Twistfix Feature in West End Development

New life will be breathed into Scotswood in Newcastle’s West End with plans to build up to 1,800 new homes. Newcastle City Council took the decision to demolish the three-storey Whitehouse Enterprise Centre as part of a plan to redevelop the area and make way for this exciting and long awaited new housing project. Compass Developments of Northumberland were contracted to ‘make good’ the site after demolition so that it could be sold to developers.

Surveyors from Compass and the Newcastle City Architects department took the decision to further strengthen the sites concrete retaining walls by tying a brick facade to the reinforced concrete and by flagging the tops of the walls. Following trials with various retrofit reinforcing products the City Architects specified Twistfix remedial wall ties to do the job.

‘Performance, cost effectiveness and speed were the vital ingredients required by the Council’ said Ray Evans (Twistfix Technical Manager). ‘Once the City Architects trialled the ties and saw how well they worked they were sold on the speed and simplicity of the system’

The flag stones were firmly pinned down with the 180mm long helical fixings that were driven into tiny pilot holes.  The hammer action from the drill drives the ties into brick or concrete, the helix generating a corkscrew action as the tie screw into the pilot hole. A further 3,000 Twistfix wall ties were driven through the brick facade to tie the masonry wall to the structural grade concrete.

Drilling was slow because the workmen were hitting the reinforcement and many holes required re-drilling in a position that avoided the rebar.  However once the workmen started firing in the ties with their SDS drills and the special Twistfix setting tool the job was completed in rapid time.

Once the house building starts Twistfix will be pitching their new-build range of wall ties, roof fixings and insulation fasteners to the developers as construction proceeds in the Newcastle West End development.

Providing contractors like Compass with superior products to facilitate their work is our speciality. All elements of masonry crack repair, crack stitching and wall ties are right up our street  and we continue to be the natural choice to provide these precision engineered, intensely strong and durable retrofit products. For more information, please browse our detailed website or contact a member of our team directly

For more information on our wide range of wall ties and pinning systems, please browse our website or contact our sales team on 0845 123 6007 or email info@twistfix.co.uk