Assessment of earth mortars
The historic district court in Plauen has been used as an administration building since the beginning of the 20th century. During planning of the proposed restoration and reuse strategy a number of questions relating to the materiality, load bearing capacity and condition of the existing materials were raised by the contracted structural designers. It was suspected that the existing building could contain earth mortar and plaster, the presence of which would require special consideration in the planning, for example the necessary waterproofing measures.
In the first stage of the analysis process mineral, microscopic, performance and mechanical testing was undertaken on samples from various locations in the building thereby determining that a lime stabilised earth mortar was present The second stage involved the in-situ structural performance analysis of the masonry.
Services Ziegert | Seiler Ingenieure
Mortar and salt analysis
