Warranties
What a warranty on crack injection actually covers
Warranties on injection work are given by the contractor who does the work. This page explains how they are structured, which parts of them cannot be excluded by law, and the one distinction that causes more disputes than every term length combined.
What a warranty on injection covers, and what it cannot
This is the part nobody explains, and it causes more disputes than the term length ever does. A warranty on injection work covers the crack or the joint that was sealed. It does not cover a new water path opening somewhere else in the same wall.
That is not a weasel clause, it is physics. Sealing from the dry side redirects water rather than removing it. The water arriving behind the wall has not gone anywhere — it now has one fewer way through, so it goes looking for the next weakest point. On a wall with several potential paths, sealing one can genuinely bring on another, and any contractor claiming otherwise is either inexperienced or not being straight.
The warranties that cannot be excluded
In Queensland, Schedule 1B of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act implies statutory warranties into domestic building contracts, and they cannot be excluded by anything written on a quote. A term purporting to exclude them is void. The consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply as well, and are equally not contractible-out-of.
This matters most on negative-side work, where the redirection risk is real and a contractor may reasonably want to limit their exposure to it. The defensible way to do that is not a disclaimer. It is written advice, given in advance, setting out that sealing one path may bring water out at another — followed by the owner instructing the work to proceed on that basis. Advice before the work is a different legal object from an exclusion after it, and anyone scoping this kind of repair should get the risk stated in writing before accepting a quote.
The compliance framework this sits inside is set out in more detail in where negative side waterproofing sits under Australian standards.
How a claim gets assessed
Against the record. Photographs taken from fixed positions before and after the original work are what make this possible, which is the practical reason they belong in the scope rather than being left to goodwill. It is the difference between comparing two records and comparing two memories.
The question being answered is whether water is coming back through something that was sealed — a workmanship question — or through a different path that was always present and has only now become the easiest way through. The second case is the awkward one, because it is genuinely not a workmanship failure, and it is why the paragraph above about redirection matters more than any term length.
What typically voids one
- Later work by others on the same element — a new penetration drilled through a sealed wall, for instance
- Structural movement after the repair. Injection resin is not a structural product, and a wall that starts moving will crack again alongside the repair
- Removing or blocking drainage that was identified as part of the scope. Where a contractor states that an ag line has to be cleared and it is not, the wall is being asked to do a job it was never going to do
Common questions
- Can a contractor put “no warranty” on a negative-side injection quote?
- They can write it, but in Queensland it does not do what it appears to do. The statutory warranties in Schedule 1B of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act are implied into domestic building contracts and cannot be excluded by a term on a quote — wording that purports to exclude them is void. The consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law sit on top of that and also cannot be contracted out of. What does carry weight is documented advice given in advance: where a contractor sets out in writing, before the work, that sealing one path may redirect water to another, and the owner instructs them to proceed anyway, that is a materially different position from a disclaimer printed on the last page.
- Is a leak reappearing somewhere else in the same wall a warranty claim?
- Usually not, and this is the most common dispute in the trade. Sealing from the dry side redirects water rather than removing it: the water arriving behind the wall has not gone anywhere, it simply has one fewer way through, so it finds the next weakest point. If the original sealed crack is still dry and water is now entering through a joint two metres away that was always there, that is a new defect rather than a failure of the repair. If water is coming back through the element that was sealed, that is a workmanship question.
- How long is a typical workmanship warranty on injection work?
- There is no single industry figure and published terms vary widely, from twelve months to a decade, often with a longer separate figure quoted for the resin itself by its manufacturer. Two numbers are frequently conflated in marketing: a product warranty from the resin manufacturer, which typically covers the material rather than its installation, and a workmanship warranty from the contractor. They are different promises from different parties. Ask which one a stated figure refers to, and ask for the document rather than the number.
- What voids a warranty on injection work?
- The common exclusions are consistent across the trade: later work by others on the same element, such as a new penetration drilled through a sealed wall; structural movement after the repair, since injection resin is not a structural product and a wall that starts moving will crack alongside the repair; and failure to carry out drainage work that the contractor identified as part of the scope. That last one is worth reading carefully, because a wall asked to hold back water that a cleared ag line should have taken away is being asked to do a job it was never going to do.
- What is worth getting in writing before accepting a quote?
- Four things. The warranty document itself rather than a line on the quote. The term, and whether it covers workmanship, product, or both. What is expressly excluded, especially any wording about water finding a new path. And the verification step — when the repair will be re-inspected, and specifically whether that includes an inspection after a genuine rain event. If a warranty document cannot be produced on request, that is information in itself.
Get the terms in writing before accepting anything
Ask any contractor being considered for the warranty document itself rather than a line on a quote, along with the verification step and what is expressly excluded. If it cannot be produced, that tells you something.
Working out what the problem is first — fifteen situations where injection is the wrong repair