Chemical injection remedial treatments for rising damp—I. The interaction of damp-proofing fluids with porous building materials

Which methods are suitable to assess the effectiveness of chemical injection treatments in the laboratory?

“…As the spreading ability of the injected fluids is the key for the success of any damp-proof course [15,20], several methods in the literature aim at assessing this property in different kinds of materials, either single or coupled. Samples of limited size are used in this case, to allow an easier characterization after injection.…”

“…On the other hand, small specimens [15,16,18,21] are more manageable and affordable in terms of testing time, but they exhibit a major drawback: bricks, stone and mortars are highly porous and hence sorptive, so any small laboratory sample which is put in contact with water will quickly get fully saturated, which may be a too severe condition for the test, as discussed in the following.…”

“…The main goal of those studies was the assessment of the capability of the injected products to spread around the holes and to create a continuous barrier in the masonry, also when the pores are partially or completely full of water, a common occurrence in real walls [14]. The ability of the invading injection fluid to displace water already present in the pores was investigated, for both water-based and solvent-based fluids, in the Seventies and Eighties [12,[15][16]. Afterwards, different aspects of this problem and, more in general, the effectiveness of damp-proofing injection products were investigated in laboratory by different researchers, who performed tests on single materials (brick, mortar) [12-13, 17-19, 20], small-size masonry blocks [15,16,18,21], or realscale walls [11,[22][23][24][25].…”

“…The ability of the invading injection fluid to displace water already present in the pores was investigated, for both water-based and solvent-based fluids, in the Seventies and Eighties [12,[15][16]. Afterwards, different aspects of this problem and, more in general, the effectiveness of damp-proofing injection products were investigated in laboratory by different researchers, who performed tests on single materials (brick, mortar) [12-13, 17-19, 20], small-size masonry blocks [15,16,18,21], or realscale walls [11,[22][23][24][25]. Some papers also reported on the drying effect of chemical injections onsite, in real buildings affected by rising damp [26][27][28][29][30].…”

Effectiveness of methods against rising damp in buildings: Results from the EMERISDA project

“…In fact, despite the large diffusion of methods and products to stop rising damp, scientific literature on their effectiveness, in laboratory and in the field, is scarce and not conclusive. Literature on laboratory research includes the study of fundamental aspects, such as the transport of immiscible and miscible fluids (water and injection products in organic solvents) in pores [15,16] and the electro-kinetic processes (e.g. [17]), as well as the study of the effectiveness of specific methods and products against rising damp.…”