When restoring historic lime plaster it can be difficult to reach the required durability. Today newly made lime plaster can fall off due to frost damages after only a couple of winters. To understand and solve these problems, the subject has been studied from different perspectives. Several factors in the production step are making an influence on the durability of lime plaster: 1. A binder, suitable for the building, must be chosen along with sandthat gives good material properties in both fresh mortar and in plasters. 2. The lime/sand ratio and the mixing technique should be chosen from the properties in the lime and the sand, in order to get a mortar with good workability. 3. The craftsmanship should be adjusted to the mortar, the weather and the underlying materials. A plaster with good frost resistance has a certain pore structure. The plaster should have some round air pores that contain air even when the material is filled capillary with water. Such air pores give the water a free space to expand when it is freezing. If the air pores are missing, the ice crystals may damage the plaster when expanding. To increase the chance of making a frost resistant lime plaster, the lime/sand ration must be adjusted so the lime can fill up well in the sand. Otherwise a collapsed pore system can easily occur, which means an open pore system without distinct air pores. A collapsed pore system contains many pores well connected with each other. Such a system is easily damaged by frost. To increase the chance of success, it is of great importance to work the surface of the lime plaster at the right time and in the correct way. Before working on a surface the mortar must be aloud to stiffen. Only then a homogeneous material can be created; cracks due to shrinkage can be pressed together and the result is a more compact material with an open surface. The time necessary for mortars to stiffen is related to the water content of the mortar, the suction of the underlying surface and the weather conditions. If the surface is worked on while the mortar is still fresh, the binder can form a hard lime shell on the surface. Inside thematerial a lack of binder can appear. Such plasters have a very low frost resistance. Other durability problems related to plaster are damages in the underlying materials, i.e. rotten wood in covered constructions or leached lime in old joints. Such damages can occur if the covering mortar is made of strong hydraulic lime or cement, since they form plasters with a low permeability in comparison to lime. Due to mentioned findings, it is important to study how a pore structureis influenced by materials, mixture and craftsmanship. Only then it is possible to understand how damages can be decreased.

According to good practice within the Swedish masonry industry brick beams needs to be underpinned during the 28 first days. Masonry craftsmen and construction engineers believe that the supports can be disassembled before this time has elapsed. This will facilitate subsequent entrepreneurs to begin their work earlier. Previous studies on this subject haven’t been done. Within this project tensile tests have been made in order to find out how the adhesion between brick and mortar develops over time, and how the temperature affects it. The aim has been to test if the adhesion is strong enough to remove the underpinning earlier than 28 days. Interviews with bricklayers and project managers have been done to get their point of view on the problem. The result of interviews showed that bricklayers removed the underpinning earlier than 14 days, the results of the traction tests did show that the underpinns can’t be removed after an exact number of days. What determines if the stamp can be picked up earlier is the size of the opening and the temperature it cures in.