EMERISDA- Effectiveness of methods against rising damp in buildings: European practice and perspective

Rising damp leads to moisture presence in masonries, enhancing deterioration processes such as plaster detachment and decohesion due to freeze-thaw cycles, thus threatening both performance and conservation of historic and contemporary buildings [1]. In coastal cities the decay is worsened by the rising of sea water, loading the masonries with soluble salts [2].Climate changes including sea level rise, variation in the ground water level and increased frequency of extreme events are expected to have a further impact on the phenomenon [3]. Treatment against rising damp is generally advised for protecting historic buildings and many methods have been proposed to tackle the problem. However, a systematic evaluation and analysis of the effectiveness of these methods is still missing [1, 4]. The JPICH Project "Effectiveness of methods against rising damp in buildings: European practice and perspective - EMERISDA" (2014-2017) aims to fill this gap with scientifically based criteria and to develop a decision support tool for a conscious choice of these methods [5]. The project saw the co-operation between the Belgian Building Research Institute, the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Delft University of Technology, the Cultural Heritage Agency of Netherlands, and the SMEs Restauri Speciali s.r.l. and Diasen. The main aims were addressed by: 1)overview of existing solutions and definition of procedures and criteria for the evaluation of their effectiveness; 2)acquisition of new data through ex-novo application of selected methods on scale models (masonries mock ups in Bologna, Italy) and on case studies (a former sugar factory in Ferrara, Italy; St. Bavo's church in Haarlem, Paardenmarkt in Delft, Netherlands; St. Martin's church in Genappe, Antwerp Saint Felix Warehouse, Belgium), next to the monitoring of an existing method in the Basilica di San Marco, Venice; 3)development of a decision support tool for helping professionals and stakeholders in selecting feasible remediation methods . This contribution, in particular, focuses on the results obtained at the Narthex of the Basilica di San Marco and at the "ex- Zuccherificio Agricolo Ferrarese Eridania" [6]. The former relates on a remediation method applied 20 years ago and scientifically monitored over a long span of time, the latter on the application of different chemical interruption and remediation plasters.