West Midlands... Legato retaining wall
Elite was contacted by a West Midlands client regarding an old, derelict warehouse that had become dangerous. The issue was that it had a high, bowing gable-end and the same on the connecting wall, both walls being of brickwork, caused by a build-up of material outside pressing against the rear and side of the building.
The building would have to be demolished but there was a requirement for something to strengthen the inner part of the building whilst keeping a proportion of the existing brickwork to a set height – then the roof and metalwork could be safely taken down.
The solution was to build a row of Elite Legato bocks, three rows high at a set distance from the brickwork on the inside of the gable-end of the building, joining at right angles to an interlocking row of blocks at the same height running down the inside of the external brick wall. This would then lower to a row of two blocks as the external ground tapers down thus leaving a void between the existing brick wall and the blocks.
With 177 Legato blocks to be erected, this was a job for Elite’s partner team AA Installations from Cannock.
The far ends of the Elite Legato blocks were set at an angle inwards to the wall, free-draining fill material was placed in the void between the rows of blocks and the existing retaining walls, and drainage measures were constructed to prevent groundwater from building up behind the wall. The wall was therefore designed with no retained water pressures.
Once the Legato blocks had been erected, all the gable-end brickwork above the blocks was demolished. Subsequently the rest of the building was taken down leaving a nice L-shaped row of blocks where the two sides of the warehouse had been... looking aesthetically pleasing to the eye and carrying out the retaining job that they were designed for.
AA Installations is a specialist lifting and contracting business owned and operated by Andy Fones. Andy has many years of experience of operating at the highest level of safety standard whilst completing some of the most challenging lifting / placing / installing projects involving heavy precast concrete elements.
Elite Precast Concrete carry large stocks of interlocking blocks so AA Installations were able to order them straight ‘off-the-shelf’. The Legato blocks used are cast from Elite’s well-regarded high-strength concrete (50N/mm2) which, combined with approved steel reinforcing, means that they meet all current requirements.
Elite Precast Concrete offer a choice and size range of interlocking blocks in addition to the Legato blocks used in this project – just browse the Elite website for more options.
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