Our South West office which services the South West of England and South Wales was contacted by a well-established property management company who currently manage and maintain a number of blocks of residential flats and holiday lets on the sea front in West Bay, Dorset.
Newman’s have been working with various shop fit out specialist carrying out Structural Repairs that are often unforeseen and have potential to delay that strict deadlines that these contractors must meet.
Newman’s offer an unrivaled service across London and the South East for contracts of this type and in most cases a surveyor is on site with in 24 hours of initial contact to carry out a Structural Assessment in order to design and implement a Structural Repair strategy.
Once our surveyor had carried out a Structural Survey it was discovered that there was numerous causes of concern which were highlighted by some major cracking and bowing to the masonry. A Structural Repair program was designed introducing Twistfix Lateral Restraint Ties, Bed Joint Reinforcement and water repellent masonry facade protection.
Lateral Restraint Ties were installed to the gable elevation were Bowing Masonry at floor joist level was apparent, Lintel Failure had also occurred and Bed Joint Reinforcement was used to create masonry beams without the need for costly rebuilds.
Water penetration to the front elevation had caused a failure to the pointing and spalling of the brick faces. Newman’s carry out deep bed re pointing and inject the masonry with Twistfix WHO-60 grout prior to re-pointing. The spalled bricks were repaired and tinted combined with Water Repellent facade cream which provides a breathable water resistant barrier the facade was saved.
The full case study and pictures will be live in our case studies section very soon.
The decent homes scheme is still running and Newman’s work with many main contractors on window replacement schemes and External Wall Insulation contracts in order to repair masonry and allow the safe upgrade of properties.
Often with window replacement schemes it is discovered that lintels are defective and in some instances have even collapsed upon removal of windows. We carry out lintel surveys on behalf of the council or the main contractor and specify repair programmes that will not hold up the schedule and will restore the structural integrity of the brickwork saving time and money on costly lintel rebuilds.
Wall tie failure is another common structural defect within social housing due to many properties being built within the 1930’s to 1960’s using iron fishtail ties which have corroded and failed or in some instances simply a lack of wall ties have been installed during the construction phase. Only specialist contractors like us should be used for wall tie replacement schemes.
Often these structural defects only come to light whilst other trades are on site requiring us to have a fast turnaround, we can normally attend site within 24 hours and will design a repair strategy on site using our in house surveyors.
If you are currently working on any social housing schemes that require our services please do not hesitate to contact us right away.