Selected problems of protection of historic buildings against the rainwater and the groundwater

Ryszard Chmielewski,Paweł Muzolf,D Beben,A Rak,Z Perkowski

doi:10.1051/matecconf/201817403012

Ryszard Chmielewski, Paweł Muzolf + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201817403012

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Abstract

The paper presents selected problems in the selection of the state of the art modern civil engineering solutions for drying moisture or wet, in particular parts of the underground structures of the brick historic buildings. The repair works of the immobile cultural heritage civil engineering objects require the appropriate choice of the design solution. These should be achieved by obtaining the assumed effects in the form of the effectiveness of repairs regarding all possible measures of protection of the cultural heritage buildings. Another key issue of the analysis of the causes of moisture formation in underground masonry structures is the necessity of consideration of the historic character of these buildings. Based on authors' extensive experience and expert knowledge, a range of diagnostics process as well as the assessment of the causes of the moisture problems of historic buildings for several selected cases was proposed. Moisture is transferred from the outside of the building to the basement interior by four mechanisms liquid water flow, capillary suction, vapor diffusion and air movement. The variety of the different mechanisms of moisture transfer, especially regarding buildings of cultural heritage implies that the selection of the most suitable system solution for solving moisture problem is the most crucial and a key issue in a specific case.

Highlights

Dealing with the symptoms of moisture, like damp, humid air, odor, mold, mildew, as well as efflorescence, spalling of masonry, etc. is one of the main challenge of operation and maintenance of historic building structures
The main purpose of this paper is to describe and present selected problems of protection of historic buildings against the rainwater and the groundwater
The moisture problems described in this article caused by rainwater and groundwater impact relate in particular to masonry foundation walls of decades-old buildings, usually enlisted in regional cultural heritage list

Summary

Introduction

Dealing with the symptoms of moisture, like damp, humid air, odor, mold, mildew, as well as efflorescence, spalling of masonry, etc. is one of the main challenge of operation and maintenance of historic building structures. In some cases the location of historic buildings, which requires the protection against the rainwater and the groundwater, in densely urbanized area and in the vicinity of adjacent buildings or underground installations, excludes the application of the solution of making vertical insulation by digging out the entire basement walls. In such situations, the system solution needs to be selected that ensured tight hydro-insulation layer made. Further operation of buildings with defective and leaky waterproofing insulation, without proper maintenance management, may lead to damage to the brick elements of masonry structures in a relatively short time [3, 4]

The main Library of the Mazovian Voivodeship

The Warsaw Citadel facilities

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