Customer Stories

1930s style low-rise apartments with balustrade wall defect repairs

An estate of 1930s style low-rise blocks of apartments with balustrade wall defects – corroding mild steel balusters cracking masonry to half-brick thick balustrade walls – removal of the baluster embedded into the coping stone and brickwork,

The subject buildings are 1930s low-rise blocks of apartments in London, of conventional brick and filler joists construction, with open access decks and private balconies.

The Structural Problem

Cracking and dislodging of the brickwork and coping stones to the balustrade walls of the private balconies was reported and noted.

Discussion

Action Wall Ties investigated the defects and reported that the causation was found to be due to expanding corrosion of the handrails mild steel supporting balusters built into the masonry.

The corrosion of the embedded mild steel results in the formation of ferrous oxide that expands to several times the thickness of the metal it has resulted from, thus breaking out of the brickwork splitting bed joints and lifting of the brickwork.

Structural repair solution

Action Wall Ties remediation involved cutting the baluster at the coping stone line, removal of the baluster embedded into the copping stone and brickwork, and completing repairs to the brickwork and coping stone. AWT re-drilled holes down into the walls for grout and designed all the necessary stainless steel fixing plates, thereafter welding the original baluster to a fixing plate.

Action Wall Ties (AWT) are specialists in masonry reinforcement and repair, providing professional solutions to a wide variety of structural problems in Kent, London, Surrey and Essex. Contact us on 01227 721 255, or email us.