Posted By barker
I am in the early stages of planning works for the restoration of a 200-year old listed building which is very derelict and liable to collapse. Early-stage works will involve securing of loose rubble and stones, repointing etc.

There is a risk of both collapse of the whole wall, and a fairly high risk of individual stones falling onto workers below.

I have been considering shoring the walls to prevent global collapse, but guys need to be able to get to the walls to carry out works. The walls range from 2 to 5 storeys in height, and therefore ideally there would be integral worker access, as well as overhead protection and a safe working platform. The masonry walls would need to be as open as possible for work to be carried out, and in addition as little fixing onto the walls as possible would be required, to protect the historic stonework.

any ideas? i can't find any single products that tick all the boxes - has anyone done this sort of thing before and got any bright ideas?

thanks

Posted By steve e ashton
I saw a very similar project recently ... now where was it.... Oh yes... Why not ask the 'Grand Designs' TV team to film it - then you can do whatever you want apparently with impunity... Sorry, couldn't resist.

Even a well experienced structural engineer is unlikely to be able to say at the start of a project like this whether the old structure is 'safe' or even 'safe enough'. Projects like this must always be taken slowly and step by step, with competent assessment at each and every stage of the work.

Remove loose stuff (?telehandler?)- assess.
Probe structure - assess and repeat above
prop - assess
begin erecting access arrangements - assess

There is a photo here http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/alerts/ong013.pdf that shows four cranes being used to provide temporary support for a structure which was thought to be in danger of collapse. I doubt this would be considered practicable for your project.

I guess that you've already discounted taking photos, then taking a wrecking ball, then rebuilding again from the ground up?

Good luck

Steve

Posted By Crim
I've been faced with a similar problem with a brick wall, leaning past the point of safety but we are unable to remove the wall. The structural engineer has come up with a system of steel posts at 3m centres with a concrete block down to 1.8m deep to keep the steel in place. We cannot attach anything to the wall so the posts will just be there when the wall eventually falls and will hopefully retain some of the brickwork to prevent the whole length from falling.

The issue now is do we hand dig or use a mini digger? Mini digger will cause vibration that will probably bring the wall down so we have opted to hand dig. The wall could fall at any time so "catch 22"?