Rehabilitation of farmhouses and barns: limits of salt content

Abstract

The rehabilitation of historic buildings is a practice that aims to turn a historic property into a state of contemporary comfort for private or commercial use, while preserving its historic, architectural and cultural value, respecting items of authenticity, compatibility and sustainability. What once was a modest use of locally fired brick and mortar has become the subject of ambitious rehabilitation campaigns conforming to the rules of comfort and hygiene of the twenty-first century. A pre-investigation concerning the diagnosis of damage phenomena and the risk assessment of interventions is a crucial aspect for the success of a restoration campaign. The question of “How to optimally preserve a monument within its current conditions” is replaced by “How can a monument optimally perform in the conditions suited to the assigned rehabilitation project”. Today historic farms and their surroundings, after being abandoned for several decades, are the subject of different types of private or commercial rehabilitation projects. An example of such a project is the farm “Hof De Pleyne” in Loppem (West-Flanders, Belgium). The project intended to integrate a restaurant kitchen into the former animal barn. The limits of salt content with respect to the desired rehabilitation facilities while respecting safety regulations are presented.