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Cracks in your walls, a porch pulling away, doors that no longer close? Geocon (M) Sdn. Bhd. provides building settlement repair in Malaysia that fixes the ground under your house, not just the cracks on top. We stabilise the foundation with helical piles or polyurethane injection, with no hacking and no heavy machinery.
Settlement usually starts slowly. Check your house against this list. Two or more of these together is a strong sign that the ground under part of the building is moving.
Seeing two or more of these? Have it checked before the cracks grow.
Cracks are the symptom. The cause is almost always in the soil below the foundation.
Many housing areas in Selangor and the Klang Valley are built on soft clay or on fill that was not compacted properly. Over the years the soil squeezes together under the weight of the house (consolidation), and the building slowly settles with it.
Leaking drains, broken pipes and heavy rain can carry fine soil out from under a slab. This leaves voids and cavities (soil piping). Malaysia's wet weather, with the groundwater rising and falling through the year, makes this worse and can cause compacted fill to collapse.
Differential settlement means one part of a building settles more than another. It is the most common cause of cracked walls in terrace houses. A typical case: the original house sits on piles, but the kitchen, porch or extension added later was built on a shallow footing. The extension sinks with the soft soil while the house stays put, and the joint between them cracks.
Simply patching the cracks or recasting the slab does not stop this. New concrete adds more weight to the same weak soil, so the problem usually comes back. Proper building settlement repair deals with the ground first.
Every job starts with testing, so the repair is designed for your soil, not guessed.
We map the cracks, take a laser level survey of floors and slabs, and run JKR/Mackintosh probe tests to find how deep the weak soil goes.
Based on the test results, we choose helical piles, PU injection or both, and work out the number, depth and spacing of piles or injection points.
Helical piles are screwed in by rotation beside the footing; PU is injected through small drilled holes. No hacking, no excavation and no heavy machinery.
Piles are bracketed to the existing footing to carry the load. Where slabs have dropped, PU lifts them in small stages under a laser level.
We re-test the ground and can set settlement monitoring points to confirm the building has stopped moving before cracks are repaired.
Both are backed by research with GeoForenSIG, the geotechnical forensic group at UiTM's Faculty of Civil Engineering.
Leads GeoForenSIG, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Technical partner to Geocon (M) Sdn. Bhd.
[CREDENTIALS e.g. professional registration]
Steel piles with helix-shaped plates are screwed into firm ground below the soft layer, then fixed to the footing so the building rests on them instead of the weak soil.
High-pressure hydrophobic polyurethane is injected through small holes. It expands, pushes out water, fills voids and compacts the soil, and can lift a sunken slab back to level.
Underpinning and injection treat the cause of differential settlement, so the repair lasts.
For a house in Seksyen 7, Shah Alam, we designed GeoMicroHelicS helical piles for each support point, checking the load capacity of every pile against the soil layers found by testing. After installation, four settlement markers around the house were monitored over several months in 2019.
[CONFIRM: original problem, number of piles, and that the 2019 monitoring readings (movement within about ±3 mm) may be published.]
See all projectsUsually because the soil under part of the foundation is soft, was poorly compacted when the house was built, or is being washed away by water from leaking drains or pipes. Extensions and porches built on shallow footings next to a piled house are especially prone to sinking.
Diagonal cracks from door and window corners, doors and windows that stick, sloping floors, a porch or extension separating from the house, and gaps opening at the skirting. Cracks that reopen after patching are a strong sign the ground is still moving.
Not every crack is serious, but a crack caused by settlement means the structure is moving. Cracks that are wider than a few millimetres, keep growing, or come with doors jamming and floors tilting should be checked by an engineer soon. If you see sudden large cracks, falling plaster or a ceiling sagging, leave that area and get help straight away.
Yes. In most cases a sinking house can be stabilised without demolition, by underpinning the footing with helical piles and/or injecting polyurethane to fill voids and strengthen the soil. Once the ground stops moving, the cracks can be repaired and will stay closed.
It depends on how much of the house is affected, how deep the soft soil goes, and whether piles, injection or both are needed. We can give a proper quotation after a site inspection and testing. Request a site inspection.
Helical piles are best when a wall or footing keeps sinking and needs new support from firmer ground below. PU injection is best for sunken slabs, voids and loose soil close to the surface. Many houses need a combination, which we decide from the test results.
Usually not. PU injection works through small holes, and helical piles are installed beside the footing, so floors and walls stay in place. We will tell you after the inspection if any area needs to be cleared during the works.
New support for sinking walls and footings, installed without heavy machinery.
Read moreFills voids and lifts sunken floors and porches through small holes.
Read moreJKR probe tests, level surveys and settlement monitoring.
Read more
Tell us what's moving. We'll tell you how to fix it.
