Bowing Walls London

Newman’s were called upon by a property developer who had recently purchased a Victorian property in order to renovate and let to tenants as soon as possible.

The property, in serious need of Structural Repairs, based in south west London was close to our head office in Hammersmith, West London and due to the urgency of the works a surveyor was able to attend site within 24 hours.

A visual survey was carried out and it was discovered that there was a lack of lateral restraint causing outward movement resulting in bowing walls. As well as outward movement there had been some rotation of the brickwork to the rear corner building. The client was also removing the entire ground floor brickwork to allow the installation of new bi-fold doors and the masonry above was in a state of disrepair.

Our survey devised a structural repair scheme that would restrain the bowing walls by tying the masonry into the floor joists using lateral restraint ties. Twistfix Masonry beams are always installed above and below the lateral restraint ties creating a restraint zone which allows the ties to all act as one. The masonry was also tied into the first floor partition walls using Twistfix Helical bar ensuring there would be no further outward movement.

Crack stitches were installed to the rear corner where rotation had occurred creating a grouted L shape tie which would prevent any further rotation. With the masonry on the rear elevation being removed masonry beams were installed to reinforce the bed joints distributing structural loads.

Although the brickwork appeared to be of 9” solid wall construction it was found that in fact the masonry was a cavity wall with slight rubble fill so Twistfix wall ties were installed creating a structurally sound solution.

The works were carried out in four days in order to prevent any hold up for other tradesmen on site and the works were completed on time and within budget.

If your property is suffering from cracked masonry, outward movement, bowing walls etc and is in need of a structural survey then be sure to contact your local Newman’s office.