Emergency structural stabilisation following vehicle impact

An unusual insurance claim – car crashes into a building

Stress UK were appointed on an emergency basis by insurers to assess and stabilise a domestic property following a vehicle impact. The vehicle had collided with the gable wall of a two-storey dwelling, resulting in extensive masonry damage and internal distress to the occupants. No serious injuries were reported.

Assessing the extent of the structural damage

The impact caused significant structural cracking to the gable wall at both ground-floor and first-floor levels, with displacement evident in the external brickwork and internal block work. Due to the configuration of the first-floor joists and an internal load bearing partition parallel to the gable, a proportion of the vertical load from the gable wall and floor plate had transferred onto the vehicle bonnet, which was acting as an unintended temporary prop.

A further constraint was the identification of asbestos-containing materials within the damaged ceiling coatings. This prevented and ruled out conventional internal propping or needling of the floor structure.

Our structural masonry reinforcement solution

To mitigate the risk of progressive collapse and to allow the safe removal of the vehicle, Stress UK designed a fully external temporary support system. The solution incorporated structural masonry reinforcement using a HeliBeam installed within the external brickwork leaf and mechanically tied into the inner blockwork to provide load redistribution and localised restraint to the fractured masonry.

Supplementary external lateral bracing was installed to support the first-floor structure and restrain out-of-plane movement of the gable wall. The system was designed to provide immediate stabilisation without the need for internal works or disturbance of asbestos-containing materials.

Extracting the Audi without the risk of collapse

The temporary works successfully stabilised the structure, allowing the vehicle to be safely winched clear without further damage. The property was left in a secure condition pending permanent repair works.