Christchurch homeowner Geert Herder believes the city’s solution to rebuilding many homes damaged by September’s earthquake lies in a revolutionary product that can restore a home to its pre-earthquake condition within two to three days.

Faced with having to demolish the brand-new three-bedroom home he had just finished building in Wainoni when the earthquake caused the ground to slump on both the southern and northern corners of the back wall, Geert said he knew there had to be an alternative to pulling the home down.

The ground along the 24-metre long back wall had slumped by as much as 70mm in places, resulting in 10mm gaps between some of the bricks, cracking and fissures on internal walls. Internal doors would no longer shut.

Geert went online and discovered Uretek Ground Engineering. “I had heard about the company but didn’t know much about their product.”

Uretek is a BRANZ-appraised resin injection process which lifts and re-levels buildings by filling in ground voids and supporting collapsed ground. It is one of the approved methods of repair by the Department of Building and Housing for earthquake repairs in Canterbury.

Uretek is a proven product, having been used for the last 27 years throughout the world, including for earthquake-damage repair work in Japan and Turkey.

“Uretek has done a marvellous job. I honestly didn’t think they would get it as straight as they did – it is absolutely brilliant,” Geert says.

“We completed the new 180sqm house just one day prior to the earthquake. If you saw what was here, the only alternative to Uretek was to pull the house down and start again In just three days Uretek raised the house back up and levelled it out with absolute precision. ”

He said Uretek drilled small holes into the home’s foundations, placed tubes into the ground and then pumped in the structural resins which mixed under the ground and began filling the void. “You can actually feel the building lifting. It was all done by computerised laser levelling, the building being lifted in 1mm increments. The precision of the work was tremendous – it’s like brand new again.”

Geert, who built the house to sell, said it was gut-wrenching to think he was going to have to demolish the house and believes that many property owners in the earthquake ravaged areas of Christchurch and Kaiapoi could save their homes – and money – by using Uretek’s technology.

“It took only three days and my house was back to its pre-earthquake state. They did an absolutely tremendous job.”

Geert has now decided to keep the home as an investment property and will soon advertise it for rent.

Uretek has been operating throughout New Zealand for the last eight years from its Auckland office and has had a South Island Regional Manager for the past year, based in Christchurch.

Phil Johnston, Regional Manager, says Uretek is a fast, convenient alternative to the old-fashioned underpinning and jacking methods.

“Most residential work is completed within a couple of days and there are big cost savings for homeowners.”

He says one of the greatest advantages with Uretek’s method is that paths and gardens are not dug up; there is no excavation, no water and no mess for the homeowner. The product is also non-toxic, inert and environmentally friendly.

ENDS

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