Newman’s have completed a wall tie replacement repair to a property purchased by a private home owner. The home owner became concerned after the purchase as short horizontal cracks were appearing in the outer leaf of the brickwork as well as some of the bricks lifting and rotating.
Newman’s carried out a wall tie survey using a visual survey and an endoscope survey to determine the condition of the existing wall ties. The wall ties were found to be in a poor state with high levels of corrosion and inadequately spaced.
Our specification included the installation of Twistfix’s patented CD 9mm stainless steel Remedial Wall Tie. Installation is a simple process with the helical tie being installed through a 6mm pilot hole.
Isolation of the tie is carried out by locating the existing wall tie and encompassing it with a clan sleeve also supplied by Twistifx. With sleeves in place and the ties isolated re-pointing of the cracked masonry can be carried out and tie holes filled with a mortar to match the existing bricks.
All of our repair schemes are covered by our own guarantee and for consumer protection we are also members of Insured Guarantees Limited enabling us to provide you with an insurance backed guarantee, which for this particular project guarantees the installation for 20 years even if Newman’s are no longer operating.
Across England there are hundreds of bridges and viaducts constructed from brick and random stone usually built using brick arch spandrels, built well over 100 years ago, having not been designed to meet today’s standards with volume and weight of traffic that we have on the roads and railways today many are in need of reinforcement and repair in order to maintain their use.
Many of these structures have fallen into a state of disrepair and must be reinforced in order to keep them open and serving their purpose. Traditional reinforcement is costly and can lead to major road and rail closures and diversions but Newman’s are able to use modern methods of repair to reinforce these structures.
Utilising the Twistfix system we are able to reinforce delaminated spandrels enabling them to withstand the weights and speeds that road and rail vehicles impose in this modern world.
By installing helical bar to the underside of the spandrel and installing grout ties through the spandrel we are able to provide an engineered reinforcement solution that enables the route to stay open and improves the load capacity of these bridges and viaducts. Click here to view the Twistfix method video.
Much of the pointing has failed on the large structures and removal and replacement is a delicate process. Newman’s skilled technicians are able to reinstate mortar that’s loose or missing combined with our structural reinforcement scheme we are able to provide a last guaranteed solution.
Newman’s were called upon by a commercial property management company who own various trading estates across London.
Many trading estates in London are still Victorian brick built structures that have stood the test of time and are still fully functional. The masonry construction of most of these structures is built using 13 inch solid masonry laid in English bond using lime mortar. This type of construction is a strong bond which will allow slight movement.
We were called out to attend site as a matter of urgency due to the crack rapidly widening and in some places was over 10mm’s wide. We carried out a structural survey free of charge the same day and designed a repair specification that would restore the structural integrity without any major disruption to the business operating in the building.
We used our own mobile scaffold tower alleviating the need for traditional scaffolding enabling us to be on site just two days after the initial survey.
To repair the crack in the brickwork we installed 14 No masonry beams across the crack which was drilled back into the left and right pillars. This method of crack repair not only crack stitches but distributes the loads imposed and distributes them across the masonry preventing further cracking.
The parapet wall was secured using 1.5m grout ties which were installed vertically down through the brick work which saved huge costs in a rebuild.
The repair was guaranteed against failure for 10 years. The repairs lasted only 2 days allowing the business to remain fully operational.