1751

THE INFLUENCE OF POINTING MORTAR ON THE ALTERATION OF BRICK AND MASONRY

DIONYS VAN GEMERT

Katholieke Universiteit Leuv·e n, Departement Bouwkunde
de Croylaan , 2, B-3030 Heverlee-Leuven

KOEN VAN BALEN

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Departement Architectuur
Kasteel van Arenberg, B-3030 Heverlee-Leuven

ABSTRACT

Real scale experiments on the frost behaviour of masonry walls of a church

in Roosdaal (Pamel) have been executed to explain the degradations
observed alI over the façades of the church. The damages due to frost are
severe. It has been prooved that the mutual influence between bricks and
mortar are at the origin of the amplitude of the damages . Modified
pointing mortar systems were applied on wall elements of 1 m by 1 m, taken
from the church façades. The repaired wallets have been subjected to the
same frost-thaw tests and showed a much better behaviour. A restoration
procedure has been worked out.

INTRODUCTION

The st. Gaugericus church at Roosdaal in Belgium presents a typical

example of frost-thaw damage to brickwork masonry. The church has been
hardly affected by this disease and falling stones have become a real
danger for people in the neighbourhood, as shown in Fig . 1. protectiye
measures had to be taken.

The church was built in 1905 and is a late example of neogothic

architecture . The masonry of the west and south façades of the church and
the tower are seriously affected. Damages are concentrated on those
locations where the water is running off, i.e. on the zones beneath
natural stone elements and at the corners. Damages are due to :
- the quality of the bricks
- the quality of the pointing mortar and the masonry mortar
- the behaviour of the brick-mortar composite.
 1752

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. ~! ~'rl .17,1.7'1 . ~,C"~J ... - ,
~I; l .'-- --,...'- ..
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Figure 1. Frost-thaw damage on the masonry of the tower.

It was decided to investigate the real causes of the damages and to

clarify the relative impact of the various materiaIs. A proposal for the
therapy had to be set forward. In this case , as the historie value of the
building was not that great, even the further existence of the building
was put in the balance, depending on the benefit and cost of the necessary
repair and protection works.

The test programme proposed by the Reyntjens Laboratory of the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven , included the quality assessmen t of bricks
and mortar, the simulation of the frost-thaw damages on real-size walls
cut out of the church façades and a quality and durability control of fou r
types of repointing mortar.

QUALITY ASSESSMENT DF BRICKS

A first indication of stone quality is found from the water absorption

test on the site , using the technique of the tubes of Karstens (Fig. 2).
In this test a water column with an initial height of 125 mm ,
corresponding to a wind velocity of 160 km / h, is put in contact with the
stone surface over an area of 5 em ' .

Normal absorption rates are about 1 cc/ lO mino Absorption rates of 2

to 5 cc/min were found here, indicating a high porosity of the bricks. A
great difference between the yellow and red bricks was observed . The red
bricks have an absorption rate of only 0 , 1 to 0 ,7 cc/mino This difference
was confirmed by the porosity measurement of the bricks , according to the
belgian standard NBN B24-213 (see table 1). The pores of the yellow
bricks make up to 35 , 5 % of the volume (reduced with the 8 holes of 015
mm) whereas the ceramic of both stones has almost the same specific mass
of 2200 à 2300 kg/m 3 •

~
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Figure 2 . Tube o f Karstens for water absorption testo

TABLE 1
Porosity data (Y : Yeiiow; R : Red)

Brick Porosity Density Specific density

vol. % kg / m3 kg/m 3

Yl 35 , 5 1508 2338
Y2 32,6 1589 2356
Rl 18 , 6 1837 2258
R2 15,5 1791 2121

Furtherone we wiii see that the yeiiow bricks are very sensitive to
frost action . The frost resistance of the bricks has been tested
according to the NBN B27-009 standard .

The stones were saturated wi th water and th'e n piaced in an insuiated

sand box. The whoie was piaced in a materiais testing equiprnent and
subjected to :
- 10 cycies , composed of air cooiing from + 15°C to - 15°C foiiowed by a
defrost under water of 15°c.
- 15 cycies with air cooiing forrn + 15°C to - 5°C foiiowed by a defrost
under water of + 5°c.
 1754

Figure 3. Sand-box freeze test set-up (NBN B27-009).

One recognizes the po1ystyrene insu1ation, and the thermocoup1e wires

p1aced at a depth of 30 mm under the surface. The red stones were not
affected by the testo A11 the ye110w bricks, however, were comp1ete1y
deteriotated by the frost deicing cyc1es. They were broken into
successive 1ayers (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Fissurated stone after frost-deicing testo

This test shows that a11 ye110w bricks, the damaged as we11 as the
sound ones, are very sensitive to further deterioration. This conc1usion
is in fu11 agreement with the difference in porosity of the two types of
bricks.
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ANALYSIS OF MASONRY AND POINTING MORTAR

The waterabsorption of the pointing mortar was slightly higher than the
absorption of the yellow bricks. In many cases very fine shrinkage cracks
were found between mortar and stone, through which water can penetrate
very easily in the masonry mass. The chemical analysis of the pointing
mortar was executed, following the procedures of the belgian standard NBN
B15-250. The morta r composition is given in table 11.

TABLE 2
Composition of mortar

Pointing Masonry

cement (g %) 7,23 5,80

lime (g %) 24,50 19,10

cement (kgfm 3 ) 125 98

lime (kgfm 3 ) 424 244
sand (kgfm 3 ) 721 907

The total cement and lime content of the pointing mortar are much
higher than in the masonry mortar. This results in a totally different
physical behaviour of both. Especially the difference in thermal
conductivity leads to water condensation at the interface between pointing
and masonry mortar. The ice formed in this interface pushes the pointing
mortar outwards. The week stones can't resist these forces and scale off
or crack.

FROST BEHAVIOUR OF WALL ELEMENTS

Four wall elements with dim~nsions of 1 m x 1 m were cut out from the
outer layer of the façades of the church (Fig. 5) and transported to the
Reyntjens Laboratory.

Two of those walls have been submitted to the frost-thaw test,

according to the standard NBN B27-009. For that purpose they were
insulated from alI sides, except the front side, and put in a box. The
whole box was than put in the climatising room. After 25 cycles op frost-
deicing, the two walls showed the same damages as the masonry façades of
the church (Fig. 7).
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Figure 5. Location of wall elements in church façade.

Figure 6. Four wall elements, ready for testing .

d
 1757

Figure 7. Pushing out of the pointing mortar.

This first test affirmed that the cause of the damages was due to
frost and mutual interaction of the materiaIs.

In the therapy that we proposed , we tried to reduce the effect of

frost in two ways :
1. by changing the composition of the pointing mortar, we tried to·
harmonize the thermal conductivity of the pointing mortar and the
masonry mortar.
2. by avoiding as much as possible the water penetration in the wall
through the application of a water repellent product.

Four different pointing mortars have been tried out on the other two
wall elements. After repointing and hardening during 28 days, these wall
elements were tested in the same way as the two previous ones.

The compositions of the four pointing mortar systems were

Mortar 1 300 kg cement PPZ 30 per m3 of sand (0/2) .
Mortar 2 350 kg artificial hydraulic lime XHA 10 per m3 of sand (0/2).
Mortar 3 175 kg XHA 10 + 150 kg PPZ 30 per m3 of sand (0/2).
Mortar 4 200 kg XHA 10 + 250 kg PPZ 10 per m3 of sand (0/2).

After the frost-thaw test the repointed walls showed much lesser
damages than the reference walls. No pushing out of the joints was
observed anymore. Scaling of the bricks still occured, but to a much
lesse r extent, and the least with the mortar of type 2.

This mortar is made up with the so called artificial hydraulic lime

(XHA 10) and sand . This artificial hydraulic lime is composed of portland
cement and a filler of crushed limestone. The analysis showed a heat loss
of 20,20 9 %, this means according to the NBN B13-101 standard an amount
of about 36 9 % of CaC0 3 • This means that in fact the workhability of the
mortar is increased, and that the cement content is lowered to about 200
kg/m 3 , which fits rather good with the lower binder content of the masonry
mortar.
 1758

As a consequence it was proposed to replace the pointing mortar with a

mortar of type 2. However, as we already mentioned, the replacement of
the pointing morta r would not be sufficient to avoid new deterioration in
the future, because of the low brick quality. with an additional water
repellent treatment the façades of the church have to be protected against
too high water contents of the masonry, and in this way frost damages will
be avoided. So two measures, both of them not decisive on their own, are
combined to give a sound solution.

CONCLUSIONS

In the case of the façades of the st. Gaugericus church at Roosdaal

(Pamel) in Belgium, the interaction between mortar and bricks in the forst
degradation mechanism is shown. The pointing mortar will amplify or
reduce the damages depending on its characteristics, especially its
thermal conductivity.

In a laboratory test on real wall elements different mortar

compositions have been compared regarding their effect on frost-thaw
behaviour. The investigation on the si te and in the laboratory enabled to
work out a thorough and economic repair procedure. The preliminary study
gave guidance to the responsible authorities in estimating the necessary
therapy for the preservation of the building.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the church fabric of the st. Gaugericus church,
the municipal authority of Roosdaal-Pamel, the design office Lierman & Van
Den Houwe and the Flemish Community Administration for their support of
the research work.

REFERENCES

1. V~n Gemert, D., st. Gaugericus church at Roosdaal-Pamel, Tests on

Masonry, Research Report 24962, Reyntjens Laboratory 1987 (in dutch).

2. Van Gemert, D., Durability of mineral building materiaIs. Proceedings

of symposium "Restoration in civil engineering", K.U.Leuven, Department
of Civil Engineering, 1987 (in Dutch).