Thankfully natural disasters don’t occur very often. However, when they do strike they can be sudden, unexpected and can happen anyway, any time. When they strike with severity in populated areas the effects can be devastating. Earthquakes can have a dramatic on buildings. The 2010 earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand and the 1989 one in Newcastle highlighted the importance of having the right long-term building practices, products and building codes in place.
The 1989 Newcastle earthquake was a 5.6 strength and was a wakeup call for Australian Building Practices. The catastrophic event killed 13 people and devasted the community. Over 10,000 buildings where effected and the damage bill was over one billion dollars.
The majority of the damage was to unreinforced masonry, resulting for poor building practices, inferior building materials, bad planning and the sheet ignorance of masonry behaviour. The performance of brick ties was one of the major factors to damage to buildings.
Abey designers heeded the lessons for Newcastle. We developed a new range of brick ties that dramatically improved the integrity of masonry walls and made walls easier and in many cases less expensive to construct.
When ordering brick ties, there are a variety of things to consider:
- Brick veneer is rated as light or medium duty
- Second storey construction ties must be screw fixed
- The minimum rating or cavity construction is medium duty
- If your building project is in a coastal area or within one kilometre of an industrial area, make sure you only use 316 Marine Grade Stainless Steel
- Control joints and openings – the vertical spacing are halved
- In veneer construction, masonry must be anchored to stud walls, framed at regular spacings and include gable ends.
Abey Brick Ties are made in Australia and confirm to our strict Australian Standards. We have developed our products alongside the industry to make sure there is no compromise on quality or workmanship.