Wall strengthening

[N. Thornton]

Hi

What simple methods can be used to strengthen a weakened 1 block thick wall? I mean short of rebuilding it :) The wall has a few piers, and is a garden wall, not a house wall.

So far I've thought of:

rendering it

gluing a piece of ss threaded rod into each block and adding a vertical strip of concreting that encases the protrusing rods, with some more metalwork in the vertical conrete. The square pier would thus effectively be widened by the new concrete.

Bolting metal ties on across the vertical split to tie the 2 sides together.

Thanks, NT

[Lurch]

On 2 Apr 2004 15:11:25 -0800, in uk.d-i-y [e-mail] (N. Thornton) strung together this:

If you're thinking of going to so much trouble as concreting one side of it why not just build another wall tied into the wonky one using some wall ties that screw onto the existing and sit in the mortar line of the new one as they normally do?

[Harry Bloomfield]

N. Thornton explained on 03/04/2004 :

That would add little strength to it, and probably crack in the same place again. Glue would not survive long and would not spread the stress over a sufficiently large area.

The question you should be asking first, is why has it cracked and solving that as a first step. Probably inadequate foundations for the stress imposed on the wall, or the soil has moved.

Sort that out first. Then if the gap is not too wide, remove the top two rows of blocks for a good distance either side, clean them up then re-lay them. In each layer add some steel reinforcing, laid end to end of of the course of blocks you have removed.

[N. Thornton]

From: Lurch ( [e-mail]) On 2 Apr 2004 15:11:25 -0800, in uk.d-i-y [e-mail] (N. Thornton) strung together this:

Because thats miles more work and expense, and will lose space as well. The point is to repair it cheaply for now.

Regards, NT