Author
O. PFEFFERMANN Studiebureau BTC
and
B.A. HASELTINE Jenkins and Potter

Abstract
A survey of damage to buildings carried out by the CSTC Belgium in 1965 showed that more than 40% of the problems were cracks in the masonry. This led to the development of Murfor, a prefabricated reinforcement for the bed joints of masonry from about 1970, It is made in sizes appropriate to the shapes of the masonry units and the thickness of the bed joints. This reinforcement increased the strength of the masonry against cracking but also made possible many new applications. Research was carried out to define the characteristics of the reinforcement and to study the durability in the long term. Twenty-eight walls were erected in an industrial environment in Antwerp in 1976, with four different types of coating of the bed joint reinforcement as a protection against corrosion. Every two to three years a set of walls was demolished and the condition of the reinforcement was assessed. The result of those tests are given.