External wall tidy up

[Jay003]

Hi,

Looking for some advise please. I had an issue with a new Outbuilding developing cracks, allot of trees about. An expansion joint with ties put in place to hopefully remedy following chat with Structual engineer. A sheet of plastic put over the ties but the wall either side looks very messy (see pics). Wondering what I can do as a tidy up?

note the builder has run off following doing the expansion and wall ties.

 

[sircerebus666]

How bad is it under the plastic cover?

I personally would remove it.

Failing that fill in the gouges in the wall, but of mastic on the edges on the plastic to hide it then a couple of coats of paint over the entire wall to freshen it up

 

[Jay003]

Thanks mate. To answer your q re how bad is it see the pic (pretty bad!).

How would you smooth out the gouges - rough sandpaper, before filling?

cheers for the help

 

[foxhole]

Expansion joints allow expansion , ties prevent it , you have both?

 

[Jay003]

Basically the ties have sleeves on them to allow for both sides of the wall to move. Was inserted at numerous positions within the expansion. See pic

 

[foxhole]

Wall ties like that go in during construction?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'd leave the plastic in place. This is a fairly common way to cover expansion joints and appears to have been installed correctly and can be easier to get right, especially on a retro fit

I'm afraid that I cannot see any way other than the one used by your builder to retro fit sliding expansion joint ties such as these (I.e rake out the mortar joints with an angle grinder and slide the fixings in from the side before re-filling). The only thing he hasn't done is to fill the mortar joints neatly enough. I think that the best thing you can do now is to rake out the joints a little and then refill them with a cement-based "filler" (e.g mortar) and when the mortar has set give the wall 2 or 3 more coats of white paint.

 

[Jay003]

Thanks much appreciated