There is a ton of scientific information on rising damp. This chapter presents key scientific concepts behind rising damp for those who want to understand this topic deeper. The scientific information has been selected from various research papers which have…
In this section, during the next few pages we present some of the most important concepts of rising damp for the less scientifically minded, in plain English, without the added complexity of scientific jargon. Relevant drawings and illustrations have also been…
One of the reasons why certain people think rising damp does not exist can be attributed to some of the failures of reproducing rising damp satisfactorily under lab conditions. The idea behind simulating rising damp in a lab is to…
If the wall fabric and finish is breathable, most of the water can easily evaporate, resulting in a relatively steady low moisture content of the walls. If the evaporation rate is higher than the water intake (e.g. by using breathable…
There are thousand and thousands of research papers on various aspects of rising damp. Here we have listed here a few of them which we considered relevant or useful, broken down into several categories. For each paper we have given a…
Rising damp is a combined action of several molecular phenomena. Although many of its aspects have been clarified and understood, the research is ongoing and it's far from being complete.On this page we attempt to summarize the most important phenomena that…
Temperature changes play a very important role in nature, thus heating plays a very important role in evaporation, and as such, in the dehydration of old buildings.Let's look at some of the fundamental differences between warm and cold air.Warm air…
What we commonly refer to as "capillarity" or "capillary effect" is nothing else but the combined effect of various forces acting in the electrical double layer area. One of the most important phenomena are electrokinetic forces or phenomena.In liquids, electrokinetic…
Water (H2O) consists of positive hydrogen and negative oxygen atoms. Bulk water however is neutral as these charges balance each other out.The situation changes, however, near the surface of the charged capillaries. All building materials (brick, stone, mortar, glass, ceramics etc.)…
The impact of salts onto the building fabric is far more important than the effects of dampness and humidity. Most physical damages related to old buildings - such as crumbling, peeling, detachment of plaster etc. - can be attributed to…
The amount of water that old walls can accumulate from rising damp can be truly staggering.I recently came across a scientific publication (attached at the end of the page), that analyzed rising damp in detail, providing some of the scientific…
There are 2 major cycles occurring inside old walls:1. The Water CycleFollows the following path: soil > wall fabric > finishing > air.If the wall fabric and finish is breathable, most of the water can easily evaporate, resulting in a…