Structural Terracotta 1

[OHIOMatt]

I have a project that involves the renovation of an existing building. The building is 4 stories and utilizes structural terracotta for bearing walls. These are a fired, hollow clay product. I am looking for some resources on capacity and repair methods. The load on these walls is quite high.
Floor Live: 1,000 plf
Floor Dead: 800 plf
Roof Live: 500 plf
Roof Dead: 500 plf

To make matters worse, there are window that stack floor to floor, so the jamb areas between windows will see almost double the above stated loads.

 

[MIStructE_IRE]

Looks like a Poroton block. Popular in some parts of the world. Maybe an initial search for Poroton would lead you down the rabbit hole on repairs etc. I don’t know much else about them though.

 

[dhengr]

OHIOMatt:
Get in touch with the Brick Industry Association (BIA),

http://www.gobrick.com,

and take a look at their Tech Notes. I think No’s. 22 cover clay tile. Note there is a difference btwn. vert. cell tile and horiz. cell tile, with the former usually being stronger. It would appear that your photo shows horiz. cell lay-up. You’ll probably have to do a fair amount of investigating to determine what you’ve really got in the bldg.

 

[masonrygeek]

This type of construction is called structural clay tile here in the US and not terra cotta (even though they are made of the same materials). BIA no longer has much information on clay tile and there really isn't an association that deals with the product any more. Your best bet is the go the Building Technology Heritage Library and find some textbooks on clay tile. the best source is a book called Brick and Tile Engineering found here:

https://archive.org/details/BrickAndTileEngineering./page/n91/mode/2up.

You can also find a book specific to clay tile here:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89080445166&view=1up&seq=1.

The Principles of Tile Engineering has a lot of great information on clay tile floors. Happy reading!

 

[JedClampett]

I figured someone would be all over this. I remembered an article (actually a series) in Structure Magazine and finally landed on it. The series is by D. Matthew Stuart, PE SE.

https://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/C-EngineersNotebook-Stuart-Mar081.pdf

https://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/C-EngineersNotebook-Stuart-June08.pdf

Unfortunately they weren't easy to find, even in the Structure Magazine Archives, but there's a whole bunch more.

 

[dik]

mgeek... downloaded the *.pdf for the book... a copy of this belongs on SRE's site... Thanks... I like historic brickwork (for restoration projects) and this has some excellent material.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[robyengIT]

could be of your interest also "handbook of hollow building tile" (dated 1922) from the same site >> archive.org <<

 

[dik]

thanks roby...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[canstruct12]

ASTM C34 - Structural Clay Loadbearing Wall Tile
ASTM C56 - Structural Clay Nonloadbearing Tile
ASTM C212 - Structural Clay Facing Tile

https://archive.org/details/HandbookOfHollowBuildingTileConstruction

 

[dik]

another good book for SRE...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[OHIOMatt]

Wow! Thanks for all the insight. I doubt my client is happy with my conclusions, but at least I have some documents to refer to.

You folks are a great resource. I always get more than I give here.

 

[dik]

The challenge begins...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik