Rod Moore, owner House Lifters and Meccanico: "Six years after the Canterbury earthquakes we noticed our work was ramping up for straightening commercial buildings instead of mainly private properties (houses). When I was doing research for a heavier system I discovered most jacking systems available were big and required trucks to bring in all the gear. The Holmatro system on the other hand seemed to be small and I only needed a few guys to do the job, so I decided to invest in a synchronous computer-controlled hydraulic jacking system from the Dutch company. The system was built entirely on my requirements and delivered by two engineers who came out to New Zealand to train my employees and help us get things going. With great success. We lifted the concrete floor of a 340 ton building at Ferrymead (Christchurch) 200 millimeters to re-level. After placing 25 jacks, we connect the hydraulic pumps and the wires to the computer to measure the heights. With other systems you need several guys to go around all the jacking points and try to raise them simultaneously. This system monitors all the points at once as the building is slowly lifted. In case of a problem like a jacking support being squashed, it alerts and stops so nothing breaks. Once the building was raised to level, sacrificial props were placed underneath with the assistance of sledgehammers and the voids underneath were filled. The final job was to run a radar test to detect any gaps. The center of the floors were also monitored for sagging and a beam and screw system could lift areas that needed it. Imperfections in the original concrete floor showed up, but we got it back within 0.1mm to the original pour of the slab.”