Cavity Wall Ties - likely cost

motherofstudents

Last time we had wall ties done was about 4 years ago and cost £700 for a semi. It is very noisy but only took half a day. We are up north so possibly cheaper.

duck1978

Cool,

Im in Newcastle, most people think thats North Enough lol

I spoke to my Mortgage provider today and they told me that it would state in the paperwork if the work needed a qualified person to do it. As it does not state this then it is okay to do the work as the surveyor will assess the quality of the work, its not a regulated industry like DPC but they were telling me I could have done the DPC my self and that would be okay but obviously it would be better with certs

I have someone coming tomorrow to price the job up so will check with them what the score is i.e. where the ties need to go and then buy em and fit them ourselves.

If I could pay £700 to have it done then we would do that.

tomb528

Hi Duck1978, im from the Newcastle area myself and require some wall ties replaced.

Did you manage to find someone to do the work for you; if you did do you have any recommendations?

Thanks.

Remedy

Building Research Establishment document (BRE Digest 401) has a table that visually grades deterorating wall ties and gives an estimate of service life once the zinc galvanised coating has broken down.

If existing ties are of the wire butterfly variety, having little mass, replacement is simply the low-cost and low skill task of fixing remedial ties.

If existing ties are of the fish tail variety, having greater mass, replacement also includes removal or isolation of existing ties to prevent cracking caused by delamination of the ties as they corrode. This is a higher-cost and higher skill task, though nothing that cannot be done by a competent builder.

Search youtube for ' wall ties ' to see clips of various replacement tie systems using the likes of Cintec, Helifix, Holdfast and Twistfix wall ties. All show just how quick and easy it is to fix new wall ties

SailorSam

Is there any need to remove the old ties.
My house is about 75yrs old i imagine it may have the old butterfly tie, as far as i know they've never been replaced, certainly not in the last 25yrs. I'm not having any problems but if the time comes when they did need replacing wouldn't it be Ok to leave the old ones in situ and just put in new ones
A point mentioned by a previous poster ....... I have wall insulation, i think it's the mineral wool sort.

ognum

SailorSam wrote: »

Is there any need to remove the old ties.
My house is about 75yrs old i imagine it may have the old butterfly tie, as far as i know they've never been replaced, certainly not in the last 25yrs. I'm not having any problems but if the time comes when they did need replacing wouldn't it be Ok to leave the old ones in situ and just put in new ones
A point mentioned by a previous poster ....... I have wall insulation, i think it's the mineral wool sort.

I have had new stainless steel ties in a house I own and did not have the old ties removed

Cant comment on wall insulation but I do think they would be difficult to remove as most companies who do this use a fibre optic scope to check the tie positions and quality and this would be difficult!

poppysarah

paulb487 wrote: »

An alternative is to inject polyurethane foam into the cavity. This glues the two walls together avoiding the need to replace the wall ties.

The polyurethane foam also insulates the cavity and (depending on what figures you want to pick) is twice as good as blown mineral wool fibre or polystyrene bead. Polyurethane is also impervious to water so won't be affected by flooding or water ingress (unlike mineral wool - think soggy kitten).

Isothane Technitherm and BASF WallTite are the only two certified products on the market that I know of. They ain't cheap, typically quoting £2k for a semi detached, but if you can kill two birds with one stone...

This does sound interesting ... what if you have cavity wall insulation already? Can you get that out and start again?

Cavity wall insulation is something of a mystery - how do you know it's everywhere in the walls? Without an IR camera to look at the walls how can you tell?

(My OH is pricing up an IR camera but says they're pretty expensive!)

GDB2222

SailorSam wrote: »

Is there any need to remove the old ties.

If I understand the post immediately above yours from Remedy correctly, that depends on the type of wall tie used. The problem is not just that the ties fail but also that they rust, and the rust takes up much more space than the original wall tie. That can lead to damage to the brickwork or render. According to Remedy, you need to remove one of the wall ties to find out what sort was used, ie wire butterfly ties that don't need to be removed, or fishtail ties that do. Removing the old ties is much more work than just fitting new ones.

Archpiemanpete

Hi y'all
Some things to consider

A good wall tie replacement company will be able to install ties that are suitable for the type of wall you have and perform pull tests. The bit of kit you need to have to do this test(a pull tester no less!) starts at around £1k for a cheap one.


A good wall tie company will also have a good quality wall tie locator for acurate identification of the position of the old, corroding wall ties to be either removed from the wall or strucurally isolated from the outer leaf of the wall. If old corroding ties are left in situ, they will continue to expand as they corrode and continue to cause you problems, such as further cracking of render, mortar bed disturbance and even wall and roof line
distortion.

A good wall tie company will be able to accurately match the colour and physical properties of the mortar when making good. Seeing as many ties are installed brick to brick, I imagine you don't want your brick house looking like it has measles or been shot at!!

How do you tell a good wall tie company you may ask? Well... knowledge is power. I suggest that you start of by getting the BRE (Building Research Establishment) document GRG4 (good repair guide 4) This will give you a good guide to start. GRG4 will list other documents you can read up on if you like. The wall tie replacement should be done to the following specs BRE digests 329/401 and IP12/90 & 13/90. These are also available from the BRE. Look at BRE bookshop on line. Start with GRG4!



As far as price is concerned you should be able to get one wall of a bungalow done for say.. £250-£500 The front wall of a small terraced house for maybe the same sort of money and perhaps a whole 3 bed semi for £1200- £2500.
There are many variable factors such as what sort of construction the build is, how many old ties need to be treated (sometimes far too many have been put in when the house was built), the type of joints to be cut out... very narrow joints are going to put up the price, other factors include whether the property is rendered, pebble dashed, painted or if the ties have to be fully extracted. All these vary the cost one way or the other.

Yes, you can do this job yourself... but can you get hold of a wall tie locator, pull tester and suitable drill, ear defenders, dust mask, dust extractor, air compressor, eye protection, ladder or scaffold access and still make it pay?

Just think, if you bought a £150K house and spent £1500 on the wall tie replacement service including 25yr insurance backed warranty, it would be only 1% of the property value, and would be much better value than the stamp duty too?

Just to let you know, I am a wall tie installer... but I am booked up 42 weeks ahead, so don't need loads more work...I have too much already. I am not trying to protect my industry, but protect your wallets.

By the way. If you really want to go the DIY route, I think that speedy services might have a pull tester (but only
1 or 2 in the whole country).They could get it sent to your local depot and hire out to you. I think it might be £50 for 1-2 days. You would really need the 0-5 KN tester if they have it.

Whether or not you DIY, save money by doing the job done once only and to a good standard, no matter who is doing it. Anything else is false economy.

Message me if you need any more info. Happy to help.

Cheers

ognum

Span reported you are not allowed to advertise your company here!