Evaluation of Lime Mortar and Conservation Techniques in Traditional Elements

Abstract

Architecture and construction methods have been developed by the people who have been living around the word through centuries. Unlike now, in the past the quality of building materials were so different, because of lack of process control and variability in the local sources. Hence each place had different building materials comparing to other places. For many years, lime mortar had been used as the main mortar material in Sharjah traditional masonry. The source of the lime was mainly from coral and lime stones which could be found on the coastal area. This paper aims to prove the compatibility between existing and old lime plus the efficiency of using lime mortar in Sharjah restoration projects. The study has three aims: The first aim is to identify and examine the chemical components of old mortar samples that exist in different heritage buildings in Sharjah by XRF and SEM tests. The second aim is to prepare a new mortar samples with components based on the first aim and examine them by the same tests in the first stages. The last aim is to determine the quality of the new mortar in existing restoration projects in Sharjah city that are exposed to harsh environment factors.