Earthquake damage repair in Armenia and the Coffee Region
On 10 August 2026 a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, centred near San José del Palmar (Chocó) at a depth of 96 km, shook much of central and western Colombia. The Coffee Region was among the worst hit: Armenia, Pereira and Manizales reported collapsed buildings, fallen façades and thousands of damaged homes.
We are a construction company based in central Armenia. We went through the earthquake here, and we are inspecting and repairing affected buildings across Quindío, Risaralda, Caldas and northern Valle del Cauca.
Four things worth doing before you call anyone
- Do not go in if the structure looks compromised. Walls out of plumb, burst columns, sagging floors or doors that no longer close because the frame deformed are reasons to move out and ask for an inspection, not to step in and collect belongings.
- Photograph everything before covering anything up. A patched crack stops being evidence. If you intend to claim on insurance or apply for aid, the photographic record taken beforehand is what supports the claim.
- Request the official damage assessment. Your municipality's risk management office carries it out free of charge, and it is the one that counts for insurers and state programmes. No private company replaces it — we do not either.
- Be wary of anyone quoting without looking. Improvised offers multiply after an earthquake. A serious budget comes from seeing the building, not from a rate per square metre quoted over the phone.
Telling a superficial crack from structural damage
This is general guidance so you know what you are looking at; it replaces neither an on-site inspection nor a signed engineering opinion.
- Probably superficial. Thin vertical cracks in partition walls, cracks in the render or skim coat, flaking paint, loose tiling, dropped ceilings. They need repairing and they look alarming, but they do not compromise stability.
- Needs assessment before repair. Diagonal or X-shaped cracks across load-bearing walls, cracks running through columns, beams or the joint between them, cracks exposing brick or reinforcement steel, walls separating from the frame, and any damage repeating at the same point on several floors.
- Urgent. Visible leaning, buckling columns, floors with new deflection, stairs pulling away from their supports, and slopes or retaining walls cracked at the crest. On hillside ground, a slope cracked by an earthquake is a problem that gets worse with the first heavy rain.
One point that gets overlooked: non-structural damage also kills. Poorly tied façade walls, parapets, cornices and heavy ceilings account for a large share of injuries. Not compromising the building's stability is not the same as being safe to leave alone.
What we do
- On-site technical inspection. A walk-through of the building, a photographic record, a clear split between what is structural and what is not, and a report setting out the recommended scope of repair.
- Non-structural repair. Crack patching and injection, render and skim coat replacement, repair of façades, partition walls, ceilings, tiling, roofs and joinery. This covers most cases.
- Structural strengthening. Work on columns, beams, walls and foundations where the assessment calls for it, executed to a design and calculation signed by the responsible engineer and under Colombia's NSR-10 seismic code.
- Roofing and waterproofing. Resetting displaced tiles and sealing leaks, which after an earthquake tend to show up with the first rain.
- Slopes and retaining walls. Stabilisation, drainage and erosion control on hillside ground, with the same team that built the slope works at Pereira's Matecaña International Airport.
- Controlled demolition and rebuilding. When repair is not the sensible route, including debris management and new construction.
What the law requires, plainly
In Colombia, repairing superficial damage requires no permit. Structural strengthening does: it requires a building permit under that specific category from the urban curator or the municipal planning office, based on a design signed by a qualified professional, under Law 400 of 1997 and the NSR-10 code.
Anyone offering to strengthen a structure with no permit and no calculation is selling you a legal problem on top of a risk. We handle the paperwork and put it in writing. Technical direction is led by Ing. Diego Luis Arango Jaramillo.
Why a local contractor
Armenia knows this ground. The city was rebuilt after the 1999 Coffee Region earthquake, and that reconstruction is why the region now builds to a seismic code. We work on that same building stock: we know what went up before the code, which structural systems belong to which decade, and where they tend to fail.
We have delivered public and private works across the region: water networks and slope stabilisation at Matecaña International Airport in Pereira — one of the facilities damaged by the earthquake — sewer works in Armenia, school infrastructure in Circasia and Génova, and housing in Quindío, Risaralda and Valle. You can see them with photographs in the portfolio.
How to request an inspection
Send us three or four photographs over WhatsApp: one wide shot of the room, one close-up of the crack and, if you can, one showing whether the damage reaches a column or a beam. Tell us the municipality, the neighbourhood and how many storeys the building has. We will reply the same day telling you whether what we see is superficial, whether a visit is advisable, or whether it is urgent.
The site visit is free in Armenia and across the municipalities of Quindío. Outside the department it is arranged according to location and scope. Repairs are quoted at a fixed price, in writing, before work starts.
Frequently asked questions
How soon can you come?
We are prioritising by severity, not by order of arrival: first what compromises the
stability or the habitability of the home. That is why we ask for photographs — so we
can order the queue on some basis.
Do you carry out the official damage assessment?
No. The municipality does that free of charge, and it is the one insurers and state
aid programmes recognise. Ours is the technical diagnosis of the repair and its
execution. They are different things and it is worth having both.
Is your report enough for my insurer?
The technical report and photographic record help support a claim, but each policy
defines the document it requires. Check with your insurer before repairing: repairing
first and claiming later usually ends badly.
I only have a small crack — is it worth calling you?
Yes. Patching is a one-day job and we quote it from a photograph. See
small repairs and minor works.
Do you work with residential complexes and homeowner associations?
Yes, and that is where a single report for the whole property helps most, rather than
twenty scattered diagnoses. We work with a contract, a schedule and insurance
policies when the management requires them.
We do not quote figures off the cuff or over the phone. Plenty of invented prices circulate after an earthquake; ours comes from seeing the building and taking off quantities.