Gordon Verhoef & Krause (Cape) has carried out intricate structural repairs to the 100-year-old Mercantile Building in Hout Street in the city centre.

GV&K had to refurbish the six-storey external brick façade and steel beams.

The outer brick skin was showing desperate signs of fatigue. There were corroded structural steel elements and water penetration in unplastered places; in general, extremely poor maintenance of the historic building's north- western façade.

Vincent Emmerich, the GV&K quantity surveyor on the project, said the team had demolished the entire outer skin and structure of the north-western facade.

They had then cleaned, derusted and repaired the structural steel frame and rebuilt and plastered the entire façade.

The problems of removing this façade rubble on such a busy and narrow street were overcome by extensive night and weekend work when traffic and pedestrian volumes were lower, ensuring less disturbance.

The façade abutted a single- storey retail outlet over which scaffolding was erected to gain access to the work area and to protect the roof of the retail outlet.

Stringent safety and quality control measures ensured that works were completed without incident.

The value of the contract was approximately R600 000. - Cape Argus