Introducing the NEW & IMPROVED way to monitor slab heave!

Are you concerned about cracks & damage to your home? Are your doors & windows sticking? ​

  • Understand exactly how, when & where your home is moving
  • Detect and address potential issues before they become more costly repairs
  • Measure the effects of plumbing repairs and landscaping changes
  • Confirm that movement has stabilised before starting cosmetic repairs
  • Directly access all data including trend graphs on your mobile phone or web browser at any time

Be smarter. Get more data!

Rent our Smart Sensors NOW

Smart Sensors & Services

What is Slab Heave

Slab heave is foundation movement caused by the swelling or shrinking of reactive clay soils as it wets or dries.

When this happens unevenly (eg just one corner, or the edges but not the middle) the building's structure is put under excessive strain resulting in cracks and damage. 

Common symptoms include:

  • Cracks in plasterboard walls & ceilings 
  • Uneven floor levels
  • Cracks in external brickwork
  • Cracked and moving paths & driveways
  • Sticking doors and windows
  • Broken pipes (making the problem even worse)

Several Australian Standards & best practice recommendations aim to help reduce the risk of slab heave but with so many possible causes, involved parties and variable conditions determining the root cause and fault can be difficult.

Class action law suits, building tribunal cases and even just general warranty claims can bring significant costs for legal fees, insurance premiums and repairs. Property buy-backs or demolition are not uncommon in severe cases. 

The 4Cs of Slab Heave

Concern

Home owners can be justifiably concerned about the damage slab heave or subsidence can cause. 

Your home is your castle and also likely your biggest investment. 

Confusion

Technical terms, AUS standards, fine print warranties, multiple trades deflecting blame, obligations you didn't understand or know about. 

It's no wonder home owners are confused. 

Costs

Repairing the damage caused by slab heave can be very expensive. 

There's also the costs of engineers, legal fees and potential loss of home value to consider. 

Conflict

When emotions, liability, reputation and money are involved the blame game often kicks in.

Disputes can easily escalate to stressful tribunals & legal action. 

Monitoring Slab Heave

If you've already engaged an engineer or have called in your builder, it's highly likely they've said "we'll monitor it for 6-18 months".  

Traditional methods of monitoring slab heave or subsidence poses some serious problems:

  • It requires repeated site visits by costly engineers.
  • Data is limited to only a few (often just two) 'point-in-time' measurements taken many months apart.
  • Measurements lack additional context such as detailed weather and timeline data.
  • Significant events or remedial action triggers can be missed due to irregular site visits and measurements. 
  • There's a potential conflict of interest in disputes; the party collecting the data may also be the party making recommendations or having to act on them. 

In addition to traditional surveys, SLABsense uses the latest IoT smart sensor technology to solve these problems and paint a detailed picture of where and when your home is moving.

SLABsense Solutions

Floor Level Survey

In order to monitor movement we first need to benchmark your home's current levels and identify any areas of concern. This step is the industry norm and we use industry standard equipment. Results are displayed on a floor plan. 

Daily Level Smart Monitoring

Now it's time to step it up and do things the SLABsense way! Our patent pending level sensors provide daily, fully automated monitoring of vertical movement at up to 30 points around a home. They are deliberately discrete and wake for just 20 seconds to take a measurement while you sleep. 

Soil Moisture Monitoring

For even more comprehensive monitoring, we can also install our SLABsense SM sensors to automatically monitor soil moisture levels at multiple points around your home's foundations. This helps directly correlate slab heave conditions with any detected movement. 

Rainfall Data

So soil moisture is causing issues but did it rain or is a pipe broken? We scrape online local rainfall & temperature data for your postcode to add critical context to sensor collected data. The combination of all three data types (rainfall, soil moisture & movement) is extremely powerful when diagnosing issues. 

Data Presentation

Our online dashboards present all data in an easy to use format using floor plans and trend graphs. We strongly recommend results are shared with your builder or engineer (or with you if they've engaged our services) to maximise trust and minimise conflict. 

Data Independence

SLABsense weren't involved in building your home or any decisions regarding how to fix it or who's going to pay - we just capture the data. This gives an important layer of independence and impartiality to help in disputes and where trust has broken down. 

Coverage Areas

DIY

Australia wide

Virtual consults

Australia wide

Surveys & Installation

Greater Geelong

  • Anakie
  • Anglesea
  • Armstrong Creek
  • Avalon
  • Bannockburn
  • Barrabool
  • Barwon Heads
  • Batesford
  • Bellarine
  • Bellbrae
  • Belmont
  • Breakwater
  • Ceres
  • Charlemont
  • Clifton Springs
  • Connewarre
  • Corio
  • Curlewis
  • Drysdale
  • East Geelong
  • Freshwater Creek
  • Geelong
  • Geelong West
  • Grovedale
  • Hamlyn Heights
  • Highton
  • Indented Head
  • Lara
  • Leopold
  • Little River
  • Lovely Banks
  • Moolap
  • Moriac
  • Mount Duneed
  • Newtown
  • North Geelong
  • Point Lonsdale
  • Point Wilson
  • Portarlington
  • Ocean Grove
  • Queenscliff
  • St Albans Park
  • St Leonards
  • Steglitz
  • Teesdale
  • Torquay
  • Waurn Ponds
  • Whittington

Ballarat

  • Alfredton
  • Bakery Hill
  • Bald Hills
  • Ballarat Central
  • Ballarat East
  • Ballarat North
  • Black Hill
  • Burrumbeet
  • Cardigan
  • Creswick
  • Delacombe
  • Eureka
  • Golden Point
  • Invermay
  • Invermay Park
  • Lake Gardens
  • Lake Wendouree
  • Lucas
  • Miners Rest
  • Michell Park
  • Mount Clear
  • Mount Helen
  • Mount Pleasant
  • Nerrina
  • Newington
  • Redan
  • Sebastopol
  • Smythes Creek
  • Soldiers Hill
  • Warrenheip
  • Wendouree

Brimbank

  • Albanvale
  • Albion
  • Ardeer
  • Brooklyn
  • Cairnlea
  • Calder Park
  • Deer Park
  • Delahey
  • Derrimut
  • Hillside
  • Kealba
  • Keilor
  • Keilor Downs
  • Keilor East
  • Keilor Lodge
  • Keilor North
  • Keilor Park
  • Kings Park
  • St Albans
  • Sunshine
  • Sunshine North
  • Sunshine West
  • Sydenham
  • Taylors Lakes
  • Tullamarine

Hobsons Bay

  • Altona
  • Altona Meadows
  • Altona North
  • Brooklyn
  • Laverton
  • Newport
  • Seabrook
  • Seaholme
  • South Kingsville
  • Spotswood
  • Williamstown
  • Williamstown North

Hume

  • Attwood
  • Broadmeadows
  • Bulla
  • Camberfield
  • Coolaroo
  • Craigieburn
  • Dallas
  • Diggers Rest
  • Fawkner
  • Gladstone Park
  • Greenvale
  • Jacana
  • Keilor
  • Meadow Heights
  • Mickleham
  • Roxburgh Park
  • Sunbury
  • Tullermarine
  • Westmeadows

Melton

  • Aintree
  • Bonnie Brook
  • Brookfield
  • Burnside
  • Burnside Heights
  • Caroline Springs
  • Cobblebank
  • Deanside
  • Diggers Rest
  • Exford
  • Eynesbury 
  • Fieldstone
  • Fraser Rise
  • Grangefields
  • Harkness
  • Hillside 
  • Kurunjang
  • Melton
  • Melton South
  • Melton West
  • Mount Cottrell 
  • Parwan 
  • Plumpton
  • Ravenhall
  • Rockbank
  • Strathtulloh
  • Taylors Hill
  • Thornhill Park
  • Toolern Vale
  • Truganina 
  • Weir Views

    Maribyrnong

    • Braybrook
    • Footscray
    • Kingsville
    • Maidstone
    • Maribyrnong
    • Seddon
    • Tottenham
    • West Footscray
    • Yarraville

    Moonee Valley

    • Aberfeldie
    • Airport West
    • Ascot Vale
    • Avondale Heights
    • Essendon
    • Essendon Fields
    • Essendon North
    • Essendon West
    • Flemington
    • Keilor East
    • Moonee Ponds
    • Niddrie
    • Strathmore
    • Strathmore Heights
    • Travancore

    ​Moorabool

    • Bacchus Marsh
    • Ballan
    • Buninyong
    • Clarendon
    • Coimadai
    • Darley
    • Dunnstown
    • Durham Lead
    • Greendale
    • Hopetoun Park
    • Lal Lal
    • Maddingley
    • Meredith
    • Mount Egerton
    • Myrniong
    • Trentham
    • Warrenheip
    • Yendon

    Wyndham

    • Cocoroc
    • Eynesbury
    • Hoppers Crossing
    • Laverton
    • Laverton North
    • Little River
    • Mambourin
    • Manor Lakes
    • Mount Cottrell
    • Point Cook
    • Quandong
    • Tarneit
    • Truganina
    • Werribee
    • Werribee South
    • Williams Landing
    • Wyndham Vale

    Regional VIC/NSW

    • Albury / Wodonga
    • Beechworth
    • Corowa
    • Rutherglen
    • Wangaratta
    • Yarrawonga 
    • Benalla
    • Shepparton