Seismic and Structural Strengthening

New Zealand’s Specialist Structural and Seismic Strengthening Contractor

MaxBuild is an Auckland based structural and seismic strengthening contractor. Working closely with property owners, property managers, councils and main contractors, MaxBuild completes specialist structural and seismic strengthening work throughout New Zealand, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to each project to ensure the highest quality outcome.

Seismic Upgrades for Residential and Commercial

If you’re a property owner or a property manager of a building that has been given an earthquake-prone status, MaxBuild can work directly with you to strengthen your existing building so that it is no longer earthquake-prone. Seismic strengthening involves addressing the structural weaknesses that make the structure vulnerable to seismic events to add stability and resilience.

Structural Strengthening for Local Authorities

As a local authority, you need to ensure that the existing infrastructure in your city or region can continue to support the loads it needs to carry. Deterioration due to age or exposure, substandard construction or increased volumes of traffic can all lead to present structures requiring reinforcement and strengthening. MaxBuild has extensive experience working with local authorities throughout New Zealand to ensure structures are brought up to code following strict processes for health and safety, and management of environmental impact.

End-to-end guidance and support

Whether you’re a property owner, property manager, council or contractor you’ll get high quality workmanship and superior customer service every step of the way. MaxBuild can help with as much of the project, or as little, as you need – from analysis to design and installation.


If you want just one point of call, appointing MaxBuild as the main contractor is the smart way to manage a seismic strengthening project. MaxBuild provides end to end solutions for structural strengthening works including specialist skills, design expertise, product knowledge, access solutions and full-time project management to ensure strengthening works achieve design code compliance with minimal disruption to the ongoing use of the structure.

Alleviating your financial uncertainty and concerns about unknown issues

If you have cost and time constraints due to external factors in play, the financial uncertainty of what issues might be found once a building is opened up can be concerning. MaxBuild’s process is built on years of experience with seismic strengthening and concrete repair work - you can rest assured that any circumstances encountered on the job will be solved in a timely manner.

To further alleviate your fears, MaxBuild can assist in the scoping of a job with a detailed seismic assessment programme methodology. The assessment will provide you with the full scope of works and budget required to bring your building up to the minimum seismic strengthening level. Using the assessment, Maxbuild can provide you with a detailed fixed cost bid to achieve the seismic upgrade of your building.

Working around your for the least inconvenience and disruption possible

If your building is currently occupied, MaxBuild will work with you to complete the work around existing tenants to cause as little inconvenience as possible. Commercial building upgrades are often time sensitive due to the potential income loss of existing tenants. MaxBuild can create a solution and schedule to work around the existing tenants and achieve as little disruption to business-as-usual as possible.

MaxBuild’s structural and seismic strengthening skills:

  • Structural and seismic assessment
  • Strengthening of unreinforced masonry walls using Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Matrix systems (FRCM) and FRP
  • Installation of steel portal frames
  • Micropiles \ groung anchers
  • Strengthening of reinforced concrete using Structural and Seismic Strengthening, and Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) systems – we are trained installers for the Mapei and Fosroc FRP systems
  • Steel plate bonding
  • Installation of steel portal frames
  • Casting of new shear walls
  • Increasing the capacity of existing shear walls by adding additional steel reinforcement and increasing thickness using shotcrete and gunite

MaxBuild are specialists in:

  • (TRM) Textile Reinforced Mortars
  • (FRP) Carbon Fibre Strengthening
  • (GFW) Glass Fibre Wraps
  • Helifix Anchors for brickwork
  • Column Form Work
  • Diaphragm Floors
  • Structural Steel

Our recent structural and seismic strengthening contracts include:

Using FRP for reinforced concrete column confinement (increasing axial strength and bending moment resistance), placement of shear walls and and strengthening of shear walls for seismic strengthening of a multi-storey building in Vincent Street, Auckland. You can read more about this on the projects page

Seismically strengthening of buildings in Parnell Road and Symonds Street, Auckland, by applying FRCM to masonry walls.

MaxBuild was the specialist seismic strengthening contractor installing steel portal frames at the Auckland Fish Market.