Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Consistent with my other blogs, this one also focuses on a heritage issue.  Our structural design consultants have deemed the heritage building so unstable that much of it needs remediation before adjacent works can continue.  Whilst there are many areas which require attention, this blog will focus on ‘The Southern Wall’.  An elevation of the Southern Wall is shown in Figure 1.  It is the wall without windows, half painted grey and it is a miracle the thing is still standing.

Figure 1.

Several methods of reinstating the structural integrity of the building have been investigated but due to the time it takes to gain permission to do almost anything inside a heritage building, the level of internal instability between floors, contractual complexities and more – a temporary external fix has been selected.  The solution involves three levels of walers being attached to the wall and then braced by a series of props.  The solution is illustrated in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

This solution minimises the impact on the programme and allows works in the vicinity to continue, largely uninterrupted.  The lower most waler is supported by the green props which all converge on to a single brace plate (BP1).  The brace plat is bolted to the existing capping beam, but has had to be drilled to slot over the starter bars.  The other two walers are braced by two separate groups of props, all of which converge to a second, separate brace plate (BP2).  See Figure 4 for detail.  Connection details are illustrated in Figure 5.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Not only does the steel provide support in elevation, they also prevent the road side elevation from falling into the adjacent street.  It is difficult, but possible to see in Figure 1 that the western most 1.8m of the building (the left hand side) is almost entirely separate from the rest of the structure.  Existing internal braces go some way to remediate this problem, but the proposed solution will help to prevent the matter from getting worse.

The long term solution is expected to be in the form of timber frames which will be sandwiched between the ceilings and floors of the building.  Due to the issues highlighted at the start of this blog, this long term solution will be tackled in the distant future.  This temporary solution is due to be constructed this week, I will post photos once complete.