60 | Lifting system in high demand The Smartlift system is a hydraulically powered jacking device that can restore concrete slabs to within a millimetre of perfectly level. Smartlift Systems T T Hugh de Lacy ENGINEERING The idea of necessity being the mother of invention was never more clearly illustrated than in the emergence of the patented Smartlift system for re-levelling concrete slabs and the floors of buildings battered by the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Smartlift Systems grew out of the need for a new, faster and more precise way of getting quake-damaged buildings back on an even keel, and keeping them that way. The Smartlift system is essentially a hydraulically powered jacking device that can restore concrete slabs to within a millimetre of perfectly level, and it has the further advantage of being able to be adjusted in response to further soil subsidence or movement at any time thereafter. Now the biggest foundation repair and floor-leveling company in Christchurch, Smartlift Systems was acquired last year by three qualified builders, Patrick Keegan, Ricky Payne and Ryan Fowler, who have been with the company for 14 years, and bought it off its founder to run as equal partners. “The key to the system’s success is that it’s controlled by a central mechanism that allows it to be fully re-leverable, which means we not only guarantee to get the floor level, but we can periodically check that it’s stayed that way, and further adjust it if necessary,” Patrick says. “It’s now 15 years since the quakes – unless you also count the 2016 Kaikoura quake – but we’ve still got tons of quake repair work ahead of us in Christchurch, and we’re otherwise being called to jobs all round the South Island. “We’ve just finished one job in Alexandra, we’re working on another one in Kaikoura at the moment, and we’re due up in Blenheim soon for work there, and in the Marlborough Sounds.” Patrick says he and his partners bought into Smartlift Systems because they saw it as “a fully patented and fully developed, locally invented and proven system for which we could see a much wider application beyond the immediate quake repair work”. “We came aboard as operators and project managers, and today we’ve got a full-time staff of 15, plus 15 subcontractors, and we’ve extended our expertise into leveling piled floors as well as concrete pads.” Smartlift Systems is IOS 45001 certified for both commercial and residential floor leveling, all staff carry SiteSafe passports, and the company’s house leveling and foundation repairs, replacement and remediation – 1500 completions to its credit so far – are approved by all the major insurance companies. The system can lift single- or two-storey houses, or blocks of multiple apartments with heavy internal firewalls, and can increase the foundation bearing area by up to 300%, thereby reducing the risk of subsequent damage. As it is suitable for a full consent or is an exempt activity, the system’s passage through the consenting system is streamlined. Once the house has been lifted by Smartlift, plumbing and drainage repairs can be carried out underneath it. The system is equally suitable for reinforced and un-reinforced concrete floors, and can be used to fix lateral spread.
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