Wall brace position
The plates are mostly seen between the ground floor and the first floor.
Wall ties and bracing around Great Gidding, Cambridgeshire, UK
A feature of some older properties in and around the village are the iron wall ties. These large metal plates are the visible feature of tie rods that pass through the property. There purpose is to hold the exterior wall from bowing out, a problem of two storey houses built on minimal foundations or on an slope of unstable ground. Older farm building also have these feature, although more rudimentary. The plates stop further movement they are not really meant to pull walls back into line.
Rods pass right through a property
The rods that pass through these plates are usually secured with a large nut on to a coarse thread. Sometimes the rods pass right through a property, others are embedded into an internal wall.
Brace positioning
The chimneybreast in this photo has two tie rods close together.
Church Farm
The roadside barn at Church Farm has a very basic but practical air about it (top photo) the tie rod from inside the barn (middle photo) and a simple method of joining two-tie rods together (bottom photo).
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View larger version of middle photo
Different styles
There are many different designs of end plate, some alternative styles are seen here.
View larger version of top image
Smaller features
A slightly different wall tie can be seen on the wall of a derelict property on Main Street. This small feature may tie a doorframe on the inside of the wall.
Collapse!
Sometimes though, however many wall ties or bracing anchors you have, its not enough!
