The situation was that the factory canteen had settled due to a weak soil foundation. The subsequent settlement created a dangerous tripping hazard in several places and damaged the floor tiles. This problem was solved using Uretek polymer columns embedded in the weak soil areas to restore proper support for the building and lift the floor back to the design level. Without any excavation, mess or damage to the building, all areas were returned precisely to the design levels. The restoration was extremely fast (just seven days) and caused only amazement among the workers and users of the canteen building.

Goals
The main goal was to compact the weak areas of the foundation soil and thus strengthen them to provide the support necessary to lift and re‑level the floor structures. The secondary goal was to do this in the fastest and least intrusive way.

Dynamic probing tests showed that the foundation soil was very weak at depths from 1 m to 3 m. Traditional methods of strengthening soil support, such as installing concrete or steel piles through the floor or injecting low‑mobility cement grout, are both extremely disruptive to the floor and very labour‑intensive, destructive and unpredictable. To avoid these problems, the engineers decided to use Uretek polymer columns. They were inserted through small‑diameter holes (32 mm diameter) and filled with Uretek resins, which expanded in the confined space to 400 mm after installation of the blank. They compacted the surrounding soil and carried the load exactly where they were placed to support the floor structures. Expanding more in weaker layers and less in denser soil, they penetrated the foundation, organising load transfer from the load‑bearing structures through the weak layers to the denser foundation (conventional virgin soil). A total of 57 columns were installed, each 2.5 metres long. They were positioned to cover the weak layers between 1 m and 3 m below the ground surface. The floor level was then restored and precisely levelled in just seven days. Minimal disruption was caused by the presence of “outside” personnel on the factory site and a category “C” truck with equipment and materials.