We fix the cause.
Not just the crack.

Melbourne Building Repairs is a remedial building repair company servicing Melbourne. We repair cracked brickwork, render and concrete, leaking balconies, damaged cladding, perished mortar joints and failed lintels on existing homes and commercial buildings. We identify the cause of the damage before repairing it, so the same problem does not return.

HeliFix crack stitching repairs cracked masonry by bonding helical stainless steel bars into the horizontal mortar beds across the crack. The bars tie the wall back together and spread any future movement over a much wider area. The repair sits inside the wall, so there is no visible steelwork and no need to demolish and rebuild the cracked section. Melbourne Building Repairs is a licensed HeliFix applicator and installer.

It depends on the width, the pattern and whether the crack is still moving. Fine hairline cracks in the mortar are usually cosmetic. Stair-step cracks that follow the mortar joints, cracks wider than about 5 mm, cracks that are noticeably wider at one end, and cracks that keep reopening after being filled generally indicate structural movement and should be diagnosed before any repair is attempted.

Because filling a crack does not stop whatever caused it. Render cracks are a symptom of movement in the wall behind, moisture getting into the substrate, or the wrong material being used. If the movement or moisture is not dealt with, the patch will crack again along the same line, usually within a season or two.

The most common causes are a failed or missing waterproof membrane, cracked or debonded tile grout, blocked or poorly located drainage, and movement cracks in the concrete slab. Water frequently enters at one point and appears somewhere else entirely, which is why we trace the entry point before quoting the repair.

Not always. If the substrate and drainage are sound, some balconies can be sealed from above. Where the membrane has failed or the slab is cracked, the tiles usually have to be lifted so the substrate can be repaired and re-waterproofed properly. Sealing over a failed membrane only buys a short amount of time.

Concrete cancer is what happens when the steel reinforcement inside concrete begins to rust. The rust expands and forces the surrounding concrete to crack and break away, which shows up as cracking, bubbling, rust staining and lumps of concrete spalling off. It is progressive and does not stop on its own: the exposed steel has to be cleaned and treated, and the concrete rebuilt.

The usual signs are horizontal cracking directly above a window or door, rust staining running out of the brickwork, brick faces blowing off along the lintel line, or a sagging brick course above the opening. These point to a steel lintel that is corroding and expanding. A failed lintel can often be repaired with a HeliFix masonry beam rather than being cut out and replaced.

It should not be. Cement mortar is harder and far less permeable than the soft bricks used in older Melbourne homes. Moisture that would normally escape through the mortar joint is forced out through the brick face instead, which is what causes brick faces to blow off. Period brickwork should be repointed with a lime-based mortar matched to the original.

Yes. We provide written inspection and defect reports for owners corporations, strata managers and property managers, setting out the cause of the damage, supporting photographs and the recommended repair with costings.

Every repair is priced after an inspection, because the cost depends entirely on the cause and the extent of the damage rather than on the size of the crack you can see. On-site inspections and quotes are free, and the quote sets out exactly what is being repaired and why.

Call 0468 800 300, or send photos and details through our free online repair quote form. For most jobs we will arrange a free on-site inspection so the cause of the damage can be identified properly before anything is quoted.