Historic Preservation

Preserving and restoring historic buildings is vital to understanding any nation's heritage. A wide range of buildings such as churches, mosques, courthouse, government buildings, theatres, etc. fall under this category. None of these older buildings meet the current seismic (earthquake) or wind codes and must be upgraded for such load effects. In addition, general deterioration and aging or change of use often leads to repair and retrofit. In most cases, conventional repairs using steel and concrete may significantly alter the historic character of the building and thus become unacceptable.

Carbon or glass FRP products offer sustainable solutions for restoration and preservation of historic buildings with minimal change in the appearance of the structure. Thin sheets of FRP fabric (about 0.05 inch (1.3 mm)) can be applied to the surface of beams, columns and walls of these structures to provide significant additional strength. The FRP can be painted or coated with architectural finishes to hide it from view. Other FRP solutions such as Near Surface Mounted (NSM) carbon rods or strips can be embedded into slots that are made in the structure, making them totally inconspicuous.

QuakeWrap engineers can provide consultation to develop solutions that utilize conventional FRP products or our patented technologies such as PileMedic® and SPiRe®. These sealed engineering designs and drawings will be submitted to the owner for review by the appropriate committees and boards.

Features & Benefits
Advantages of preserving or restoring historic buildings with FRP include:

Walls, floors, beams and columns can be retrofitted with FRP
Minimal increase in member size (typically ½ inch (13 mm))
Repairs can be easily hidden from view
Repairs are fast and economical
Finished installation can be coated, making it hardly visible