Customer Stories

Terracotta Facade Bowing Out

East Ham Town Hall in East London. Main terracotta facade bowing out – precise drilling deep into the building and installation of Cintec anchors

East Ham Town Hall, in the E6 area of London, is an important landmark building, and its hundred year old brick and ornate terracotta construction requires specialised care when remedial works are called for.

LB Newham engaged Action Wall Ties to undertake reinforcing works to stabilise the important facade of the town hall. External cracking was spreading across the entablature frieze cornice above the left side entrance.

Problem – cracking and debonding brickwork

1. The main entrance – Above the staircase and to the left side of the entrance cracking was noted between the internal junction of the external brickwork, the dividing wall and the corner of the ceiling above.

2. The floor slab and ceiling – Cracking was noted on the 150mm floor slab that was found to be of a clinker rich material.

3. Brickwork – There were no signs of significant cracking to brickwork, although the movement noted was considered likely to be progressive. It was apparent that the outer brickwork was bowing outward, de-bonding from the dividing walls, and had become unconnected, cracking the dividing walls and floor slab – all reducing the restraining to the facade.

Proposed Cintec Anchor solution

Action Wall Ties completed a remedial scheme providing a viable repair by the introduction of Cintec anchors.

1. AWT entered the terracotta by diamond drilling with a narrow wall diamond core drill and retained the core to be replaced.

2. AWT then diamond drilled a 38mm × 4 metre hole through the external wall into the floor slab and the dividing wall as indicated with red crosses on the accompanying image.

3. AWT supplied and installed Cintec 40mm sock anchors with 18mm stainless steel bar, in accordance with the manufacture’s recommendations by certificated operatives.

4. The entrance hole in the terracotta was made good by the replacement of extracted core together with replacement bricks and coloured sand and cement pointing, all in accordance with AWT specifications.

Action Wall Ties (AWT) are specialists in masonry reinforcement and repair, including specialised mediums such as Terracotta, providing professional structural repair solutions with Cintec anchors to a wide variety of structural problems in London, Sussex, Surrey and Kent.  Please contact us on 01227 721 255, or email us to discuss your structural repair issues.