Assessment of humidity damage in cultural heritage

This paper presents several examples based in the detection of water content and corrosion in cultural heritage buildings. Water is one of the main causes of damage in ancient structures: cracks, loss of coating, detachment of ornamental elements, stains and other visible damage could be produced as consequence of changes in the water content. Therefore, in most cases, the early detection of humidity can be crucial in the maintenance of the buildings. On the other hand, although many of those structures are built with bricks or stones, the use of metal reinforcement, staples or metallic pipes embedded in the masonry structures can produce additional damage due to corrosion. GPR is a useful tool to determine zones that can be affected by that damage.