Dealing With Rising Damp and Salt Attack: The Need To Get The Salt Out

The need to get the salt out:
Dealing with rising damp and salt attack
David Young OAM BAppSc

Heritage Consultant
PO Box 203, Clifton Hill VIC 3068
[email protected]
Introduction
There is a need to rethink our approach to the treatment of rising damp and salt attack. We
have tended to see the deterioration at the base of walls as a problem related only to the
phenomenon of rising damp and so the focus of remedial treatments has been the
installation of damp-proof courses (DPCs). This is not surprising given the cool damp
climate of Britain from where most of our building traditions are derived.
However in this country we have hotter, drier climates and more saline soils leading to
greater rates of ‘transpiration’ through the walls and to the accumulation of soluble salts at
the evaporation zone in the masonry. The result is that we often have two problems to
address: rising damp and salt attack. When we install a DPC we may stop the damp rising,
but we won’t stop the salt attacking unless we remove it from our walls.
This paper assumes that we are dealing with buildings that either have no DPC or that have
early DPCs that are now ineffective.
Traditional treatment of rising damp

Rising damp is the capillary suction of porous masonry materials which draws moisture up
into walls from the soils and sub-soils beneath. Moisture rises against the force of gravity
causing dampness in walls, musty smells in rooms and unhealthy living environments. That
it generally only rises to about one to one-and-a-half metres above ground level is because
the moisture evaporates from the surface of the walls. Some treatments have sought to
prevent the damp evaporating by rendering the external surface in relatively-hard,
impermeable cement renders. These simply trap moisture in the wall, forcing it to rise
further and to evaporate from above the rendered base. The treatment is disfiguring, and at
best, buys time.
More effective treatments for buildings lacking a functioning damp-proof course have
focussed on cutting off the water source through the installation of a new DPC. These
treatments have included both mechanical and chemical methods:
• undersetting — the technique of progressively rebuilding the base of the walls and the
incorporation of a DPC membrane;
• slot sawing — where a mortar joint is removed to allow insertion of a DPC membrane;
and
• chemical impregnation — where a DPC is formed by injecting or gravity feeding
chemicals into a series of drilled holes to produce a water-repellent zone.
Like our building tradition, these treatments originate from Europe (Ashurst & Ashurst,
1988; Oliver, 1997; Richardson, 2001). There the climate is cooler and wetter than ours and so
the rate of transpiration of moisture through walls is lower, though the walls themselves
may be wetter. The damper climate also leads to the downward flushing of soluble salts.
Consequently, remedial treatments are principally aimed at dealing with dampness in walls,
at preventing soil moisture from rising through porous masonry. These are the treatments
that we have inherited and have adopted as our standard practice.
Rising damp and salt attack

In contrast to Britain and other cooler parts of Europe, the hotter and drier, temperate
Australian climate promotes rapid evaporation from wall surfaces and hence greater rates of
transpiration of moisture due to rising damp. When coupled with very saline soils, most
notably in Adelaide, the result is extensive decay of the base of walls due to a combination of
rising damp and salt attack. Rising damp carries salts up into the walls where cyclic wetting
and drying leads to their crystallisation within the pores of the masonry and consequent
fretting and crumbing of the wall at the point or zone of evaporation. Though Adelaide is the
city with most damage, the problem of rising damp and salt attack is common across much
of dry temperate Australia and is increasing as dryland salinity delivers more salts to the
land surface.
To effectively deal with the problem we need to deal with both rising damp and salt attack.
This may seem obvious, yet because of our building tradition we have tended to focus on the
damp and until recently, largely ignored the salt. We have wrongly assumed that by cutting
off the rising damp, we would stop the damage caused by the salts.
This is not so, for though cut off from soil moisture, salts can still cycle in and out of solution
due to changes in atmospheric humidity. The hygroscopic nature of the salts attracts water
from humid atmospheres leading to their solution and to an apparently dry wall becoming
suddenly damp. During the next dry period the salts recrystallise causing ongoing damage
to the masonry. While the rate of decay may be slower than before, it will continue while
salts remain. And so we need to remove the salts as well as dealing with the rising damp.
Removing salts — desalination

There are four principle ways of removing salts from damp affected masonry:
• undersetting — in which affected masonry is replaced with new material;
• washing, sponging — to dissolve and flush salt out;
• sacrificial plasters — to move the evaporation zone outside the existing wall; and
• absorbent poultices — to draw dissolved salt into highly absorbent materials.
Undersetting
Though expensive, this technique has the advantage of combining the removal of salt-
affected masonry with the insertion of a new DPC. From a heritage point of view, a
disadvantage of this technique is the loss of original material, the aim of conservation often
being retention of as much original fabric as possible (Australia ICOMOS, 1999).
Washing, sponging
Walls are wetted in a controlled way with low volume water sprays or misting devices, then
allowed to dry for a period so that salts are drawn to the surface from where they can be
either flushed with water or damp sponged from the wall. This technique has been used on
major buildings in Sydney without great success.
Sacrificial plasters, renders and mortars

By applying a weak porous plaster or render to the wall surface, the point at which water
evaporates and salt precipitates can be moved outwards into the render. The render will
deteriorate with time and may need reapplication, but will protect the wall behind.
Sacrificial plasters and renders are made of lime and sand and can usefully incorporate
porous aggregates such as crushed limestone in order to provide more ‘storage space’ for the
salts. They may not be aesthetically pleasing and so have more application to cellars and
basements than to dining rooms. The same approach can be used with sacrificial mortars in
joints between brickwork and stonework, but more of this later.
Absorbent poultices
A wet paste of absorbent material is applied to the wall surface and allowed to dry. The
contained water soaks into the masonry, dissolves the salts and then dries back out through
the poultice, bringing the salts with it and leaving them in the absorbent material. A
commercial product “Cocoon”, marketed for this purpose, is an adaptation of a filtering
medium and contains paper pulp and diatomaceous earth. Experience suggests that two or
three cycles of poulticing may be necessary to remove high salt concentrations.
Combining salt-removal with damp-proofing

Desalination techniques such as sacrificial plasters and absorbent poultices should be
combined with damp-proofing treatments such as slot sawing, chemical impregnation and
the modern version of electro-osmosis so that both rising damp and salt attack are dealt
with. Unfortunately for our building stock, salt-removal in combination with damp-proofing
is the exception rather than the rule.
Are there alternatives to salt-removal?

Perhaps not realising the importance of removing high salt concentrations, many damp-
proofing contractors install chemical or slot-sawn DPCs into interior walls and then seek to
isolate remaining salts using dense cement plasters often containing water-repellent or salt-
retarding additives. At best, when well done, these treatments will buy time for the owner.
Their relative cost and the reduction in disruption time during which the occupants are
living elsewhere, makes them attractive to house owners.
Is salt-removal more important than damp-proofing?
Where the damp is excessive and cannot be controlled by good housekeeping activities like
attention to gutters, downpipes, site drainage and underfloor ventilation, then there is little
option but to install a new DPC. But what about the situation seen in many country towns
across Australia where the damp itself is not severe but salts have decayed the mortar from
the bottom courses of brickwork?
Consider the example of a 100 year old house. It is well built, with brick walls and lime
mortar, and sits up on a well drained block with no ponding of surface water against the
house. Yet the lime mortar of the lower 5–10 courses of brickwork is eroding and in places
the loss is up to 50 mm from the wall face. The bricks are in reasonable condition, showing
only the first signs of deterioration. There is no damp-proof course and not a lot of dampness
in the walls. On the inside the plasterwork is in good condition with only a few areas of
blistering beneath paint coatings. It is tempting to think that as the house has lasted 100
years, the decay will not be much worse after another 20 or 30 years. Postponing action on
this basis would be wrong, as the following graph shows.
Rate of salt attack decay. While this a notional example, it illustrates how it
would be wrong to think that because decay has taken 100 years to get to the
present state (as shown by the dot on the graph), there is no urgency about
taking remedial action. In this case decay would be nearly three times worse
in only ten more years.
This is a situation where although there is not a lot of salt in the soils, it is very effectively
drawn into the walls and concentrated by the strong evaporative conditions of hot dry
summers. In a case like this where the dampness alone is not causing problems (the interiors
are not unhealthily damp) inserting a remedial DPC may be unnecessary. Instead, attention
should be focussed on removing the salts from the lower parts of the walls and repairing the
mortar joints. In the simplest method described below, the two processes are combined.
Repairing mortar joints (known as repointing) should be done in a mortar that will act
sacrificially like the plasters and renders mentioned before. Unlike the all too common
approach of impervious, hard cement, it should be made of lime and sand and, ideally, there
should be some porous aggregates such as crushed limestone replacing some of the sand in a
mix of something like 1:3 to 1:5 lime:sand. Stronger mixes should be used on the weather
side of the house, while weaker mixes might be used on sheltered sides.
This sacrificial mortar will last for a variable period depending on how much salt remains in
the walls (in the remaining mortar and in the adjacent bricks) and on how well the
repointing has been carried out. If there is substantial salt remaining in the bricks this will
migrate into the new mortar and cause it to decay in not many years. A second round of
repointing may be necessary after 5-10 years, but this should substantially reduce the salt
burden in the walls. In doing so, it effectively resets the position on the graph above back to
a point where there’s little decay.
We must be clear that this treatment does not cure the damp — instead it is a maintenance
approach of managing the damp and preventing it from getting worse. Like any
maintenance it will require periodic renewal.
Importantly, salt-removal buys time. By reducing salt concentrations so that decay is

minimised, the owners and managers of a building have time to review its moisture regime
and to determine an appropriate course of action, which may or may not include insertion of
a DPC. This is particularly important where the building is of heritage value and where an
objective is minimising invasive works.
Conclusion
I contend that there are many cases such as the example described where it is more
important to remove salt from the walls than it is to insert a new DPC. We need to need to
rethink our approach to the treatment of salt attack and rising damp. The right answer will
be as much about salt as it is about damp.
New publications on rising damp and salt attack

In an effort to improve practice in treating rising damp and salt attack, the heritage agencies
from New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia together with the City of Adelaide
have combined to commission new technical guides. These will update and add to the
existing South Australian document, now 12 years old (Young, 1995). Expected to be
available later this year, the guides will aim to convey the message that rising damp and salt
attack are separate but interrelated phenomena that are best dealt with by both removing the
salt and reducing the moisture stress on walls.
References
Ashurst, J. & Ashurst, N. 1988. Practical building conservation. English Heritage technical
handbooks, Volume 2: Brick, terracotta and earth. Gower Technical Press, Aldershot, Hants,
UK. ISBN 0-291-39746-8.
Australia ICOMOS. 1999. The Burra Charter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of
Cultural Significance, 1999. Australia ICOMOS Inc., Melbourne.
Oliver, A.C. 1997. Dampness in buildings. 2nd edn, revised by J. Douglas and J.S. Stirling,
Blackwell Science, Oxford. ISBN 0-632-04085-8.
Richardson, Barry. 2001. Defects and deterioration in buildings: a practical guide to the science of
material failure. 2nd edn, Taylor & Francis, London. ISBN 041925210X.
Young, David. 1995. Rising damp and salt attack. South Australia, Department of
Environment and Natural Resources, and the City of Adelaide, Heritage Conservation: 3.8. ISSN
1035-5138.

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The need to get the salt out:

Dealing with rising damp and salt attack

David Young OAM BAppSc

Traditional treatment of rising damp

Rising damp and salt attack

Removing salts — desalination

Sacrificial plasters, renders and mortars

Combining salt-removal with damp-proofing

Are there alternatives to salt-removal?

Importantly, salt-removal buys time. By reducing salt concentrations so that decay is

New publications on rising damp and salt attack

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