Cavity Cleaning

Inspection

Cavity bridging can be found in any cavity built building, from street housing to infill walls to high rise buildings. Bridging materials found in contemporary buildings are generally of mortar and brick debris discarded during construction. In older buildings built with lime mortar, the bridging materials generally found are a build up of decayed mortar within the cavity.

Discussion

Where DPCs and cavities are bridged, this may result in internal dampness and cold spots (“Cold Bridging”).
Bridging material found to be loose can be removed by a “hit and miss” method. This would be less costly than if the bridging material were found to be of a hard material that would require continuous breaking out.

Solution

We have developed remedial methods that involves the removal of the bridging material, leaving the cavity clear at cavity discontinuities and wall ties thus returning the wall to as intended.
To achieve this we remove a sufficient number of external bricks to enable the removal of bridging debris. This can be done in a hit and miss pattern (where the debris is loose and can be removed from the cavity in between the open brickwork), leaving the cavity clear down to below the DPC. If the bridging materials is hard, it will require breaking out and the hit and miss pattern will have to be repeated to complete a continuous treatment
Where wall ties are scheduled to be cleaned, this will entail the removal and replacement of a brick in accordance with our specification and methods.