teracotta brick bearing walls

[ick2]

I am renovating a house that has teracotta brick bearing exterior walls. the house is in NYC. According to the seismic code, since this is a major renovation, the resulting structure shall meet NYC seismic code. Any ideas on how to make these walls comply?
thanks

 

[LPPE]

New steel moment frames with terracota infill....

 

[dik]

Is it terracotta brick (ie. with a glazed surface)?

This may be decorative or historic and may require some fancy and difficult reinforcing; is the client prepared to pay for this? or does he just want a 'quick and dirty' approach?. You may want to review this with the building department again and see if there are other things that can be done for compliance or if historic, if there are exceptions.

 

[LPPE]

ick2- The compressive strength of terracota is pretty low (around 100 psi), so I'd imagine your building in NYC is rather low. Your seismic force from the New York City building code would probably also be low. I'm not sure how you'd change the terracota into shear walls except grouting the hollow cells solid with the appropriate rebar. The only thing I can think of is use something else for lateral resistance. Maybe use plywood on both sides of interior walls as shear walls. Just a thought.

dik - terracota is like a CMU but made of clay. "Data Book For Civil Engineers" (c. 1951) lists the compressive working stress of "Structural Clay Tile - Cells Vert." as 100 psi.

 

[dik]

pylko:
thanks... I've encountered it before, but usually associated with historic buildings. Some of the 'components' can be quite ornate and exterior terracotta is usually glazed. Brick wasn't an appropriate term... sorry for any confusion. Any applications of it that I've encountered have been as a non-structural exterior veneer finish secured to the superstructure.

By terracotta bricks, I don't know if ick2 is referring to what I normally refer to as terracotta or to clay tile, something that I normally consider as a different product.

 

[ick2]

Sorry for the confusion. I think this material is called rectangular hollow clay tile and in this case is 6" thick. It is not glazed but has a rough surface. It is also very brittle material. The tile is installed so all the voids are aligned in the vertical direction.