Structural crack repairs

Damage and the need for crack repairs are fairly common in older homes. These are the most common causes as to why this happens:

• Thermal movement
• Cement pointing improperly used on a lime building
• Normal house settling
• Stress areas – e.g. under windows and above doors
• Disturbed masonry from replaced windows and or doors
• Insufficient or ineffective load bearing lintels in high stress areas

Masonry can effectively be stitched back together using a specialist arbortech mortar saw. This saw is designed for the removal of mortar from the bed joint.

Mortar is removed back to a minimum of half a brick thickness, excess dust is then removed.

These slots are cut along the mortar bed running 50cm either side of the crack. These slots should be spaced every 4 – 6 courses of bricks.

In the now recessed mortar bed, cementitious grout or polyester/epoxy resin is pushed into the back of the bed. This creates a base for the helical bar to be firmly fixed. An extra layer of grout or resin is then placed over the top creating a locked seal.

The helical bars are fully concealed with the correct colour matched pointing to match the rest of the property.