Conservation of Porous Building Materials Used in Historical Constructions

Dear Colleagues,

Many important building materials used in construction are porous, permeable and can absorb water under the action of capillary forces. Indeed, a wide diversity of materials such as mortar, stone, brick, tiles, plaster, concrete or adobe are included in this broad definition and, beyond sharing a porous microstructure, many suffer from similar degradation mechanisms and the required conservation actions or products do not differ greatly. Therefore, the special issue aims to gather original research work related to the conservation of historic porous building materials without overlooking the specificities of each material since it also intends to highlight that detailed condition assessments are essential before any conservation measure. Research concentrating on monitoring of degradation phenomena, the durability and retreatment of conservation treatments is welcome as these topics are understudied.

Suggested topics to be covered include, but are not limited to the following:

• Novel materials and methods for cleaning and consolidation
• Novel materials for protection against water-related degradation, biocolonization, graffiti or other threats
• Design and evaluation of compatible repair materials and products
• Studies on the effectiveness, compatibility, durability or retreatment of restoration actions or conservation treatments
• Comparison of laboratory and in-situ testing methods for the validation of conservation treatments
• The role of moisture transport on the durability of porous building materials
• Studies on the degradation of historic porous building materials

Dr. Bruno Sena da Fonseca
Prof. Dr. Ana Paula Ferreira Pinto
Dr. Matea Ban
Guest Editors

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