THEY were a young couple who had managed to scrape together enough money to put down the deposit on a smart little end-terrace house. Once in, they set about redecorating and altering their new home to suit their own tastes. They had noticed a bit of a crack between the coving and the wall but had not thought too much about it. Stripping wallpaper they found the bit of a crack was actually a significant gap that had been filled and filled over the years. Also there were a series of vertical cracks springing from the window in the side wall and there was a gap between the stairs and the side wall that had been filled over the years and covered by the wallpaper. The panic bell rang. The house was typical of its type. Brick walls and slate roof with timber floors. The roof was a simple pitch sloping from front to back, giving a large gable wall at the end of the terrace. Unusually for a small Victorian house, there was a large stained-glass window over the staircase in the middle of the side wall. The walls themselves were solid brickwork rather than the modern cavity walls. At ground and first- floor levels, the wall was 1 ½ brick thick, 330mm (13in) but in the upper triangle of the gable it reduced to 1 brick thick, 225mm (9in). A problem with gable walls is they can be very tall and as such need to have some lateral restraint to stop them bulging and buckling. This restraint can be by brick internal cross walls and/or the first-floor joists. Both of these can hold the wall in a vertical position but when the staircase runs up the side of the wall the chances of effective restraint are remote. In this house there was not only no lateral restraint but a large hole had been punched through the wall in the form of a window, weakening it even more. To cap it all, the pointing and mortar bedding to the outside brickwork was soft and friable. This wall was seriously weakened. It had bulged outwards by some 70mm (3in) around the window and inwards by 50mm (2in) in the triangular peak. The wall needed stabilising. This amount of bulging for a 1 ½ brick wall could be restrained by tie bars. These are steel rods slotted through the wall and fastened to the first-floor joists. On the outside is a metal plate, like a dinner plate or large X or S. This wasn’t possible here as the tie rods would block the stairwell. A metal frame could be fabricated on the inside or outside of the wall to give it the extra support but this would be unsightly. The answer was to take the wall down and rebuild it for its full height. The window could be repositioned but the frame collapsed and had to be renewed. The bricks were salvaged, the soft mortar cleaned off and then reused. At the same time the wall was built as a cavity wall with modern thermal insulation and reinforcement to prevent a similar problem in the future. This was a sad and expensive experience for the couple. None of this was covered by insurance so it had to be funded by borrowing, yet more money on their already hefty mortgage. :: Peter Fall is managing director of Clear Building Survey, tel: 0800 072 9003 www.clearbuildingsurvey.co.uk | 
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