State-of-the-art on methods for reducing rising damp in masonry

Several materials and technologies have been proposed over last century to fight the capillary rise of water from ground in historic masonry buildings. These methods involve different operational principles and different strategies to cope with rising damp, which is one of the most critical problems in the conservation of architectural heritage. However, despite the extensive use of these technologies in historic buildings, the data about their actual effectiveness in the field are still quite limited and the reasons for their success or failure in real masonries have not been fully elucidated yet. This paper provides an overview of the technologies for the removal of rising damp and a state-of-the-art on the results so far obtained by research, both in laboratory and on-site.