How to choice cavity wall ties in Australia building materials market

Learning from Australia Earthquake

The 1989 Australia Newcastle event was a 5.6 strength earthquake and was a wake up call for Australian building practices.

This catastrophic event killed 13 people and devastation was widespread effecting 10,000 buildings, with a damage bill of over one billion dollars. The majority of damage was to unreinforced masonry, resulting from poor building practices, inferior building materials, bad planning and sheer ignorance of masonry behaviour. The performance of brick ties was highlighted as being one of the main contributing factors.

Engineers designers heeded the lessons from Newcastle and developed a new range of brick ties that dramatically improved the integrity of masonry walls and made walls easier and in many cases less expensive to construct.

Cavity wall ties cover durability exposure classification R2, R3 and R4. Grade 304L stainless steel ties cover R3. 316L stainless steel ties cover R4. Other corrosive environments such as alpine or heavy industrial areas should also be considered as R4 environments. Abey recommend SS316L Marine Grade Brick Ties in high corrosion zone areas.

● R2 – GalZ600 ● R3 – SS304L ● R4 – SS316L

Corrosion Zones

The Durability Exposure Map (above) represents an indication of corrosion zones within a costal environment. As a general rule the closer the dwelling is located to the sea the more corrosive the environment and the greater the level of corrosion resistance, masonry anchors need to provide.