Resin injection
Resin injection versus underpinning for Havering homes
Describe the crack or movement you have noticed and a specialist will assess whether resin injection suits your home. Sending an enquiry costs nothing and carries no obligation to proceed with any work.
How it works
What resin injection involves
- Staged injection beneath the footing
- The specialist drills small holes through the foundation and pumps a two-part geopolymer resin into the ground below. It expands on contact, compacting loose soil and filling voids in controlled stages.
- Lifting settled masonry
- As the resin cures within minutes, it exerts upward pressure. The specialist monitors levels with laser equipment during each injection stage to raise the wall gradually without overstressing the brickwork.
- Where it suits Havering clay
- London Clay shrinks in dry summers and swells in wet winters. Resin injection stabilises shallow footings that have moved because of this seasonal cycle, provided the clay has not dried beyond reach.
- When traditional underpinning fits better
- Deep strip foundations, severe structural damage or made ground over old gravel pits often need mass concrete underpinning instead. A site investigation determines which method the soil conditions actually require.
Ground conditions
What rules out resin injection on your street
Resin needs firm soil to push against. If the ground beneath your home is soft fill from an old gravel pit or tipped land, the liquid disperses rather than lifting the footing.
A leaking drain washing soil away must be fixed before any resin work starts. Pumping resin into running water simply washes the material out before it can cure and set hard.
Tree roots drawing moisture from clay cause seasonal movement. Unless the specialist addresses the root influence first, the resin fills a gap today that the tree opens again next summer.
Heavily fractured concrete floor slabs, common in postwar estate houses, may break further under the upward pressure of expanding resin. The specialist checks slab condition before choosing this method.
From enquiry to completed resin work
01
You describe the problem
You send details of the cracking or movement you have seen at your home, including photographs if you have them.
02
A specialist visits
A structural technician examines the walls, measures crack widths and takes level readings across the affected rooms.
03
Trial holes are dug
The contractor excavates small pits beside the footing to check soil type, depth and moisture content before proposing resin.
04
Injection proceeds in stages
The specialist drills, injects and monitors levels over one to three days, pausing between stages so the ground settles.
05
Levels are recorded again
Final measurements confirm how much lift was achieved. You receive a written report detailing what was done and where.
What you hold once the work is done
Every decision rests on measured evidence taken from your home. The specialist records those findings and the finished levels so you have a permanent account of what happened and why.
Site investigation report
Notes on soil type, footing depth and moisture readings taken from trial holes beside your home, forming the basis for the chosen repair method.
Level monitoring data
Laser readings taken before, during and after injection, showing exactly how many millimetres of lift the resin achieved at each point along the wall.
Method statement
A written record of hole positions, resin volumes used per stage and curing times, kept for future reference if you sell the home.
Completion certificate
Confirmation that the specialist finished the agreed scope of work and that final levels fall within acceptable structural tolerances.
Questions homeowners ask about resin injection
If your question is not here, send it through the contact page and a specialist will answer it directly. Ask something else.
- How long does resin injection take compared to underpinning?
- Most resin jobs finish in one to three days. Traditional mass concrete underpinning typically takes two to four weeks because each bay must be dug, poured and left to cure before the next section begins.
- Will the resin make a mess of my garden or driveway?
- The equipment is small. The specialist drills 16mm holes through the foundation, so there is no trenching. Any spoil from trial holes is removed and the surface reinstated.
- Does the resin stop the crack from coming back?
- It stabilises the footing against the current cause of movement. If a nearby oak continues to extract moisture from the clay, seasonal cracking may resume until the root influence is addressed separately.
- Can resin lift a whole side of my house?
- It can lift a settled section by several millimetres per stage. Attempting to raise a large area at once risks cracking internal plaster. The specialist plans the sequence to distribute pressure evenly.
- Is resin injection cheaper than digging out and pouring concrete?
- It usually costs less because labour time is shorter and no spoil removal is needed. But price depends on access, footing depth and how many injection points the ground conditions demand.
- What happens if the ground is too soft for resin?
- The trial holes reveal this before any resin is mixed. If the soil cannot support expansion, the specialist will recommend screw piling or traditional underpinning instead, based on what they found.
Describe what you have noticed at your home
Write down where the crack is, how wide it looks and when you first saw it. A specialist reads your description and replies with whether resin injection might suit the ground beneath your home. Nothing commits you to buying anything.
- No fee for the enquiry
- Find out if resin injection suits your home
- No obligation to proceed