While engaging in a major structural reconstruction on a portion of the McLeod Stewarton United Church in Ottawa, Everest Restoration Ltd. was confronted with the issue of rebuilding a historic structure utilizing modern Seismic Building Codes.

After extensive shoring of the building interior from basement slab to roof joists, the exterior stone façade was removed and preserved. With success in salvaging all of the original stone, we added some minor “JAHN” repairs to the façade. The interior load-supporting block wall was then dismantled to the top of the stone foundation. After leveling the foundation with a reinforced Hi Strength masonry cap, work on the interior block wall commenced. In order to render the structure “Earthquake proof” (per current building codes) it was required that steel reinforcing (Blok-Loc) be placed horizontally at every course, and vertical re-bar placed every 42″, with the block grout-filled at these locations. Further reinforcement included welding 112″ x 14″ strap anchors to each joist, extending to the core of the concrete block, which was then grout-filled.

Furthermore, reinforced sill blocks were installed above and below each window, running the full length of the wall. New steel lintels were employed over windows using epoxy and stainless steel fasteners. These are now virtually undetectable.

Once the reconstruction of the interior load bearing block wall was complete, Air Bloc FR21 was applied as a vapor barrier, and 112″ Styrofoam SM insulation installed, greatly increasing the thermal efficiency of the building. Using Tapcon fasteners, galvanized straps were then affixed to the block wall, in order to tie in the exterior stone façade.

With the block wall complete, the interior shoring was removed, and renovation to the building’s interior commenced in conjunction with the stone façade which was being re-built. Each façade stone was individually fastened to the back-up wall.

At the conclusion of this project, the Church was restored to its original condition on the exterior and met all modern building standards for structural integrity and energy efficiency on the interior.