plasticpigeon
Member
- Messages
- 2,462
- Location
- Birmingham
Hello again. I'd be grateful for more thoughts or advice.
I have been rebuilding a section of wall under a window that was very loose. It is in the back part of my house which has subsided around 4cm. This has left the whole wall a bit of a mess. Worse still is that over the years the wall has been pointed in cement a few times to fill in the gaps, and the most recent was by an insurance company contractor who did the worst of all the work. As far as I can tell, 3 stainless steel ties of around 1m each were put across the cracks. These were put in using some kind of anchorfix resin. I know that this is conventional stuff these days, but they have only been put in very close to the surface, maybe an inch. This strikes me as being much too close to the face of the bricks, and in fact only leaves a few mm for pointing. Are these crack ties of any value. Should I pull these things out and bond them in at a decent depth? If the foundations don't move any more then I imagine what is above should be ok too, or are the ties good to stop lateral movement? Perhaps the house is still moving though!!!!
I am still amazed at how poor so many builders are. My experience runs from disappointing to bloody awful. I'm not knocking any builders on here and I'm certain there are a handful of quality tradesmen around but a good tradesman seems the exception not the rule. I know I didn't make a great choice. Still it gave me the confidence to do things myself!!
I have been rebuilding a section of wall under a window that was very loose. It is in the back part of my house which has subsided around 4cm. This has left the whole wall a bit of a mess. Worse still is that over the years the wall has been pointed in cement a few times to fill in the gaps, and the most recent was by an insurance company contractor who did the worst of all the work. As far as I can tell, 3 stainless steel ties of around 1m each were put across the cracks. These were put in using some kind of anchorfix resin. I know that this is conventional stuff these days, but they have only been put in very close to the surface, maybe an inch. This strikes me as being much too close to the face of the bricks, and in fact only leaves a few mm for pointing. Are these crack ties of any value. Should I pull these things out and bond them in at a decent depth? If the foundations don't move any more then I imagine what is above should be ok too, or are the ties good to stop lateral movement? Perhaps the house is still moving though!!!!
I am still amazed at how poor so many builders are. My experience runs from disappointing to bloody awful. I'm not knocking any builders on here and I'm certain there are a handful of quality tradesmen around but a good tradesman seems the exception not the rule. I know I didn't make a great choice. Still it gave me the confidence to do things myself!!