Retrofitting Practices of Stone Masonry Buildings: Cost Comparison and Status in Nepal

Abstract

Abstract -The study described herein, studies the retrofitting practices of stone masonry buildings in Nepal after the devastating earthquake in April of 2015.  While new construction of severely affected buildings after the earthquake has gained pace lately, another facet of reconstruction, i.e., retrofitting of partially damaged house has been sluggish.  This has been due to the fact that most of the buildings needing retrofitting are built with stone masonry bonded with mud mortar and methods to retrofit these types of structures are either new to the designers and masons in Nepal, or they are far too expensive than  government provided aid for the typical Nepalese homeowner to be put into practice. As such, this study aims to compare retrofitting methods for stone masonry buildings joined with mud mortar under the constraints of cost. The different methods under study include the Strong Back approach, and Splint and Bandage with Jacketing using Galvanized wire, Rears and Wood as the material.  To do this, we performeda cost comparison of a typical traditional house for different retrofitting techniques and compared it with the new construction of a similar house. Our results show us that the cost of retrofitting is lowest by Strong Back approach  for  all three  heights from One Story SMM buildings with attic to Two-story and Two Story with attic SMM buildings whereas RC splint and bandage techniques is the most expensive to put  into practice .