I rent a workshop unit that has been built into one of the many arches of an old victorian brick road bridge; think viaduct on a much smaller (shorter) scale. The front and back of each arch have been bricked up to create workshop units. A main road runs over the top of the bridge.
The old pipework that ran within the bridge structure itself has disintegrated over time and the local authority has replaced the road level drainage with a pipework that runs along the outside of the bridge to provide drainage.
However, where there are cracks in the mortar inside my workshop unit (i.e. in the curved brick walls) there is weeping and in some cases water can be seen trickling in and down the "interior" wall. However the mortar is generally in good very good repair as far as can be seen and 99% of the walls are perfectly dry.
Obviously given the brick structure that makes up the arches is many metres of brick thick there is no way to see where the water is coming from and to block it from the other side - other than to deconstruct the bridge to get to the source.
This has apparently been seen in many similar units over the years and I gather the local authority aren't interested.
Its probably worth noting that the bridge is nowhere near any water other than rain water hitting the road. The bridge is in place to deal with rise and fall of terrain rather than a water crossing.
I had a builder come to give me a quote to grind out and repoint the areas where the water is coming in, but his view was that the water would simply wash the new mortar out before it had set. I think he was also concerned that grinding out the old mortar might make the problem worse before it got better.
So given that a full scale refurbishment is well out of my budget and, frankly, jurisdiction I am wondering what my best bet would be to block the water from coming in.
I have been looking into epoxy-based mortars and in particular the Epoxy Underwater Repair found on this page: http://www.epoxyproducts.co.uk/concrete repair.html
Just wondering what your collective thoughts were (other than move out obviously!).
Thanks
Richard
The old pipework that ran within the bridge structure itself has disintegrated over time and the local authority has replaced the road level drainage with a pipework that runs along the outside of the bridge to provide drainage.
However, where there are cracks in the mortar inside my workshop unit (i.e. in the curved brick walls) there is weeping and in some cases water can be seen trickling in and down the "interior" wall. However the mortar is generally in good very good repair as far as can be seen and 99% of the walls are perfectly dry.
Obviously given the brick structure that makes up the arches is many metres of brick thick there is no way to see where the water is coming from and to block it from the other side - other than to deconstruct the bridge to get to the source.
This has apparently been seen in many similar units over the years and I gather the local authority aren't interested.
Its probably worth noting that the bridge is nowhere near any water other than rain water hitting the road. The bridge is in place to deal with rise and fall of terrain rather than a water crossing.
I had a builder come to give me a quote to grind out and repoint the areas where the water is coming in, but his view was that the water would simply wash the new mortar out before it had set. I think he was also concerned that grinding out the old mortar might make the problem worse before it got better.
So given that a full scale refurbishment is well out of my budget and, frankly, jurisdiction I am wondering what my best bet would be to block the water from coming in.
I have been looking into epoxy-based mortars and in particular the Epoxy Underwater Repair found on this page: http://www.epoxyproducts.co.uk/concrete repair.html
Just wondering what your collective thoughts were (other than move out obviously!).
Thanks
Richard
