For touch up paint for frames and area walls, contact customer service at 800.343.9370. Surface Preparation:

• Small Scratches - Lightly sand with 120 grit sand paper to remove gloss. Wipe with rubbing alcohol and dry.
• Large Scraped Areas - Same as above plus prime the bare metal with priming paint. Several light coats are recommended.

All of Monarch Vinyl framed windows and bucks are braced at the factory. These braces are good for normal situations. It should be considered that a 4040 vinyl frame for an 8” wall will displace 1550 lb. of concrete. This unit must be anchored to the form to resist this amount of lift.

Because concrete can be poured in many slumps and speeds bracing of steel frames is left to the experience of the contractor. For those that would like some guidance we offer the folling.

• Brace any side over 4 ft. (A 4 ft. Midwest series should be braced.)
• If the top of the frame is to be covered by more than 8” of concrete.
• Walls thicker than 8” brace will require bracing for smaller sizes or less depth.
• The following factors increase the need for bracing. Pumping, higher slump, vibrating.

Bracing can be as simple as a piece of 2 x 4 wedged in the frame. It should be kept at 90 degree angle to the frame members or pressure pop it loose. Also be careful not to use too long of a brace and blow the frame out.

onarch area walls are made from 18 or 20 gauge G90 galvanized steel depending on the size of the area wall. The metal is corrugated in a sinusoid pattern to create form stiffness. The arch shape of the projection gives further stiffening.

The area walls are designed to meet most standard lateral pressures that the earth would exert on them. At a five foot depth dry sand will exert a lateral pressure of 190 pound per square foot, dry soil a pressure of 330 pound per square foot, and fully saturated soil can be up to 580 pound per square foot. Expansive soils can generate even higher loads.

Excessive loading can be caused by improper building and back filling operations. Operating heavy equipment close to the area wall or over-packing the soil can cause damaging pressures. When back filling, the area wall should have six inches of dirt and gravel in the bottom. This will help anchor the area wall to the soil and distribute the lateral load back to the soil.

A Monarch area wall will not have excessive back wall deflection in most soil types if it is not subjected to excessive water saturation or mechanical soil compaction. Proper bottom internal fill is required for reliable performance.