Cracks in buildings can be caused by a variety of different defects. Cracks can appear in walls following subsidence, thermal movement, a lack of lateral restraint, collision damage and disrepair issues.
Following the treatment of the causes of wall movement and cracking, it is often prudent to stitch the walls together around the crack locations to provide reinforcement to the masonry and help prevent future cracking.
BAR Preservation have been repairing cracks in walls for decades and have a vast array of repair strategies at our disposal to ensure that structural integrity can be reinstated into walls where movement has occurred. Many of the remedial systems we use are unobtrusive and are hidden within the wall structure to create aesthetically pleasing repairs.
Structural engineers will often specify crack repairs within reports and BAR Preservation can provide costs for these works.
We work alongside insurance loss adjusters and structural engineers to provide bespoke work packages, tailored to the needs of each individual property.
For crack repairs we often use the Helifix system and have been installing Helifix crack stitching systems for over 20 years. These works involve the careful removal of mortar from joints spanning cracks in walls and the installation of helical stainless steel bar. The bars are bonded to the brickwork with either non-shrink Helibond grout or resin. Once the bonding material is cured, the slots created earlier can be infilled with mortar and the repair is then hidden from sight which is, more often than not, the number one priority for home and building owners.
Increasingly, due to their ease of installation and lack of extensive excavation works BAR Preservation subsidence projects include the installation of driven steel piles; a new, innovative approach to subsidence that uses steel tubes driven into the ground and anchored into the masonry structure of the property just below ground level.
BAR Preservation has driven such piles up to six meters in to the ground to reach decent, solid ground.