Turning the tide: engineering innovation on the River Avon

River Avon

Project Overview

Location	River Avon
Sector	Building
Products	Screwed Ram Jacks Structural Monitoring

With flooding an increasingly common occurrence for many homeowners across the UK, more innovative solutions are being called upon to protect properties. Backing onto the River Avon, one historic cottage recently saw Pure Structures and Mabey Hire come together to lift the entire building by 450mm, returning it to a 1 in 1,000-year likelihood of flooding.

Watch how we brought this engineering challenge to life – scroll down or catch our case study video on YouTube.

The challenge

Flood risk and property vulnerability

Close to the River Avon, the historic home suffered repeated flooding, with water up to eight inches deep damaging interiors and exposing the urgent need for lasting protection.

Unconventional engineering challenge

Standard flood measures proved inadequate, making it necessary to find a permanent solution that protected the structure, resulting in the rare decision to lift the house by 450mm.

Precision and coordination of the lift

The main difficulty was lifting the building evenly and safely, requiring precise synchronisation, complex engineering design and close collaboration between specialist teams.

Our solution

“This was an incredibly interesting and unusual project,” commented Michael Fisher, Managing Director at Pure Structures. “After coming down to see the property and talk with the homeowner, it became clear that the only real solution was to lift the entire house. We managed the complex engineering design, with support from Mabey Hire and its dedicated hydraulic jacking team. I’ve known Mabey Hire for many years, having worked with them before on groundworks projects – but nothing to this degree!”

Josh Barker, Major Projects Sales Manager at Mabey Hire, said: “It was an exciting moment when this project landed in our inbox; it truly is what makes the engineering and temporary works sector so interesting. It was a complex scheme, with the main challenge being how to perfectly synchronise the lift. In essence though, the same principles applied as on any other larger infrastructure project, such as a bridge deck lift, which we’re well-versed in. As experts in hydraulics, it’s all about taking this knowledge and being able to adapt and apply it to suit any application.”

The preparation works were extensive, with the first operation being to form 0.5m deep reinforced concrete ring beams in plane of the load bearing walls, commencing at existing ground level to provide a rigid platform for the lifting process. Following completion of the ring beams, 2m long x 0.5m wide reinforced concrete reaction pads were constructed below ground level perpendicular to the wall perimeter, while leaving a required 300mm clear to the underside of the ring beams to allow for the jack installation.

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In total, 25 hydraulic screwed ram jacks were installed onsite, to be jacked by 450mm in a synchronised fashion with intricate hydraulic control and monitoring throughout. To enable jack reset, oversize rectangular hollow sections were incorporated in the ring beam construction. This enabled lesser sized rectangular hollow section ‘needles’ to be passed through and propped onto mass concrete plinths/stacked blocks inside/outside of the ring beam and bearing onto the same jack reaction pads. The lift itself was then carried out over five stages at 100mm increments, allowing for the jacks to be repacked.

Josh continued: “This was very much a collaborative effort between Pure Structures and Mabey Hire. Our site teams were on hand throughout the process, including calibrating and installing the jacks, raising the house (including precise monitoring of the lift to exact millimetres) and then stripping out all the jacking equipment upon completion.”

The jacking operations took place in September 2025, with the property successfully lifted by 450mm. At completion of the lifting, the site team carried out block work in-fill of this lift zone, following which new ground bearing slabs will be formed at the higher level.

“It’s a sad fact that flooding is going to become increasingly common as we continue to feel the effects of climate change. By lifting the house, we have been able to add real value back into it. Previously, it was becoming both un-mortgageable and unliveable. Now, we have been able to return the property to a 1 in 1,000-year likelihood of flooding.

“A project like this is not something you embark on easily, with many unknowns and complex factors requiring consideration. However, Mabey Hire was a real asset. The support from the team has been excellent throughout and their technical proposal was excellent, clearly demonstrating the proposed jack assembly, manifolds and the distribution of the hydraulic system.”

Michael Fisher

Managing Director at Pure Structures