Customer Stories

Victorian bay window with spreading and cracking masonry

A much loved family home in South East London featuring an ornate brick and masonry Victorian bay window with spreading and cracking masonry. Diamond drilling through the brick arches and injection of grouted cords and bed joint reinforcing restored the property to its former glory.

This building was a traditional two-storey mid-terrace domestic residence in Blackheath, SE London, of Victorian vintage with a pitched tiled roof.

Problem – Bay Window Cracking/Dropped Arches

The front bay windows showed visible distortion and distress, accompanied by significant cracking to both main brickwork and brick entrance arches, which had also dropped.

Causation

It was clearly evident that the bay window had rotated away from the main building line, owing to subsidence.

The bay window’s foundations were shallow, compared with those of the main building.

This situation had been exacerbated by the close proximity of a tall tree that was further desiccating the clay subsoil, though the subsidence was not deemed severe enough at the time to warrant underpinning.

Bay Window Repair Solution

The bay window was tied back to the main elevation using stainless steel bed joint reinforcement and one core installed into diamond drill holes, indicated with green lines. This served also to beam up the brickwork and repair the cracking. In addition, the bay was tied back to the two floors behind to provide proper lateral restraint.

The arch was pinned up, using stainless steel pins, and resined into the brickwork above. After installation, pointing was raked out, reinstated and tinted to match the existing (see coloured remedial works on our proposal picture).

Arboricultural works were undertaken on the tree (by others), to reduce the crown and accordingly lower its water demand from the underlying clay.

Long Lasting Structural Repairs

The gallery below shows AWT’s completed structural repairs after 15 years. This is why homeowners across the SE of England can trust AWT with their period properties. Our structural repair techniques provide long lasting, cost effective repairs that maintain the beauty of period properties.

Action Wall Ties (AWT) are specialists in masonry reinforcement and repair, providing professional solutions to a wide variety of structural problems. We have many years experience working on period properties, listed buildings and heritage structures.

For expert structural repairs in London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex please contact us on 01227 721 255, or email us.