Structural Repairs – Islington

Newman’s specialist services were called upon to design and rectify structural defects that had caused some severe cracking to this Victorian built three storey house in Islington, North London.

The structural defects were assessed by one of our experienced surveyors who carried out a visual survey of the property and found that there had been extensive lintel failure causing the masonry above it to sag and drop leaving the masonry unstable.

The two storey bay window to the front elevation had also suffered from major outward movement caused by movement to the foundation it had been built on. This defect is a common defect to this type of property due to the foundation often being inadequate. In this instance restraint to the movement was rectified without the need for piling or underpinning.

With the use of Twistfix helical bar we were able to create masonry beams within the brickwork which enables us to distribute structural loads across the structure preventing further cracking and remove the stress from the existing brick arch lintels. As well as reinstatement of the structural integrity helical bar can also be used in order to tie brickwork that is suffering from outward movement by tying the brickwork of the bay window into the main structure which resists further outward movement.

Areas of the brick work were found to be severely unstable and Twistfix Thixotropic grout was injected into the masonry in order to stabilise it before repointing was carried out to provide a permanent repair.

The rendered areas of the masonry was repaired as it was found to have localised areas of de-bonding and cracking and once redecorated the repairs were almost invisible.