Structural Repairs

Repairs to structural defects

Over time the original materials used to build older properties take their toll. Bricks crumble, metal will corrode and your home's structure becomes vulnerably weak. Our structural engineers have vast experience in carrying repair services to all aspects of structures, including timber joists, cavity walls and lintels.

How we can reinforce your property:

Cavity wall tie replacement
Lateral restraint ties
Lintel repair
Crack stitching
Timber resin repairs

Providing Unique and Unobtrusive Structural Repairs

The restraint of external walls is often provided by floor joists and purlins spanning onto a wall together with buttressing cross walls; however, the presence of stairwells, parallel joists and stud cross walls will deny restraint. A lack of lateral restraint may cause the wall to bulge, particularly to areas where cavity wall tie corrosion has occurred.

It is possible to install new lateral restraints by fixing stress free masonry re-inforcing products through the masonry and into adjacent floor joists. This work can be undertaken with minimal disruption to the external face of the building.

Unique Structural Repairs

If lintels have failed due to metal corrosion or timber decay and/or the masonry has deteriorated, such as dropped arch or soldier lintels, they can be repaired or strengthened using masonry reinforcing rods.

This can be undertaken by installing horizontal lengths of the reinforcing rod through the underside of the arch or solider course lintels and into the masonry above. The reinforcing rod would be fixed into position using a specially formulated resin or cementitious grout.

The installation of stress free masonry reinforcing rods will provide a cost effective non-disruptive solution for masonry stabilisation.

Restoring the Strength of Cracked Masonry

Where masonry is found to be cracked but stable, stress free masonry reinforcing rods can be installed across the crack.

These unique designed rods are bonded into the mortar bed joint across the crack using a specially formulated resin or resin based cementitious grout. These rods ensure the strength of the masonry is restored to at least its pre-cracked level. This also prevents those cracks re-opening further, subject to there being no on-going structural movement, such as subsidence.

Securing & strengthening cracked brickwork

As seen in the video, the crack stitching process is simple and unobtrusive. Our structural engineers will carry out:

A horizontal incision across grouting between two bricks
Specially formulated resin filling
Embedding of durable crack stitching bars
Sealing of bars with grout to disguise their presence

A Unique Repair Strategy

Decay to large structural timbers in old and historic buildings can be problematic to resolve. By using resin-based technology disturbance can be minimised when repairing timbers, such as in-situ timber joists, wall plates, lintels and beams.

The Benefits of a Resin Repair

At the heart of the repair is Rotafix TRS. This uses resin technology to enable a section of tanalised, stress graded guaranteed timbers to be attached onto the original joist or beam. Alternatively a new section of timber species, such as reclaimed oak can be joined. Slots are cut either from above or from the side to accommodate specially designed connector rods. The connection is completed by the insertion of a specially formulated resin.

The benefit in using the Rotafix TRS system is that valuable timber can be saved, particularly in listed buildings and it can provide a cosmetic result that can be as good as the original.

The Rotafix TRS system offers three levels of security, in that the tanalised timber is certified, whilst the Rotafix resins are guaranteed for the life of the parent timber. The Rotafix TRS system can also be insured provided a Property Care Association (PCA) member undertakes the installation.

The TRS system is one of many repairs that can be effected using resin technology. Other repairs that can be undertaken using resin are the filling of 'shakes', the consolidation of hollow timber and the repair of Glulam beams.