I am inspecting a vertical crack in a 12" CMU wall that overlaps an embedded 8" W-section column. I am not sure when it was done, but there was attempted control joint sawcut in only one face of the wall. The joint apparently does not relieve any stress, as there is a crack running parallel to the joint at the top of wall, which then runs diagonal and crosses over. This happens on the opposing CMU face as well, where there is no joint.
I am trying to decide how to resolve this (or if I need to). Since there is a column supporting the joist girder, in my opinion this is clearly a temp/shrinkage crack due to the weakened plane in the wall (no other wall CJ's observed in the area). I have seen some people on the forums suggesting that you should just leave the crack as is since it will just reform. While I agree it will reform, my concern is that we should be providing vertical reinforcement on each side of a control joint (or at least I do here in a high seismic zone). The situation is worse than usual too since they had to cut out CMU webs to get the column in there.
Has anyone run into something like this? It is an interior wall that will not be exposed, so I am not worried about water penetration or aesthetics. I would also like to avoid grouting the cells the column is in, which creates the added issue of how to replace faceshells (if needed). Would you weld ties to the columns and place them in the joints to make sure the new faceshells are supported out of plane?
Thanks for the help!
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[link sketch][/url]
I am trying to decide how to resolve this (or if I need to). Since there is a column supporting the joist girder, in my opinion this is clearly a temp/shrinkage crack due to the weakened plane in the wall (no other wall CJ's observed in the area). I have seen some people on the forums suggesting that you should just leave the crack as is since it will just reform. While I agree it will reform, my concern is that we should be providing vertical reinforcement on each side of a control joint (or at least I do here in a high seismic zone). The situation is worse than usual too since they had to cut out CMU webs to get the column in there.
Has anyone run into something like this? It is an interior wall that will not be exposed, so I am not worried about water penetration or aesthetics. I would also like to avoid grouting the cells the column is in, which creates the added issue of how to replace faceshells (if needed). Would you weld ties to the columns and place them in the joints to make sure the new faceshells are supported out of plane?
Thanks for the help!
[link photo][/url]
[link sketch][/url]
