WALL STABILISATION/WALL TIE REPLACEMENT

Wall Tie Failure

According to the Building Research Establishment, 2 million properties suffer from wall tie corrosion or failure and are in need of specialist remedial wall ties replacement.

Often the problem is made worse when insufficient ties have been used during construction.

The absence of effective wall ties will ultimately result in failure of a wall’s structural integrity and its probable collapse under high wind conditions.

The Problem

In the main, cavity walls have been constructed since the beginning of the 20th Century and were constructed to offer better protection from the elements as well as reduce the amount of heat lost unnecessarily from a property. The system comprises of two separate walls ‘tied’ at strategic intervals using a form of wall tie commonly made of metal coated in bitumen or zinc.

In the 1980s it became apparent that the wall ties deteriorated much quicker than anticipated leading to the need for cavity wall tie replacements.

There are many issues associated with failing wall ties:

• Horizontal and stepped cracking of the masonry/mortar
• Possible bulging of the walls
• The original building specification may have used too few wall ties
• The removal of old wall ties is often a difficult procedure
• Detection of the problem requires specialist equipment in the form of metal detectors and a boroscope.

Building Maintenance Control has fully trained and experienced surveyors who have a range of solutions at their disposal to solve your problem. Our surveyor will recommend the most suitable structural repair for your property as well as providing a written report for the work to be carried out.

• In order to assess existing cavity wall ties BMC uses various types of specialist equipment. High quality metal detectors are used to locate the wall ties within the construction
• After location the condition of the wall ties is assessed using fibre optic boroscopes. After assessment of the cavity wall ties we will put forward a specification for remedial works if required
• In general terms the remedial work is dependant on the severity of the problem and the specific type of wall tie within the construction. BMC has an extensive range of high quality stainless steel remedial wall ties to suit almost any application. Once completed our remedial works are left to a very high cosmetic standard.

Quality you can trust: Random insitu load testing is performed to ensure that the ties have correctly locked into place and meet the standards required. Testing coupled with long term guarantees gives you complete peace of mind.