Brick Veneer wall and floor has sunk

[gaz]

We've just moved into a 30 year old brick veneer house which is built on concrete footings and brick piers (forgive me if my terminology is not quite right). Our building inspector drew our attention to several step cracks in the front walls of the house and a significant out of level situation in the front bedroom (a fall of 2.5cm in the 4m size of the room).

He also said that the piers need to be repacked and that it is quite a simple process. However, I have also run a level along the brick work and it is out of level by a similar amount (only in this front corner).

Although I have no idea of what I'm talking about, common sense tells me that lifting the piers by 2.5 cm will perhaps rectify the flooring and ceiling out of level situation but won't it cause other major problems if the footing of the brick wall is not lifted at the same time. I am quite confident that the movement is old (perhaps more than 10 years old) as they have built a wardrobe in the room which compensates for the out of level situation.

Is this going to cost squillions $$$$ to rectify or is it straight forward as my building inspector suggests???

[addo]

There's traditional underpinning/jacking where the masonry is raised from just below ground level and beefed up, also there is a newer approach using expanding polyurethane injection. That is offered by a company called Uretek, in Sydney. It's quick (less than a day to level) but expensive - materials cost is over $100/kg IIRC.

For traditional underpinning you might want a consulting engineer to specify the exact details of what's to be done. Some underpinning contractors will do this as part of their service.

Regards, Adam.