Every autumn, the Mediterranean still holds the warmth of summer while cooler air moves in above it. Across the south of France, this is the start of the rainy season. For owners of old stone houses, it is also when flood risk rises, and flood recovery for stone houses is a different job from recovery [...]

The widespread introduction of Portland cement-based mortars and synthetic polymer coatings during late 20th-century renovations represents a catastrophic disruption to the historic built environment. Pre-1948 solid masonry walls are dynamic, vapor-permeable systems designed to absorb and evaporate moisture across their entire surface area—a mechanism colloquially known as “breathing.” The application of a modern, rigid Portland [...]

Sub-soil moisture transit within pre-1948 building envelopes is primarily governed by capillary rise (remontées capillaires), a thermodynamic process driven by the surface tension of water interacting with the micro-porous structure of historic building materials. In the absence of a modern impermeable damp-proof course (DPC), moisture from the underlying water table is drawn vertically into the [...]

Moisture ingress remains one of the most destructive degradation mechanisms affecting historic stone buildings in France. Among the various hydrological failures encountered during a technical building survey, rising damp (remontées capillaires) requires the most careful forensic investigation to differentiate it from simple condensation or localized plumbing leaks. The mechanics of rising damp involve the upward [...]