Structural Clay Tile
Structural Clay Tile
(OP)
The owner of a building, or soon-to-be-ex-building, is faced with the fact that his structural clay tile building, that's 80+ years old and shows visible signs of deterioration (including a hole smashed through it with a sledge hammer) will have to come down. He is balking at replacing it with a handsome CMU building that's state-of-the-art (and not too expensive). He asks, "why can't you re-use the "terra cotta" blocks and just reinforce and grout them?" I have been tasked with explaining why "we" can't re-use 80-year old clay tiles. The answers are obvious to me (technically, the old tiles will not satisfy ASTM C 34-96 is a start).
Does anyone have experience with successfully building/designing structural clay tile buildings up to seismic code?
Does anyone have experience with successfully building/designing structural clay tile buildings up to seismic code?






RE: Structural Clay Tile
Structural clay tile is very susceptible to deterioration in the form of exfoliation of the clay in layers. This is a result of wetting/drying and ionic bond changes in the clay. The result is a weak tile.
RE: Structural Clay Tile
One other thing to consider in the new building, the old clay tile lasted 80 years, not too many of today's materials can say as much! Don't just look at initial cost.
Good luck.