08-21-2011, 06:39 AM
e-paw Wrote:I do know what you guys are talking about, but in this case those items are not tied to anything inside the building. No truss work or beams of any kind, just a washer and a nut.
Often (not always) this is the visible portion of tie rods that keep walls from falling down. As people made masonry (stone or brick) walls thinner, they had to engineer strength into them, rather than relying on the mass of the wall to support itself.
Your picture seemed to illustrate the more elaborate "washers" that evolved, not only as ornamentation, but to spread the load over the face of the wall. As noted above, more utilitarian "washers" were often S-shaped.
Here's a picture of exposed tie rods. In this case, they are very utilitarian looking, and were added after -the-fact to stabilize ruins, not built as part of the original structure. Normally, these would be hidden in floors/ceilings. These look like they are made of structural shapes, not the rods commonly seen, and do not appear to have turnbuckles or other adjustments. Again, perhaps a function of being added afterwards.
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And sometimes, they are just for show, with no internal ties as you noted.
Andrew