Repair of balconies’ spalling concrete and faulty rail post anchoring.
There is a balcony on each corner of this building’s 35 residential floors, and just a few years after the building opened in 2007, many of the balconies were showing signs of spalling.
The discoloration of the concrete was occurring below balcony rail posts. Probes of the rail post pockets revealed that sand had been used to fill them. However the sand filler was not adequate an structural anchor for the railing. It was absorbing water and causing the concrete around the post and the post itself to fail due to during the winter cycle of freeze and thaw.
Upon opening the concrete to perform the rail post pocket repairs, we found that excessive amounts of rebar had been placed near the balcony fasciae. To provide proper cover the redundant bars had to be removed and the entire fascia of each balcony reconstructed.
While the post pocket repair was straightforward, the design of the railings required the removal and reinstallation of the glass and the frame.
