Hamilton courthouse repaired with reinforcement system
July 6, 2022
By CCE
Photos courtesy Cintec.
Infrastructure Ontario (IO) recently retained a+LiNK Architecture of London, Ont., to help preserve Hamilton’s John Sopinka Courthouse by restoring its stone façade.
Built in 1935 (and incorporating a post office built on the same spot 50 years earlier), the courthouse’s ground-floor marble hall still features postal wickets and large tables. The restoration by a+LiNK involved repairing five storeys of stone on the building envelope, the original masonry components and the metal canopy. The original ties were loose, deteriorated and falling.
The team used Cintec’s cement reinforcement system to reattach the stone to the brick and speed tile (structural terracotta) backup wall. Phoenix Restoration, based in Whitby, Ont., installed more than 700 anchors.
The anchors attached both adhesively and mechanically, ensuring fireproofing and progressive failure instead of brittle fracture. Further, because of the bulbing action of the system’s mechanical attachment, loads were distributed over larger areas than other systems would muster, so the fragile backup wall can withstand the required loads, including wind.
