of property
Excavation required
The house in question is more than 100 years in St Luke’s, Cork and has a suspended timber ground floor.
An engineering property report identified signs of subsidence at the front of the house, and cracking had appeared in the walls. The ground beneath the affected section of foundation needed treatment to stop the movement.
For the homeowners, a young family, avoiding disruption was a priority. Non-disruptiveness was recorded as an important criterion in choosing the remedial method.
The subsidence was confined to the front of the property, so the treatment had to target the ground beneath that section of foundation rather than the whole house.
Access was the main practical constraint. With a suspended timber floor, the ground and foundations beneath the front of the house could not be reached through a solid slab. Opening up the full floor to reach the foundation would have meant lifting boards across the affected rooms, with the disruption and reinstatement that follows.
Mass concrete underpinning was identified as the alternative. It involves excavating in sections beneath the foundation and casting new concrete to a deeper bearing level, one bay at a time, with curing between bays. Internal underpinning would have meant lifting the suspended timber floor across the affected area to dig beneath the front walls, followed by spoil removal and reinstatement of the floor.
The Geobear ground improvement solution offered a targeted, less disruptive way to treat the ground beneath the affected foundation. Instead of opening up the full floor, Geobear formed small internal access hatches in the timber floor to reach the treatment area. That met the homeowners’ requirement for a non-disruptive repair and avoided excavation altogether.
Geobear designed a ground improvement solution using targeted geopolymer injection to strengthen the ground beneath the affected foundation at the front of the house. The design treated the ground below the underside of the foundation, where the loss of support had occurred.
Internal access hatches were formed in the suspended timber floor so that the treatment points beneath the front of the house could be reached from inside, leaving the rest of the floor in place. The full treatment design was completed on site in a single day, with no excavation or spoil removal.
During treatment, the homeowners saw some of the smaller cracks close. On completion, Geobear issued its guarantee and a Certificate of Structural Adequacy.
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