Fire Restoration

[Mahabiby]

[img

http://i.imgur.com/Mk5CW.jpg

Cracks appears in the plaster at location of mortar joints of bock wall in the photo that was subjected to fire. Is it necessary to demolish the block wall?

 

[Mahabiby]

 

[dik]

First step would be to scale off some of the plaster and examine the mortar joints. Cracking could be caused by differentials caused by heat.

Dik

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Probably not - unless it was an extremely intense fire.

Just tuck point and go on.

 

[fcu45]

I believe your electrical condutes and cables are damaged. Do some limited holes to see to which depth did the fire had effect on the wall.

Is it one room, apartment or full building/house caught the fire?

 

[concretemasonry]

fcu45 had a good observation regarding the conduits.

The crack patterns are those that are common for non-structural problems, excluding foundation or major structural situations. The obvious pattern following the likely location of the conduits is logical.

Cracks are good and bad - they provide clues to separate thermal/creep problems from structural problems.

Removing the plaster (cosmetic coating) will reveal the magnitude and importance of the cracks since rebuilding a wall may be very costly. It looks like it is wall on a concrete beam with a reinforced concrete block bond beam near the top that has not exhibited much heat distress.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.