Reinforcing an old building

Username John

Hello,

Not sure if this is something directly related to this area, and may belong more in construction - but ye all seem to be a resourceful bunch - so here goes

We have an old building, and one of the walls is starting to fall outwards - what I would guess is required (and this is purely a guess on my part) is to reinforce it with bracing rods through it, connected to steel beams put into the ground at the back of the building.
The building is split level, the ground level at the back is higher, which should allow for beams to be buried which would ensure the roads dont pull the back wall.

Its an old building (an old mill), so I dont want a superb (or very expensive) job, just something to make it structurally sound.
Maybe I shouldn't waste money on it, I should demolish it and just build a new shed. But I'd like to hold onto it if I could.

My question is where or how would I go about getting these reinforcement rods, and how big a job is it to put them in? (Or should I just demolish it and be done)

What ye think?

pakalasa

It's just an idea but you could add a wall, or walls, at right angles to the falling wall, like that shown in the picture.

puffdragon

It depends how elaborate you want to get or how much money you want to spend, The simplest and quickest way is to prop against the outside of the wall with A-Frames,(similar to silage pit end stops) .
Depending on the length of your wall and the height , you will probably need about one every ten foot along the wall for the same height, or what ever size you need ,for this porpouse can be made from6"x3" timbers ,common enough in 16fts or 20fts.
Of course this depends on whether you have the room outside the wall.
Another way without loosing any ground is to dig holes along the wall at ten foot apart and about 5ft out from the wall and about 2ft deep ,and remove a hole also in the wall then using a pre-welded sort of T-bar(one side 4ft other side2ft made from H Iron standing in the hole with the 2ft side in the wall , then pour concrete into the hole this just leaves the H Iron showing upwards and if the auld wall falls in the mean time then you use them for uprights.

John_F

inn very old buildings they had a bar going from one end to the other and treaded on the ends and the nuts adjusted to suit, that may not suit you because it would be in the way and could just end up cracking the wall somewhere else

Username John

John_F wrote: »

inn very old buildings they had a bar going from one end to the other and treaded on the ends and the nuts adjusted to suit, that may not suit you because it would be in the way and could just end up cracking the wall somewhere else

Hello all,

Thanks for replies.

I was thinking of the treaded bars all right - you'd see them on old buildings. But I have no idea where to get such an item, or where to start looking...

Its not so much a restoration project or the likes, more something to keep the building stable, so I dont want to spend a fortune either.

A

John_F

ya could cost a bit, is there a roof on the wall?

puffdragon

Need to see some pictures ,Any chance? If youre going to span that gap with a long bar you might need to weld two threaded bars( come in 10mm 12mm 16mm 20mm x 1m 2m 3m lengths from hardware ) on either end of an angle iron or re-bar you know the stuff they use in reinforcing inside shuttered walls,that would give you from 26ft up to 35ft no problem and then just hang the centre of it up to the ridge with same material , fairly common! (its called a collar tie)