Numerous concrete monuments built in the High Modern Era (turn of the 20th century until the 1970s) must now be repaired for preservation. Traditional concrete repair according to current guidelines involves considerable material removal, changing the appearance of the existing structure. With a combination of the material properties of high-/ultra-high-performance concrete (HPC/UHPC) with its dense microstructure and corrosion-free textile reinforcement (carbon and basalt), a high-performance mortar repair system can be developed. Such a system allows for concrete repairs with minimal material loss by using very thin layers that are durable and do not change the architectural character of the repaired monument. For the investigation of the load-bearing behaviour of a structural repair system using textile-reinforced, high-performance mortar, 20 mm thick slabs were produced and mechanically characterized. In the next step, the proposed repair system was applied to 70 mm thick old concrete slabs. The results show that a high surface tensile strength of 2.9 MPa was obtained. In a further step, the system will be applied to concrete pillars of transmission tower in Berus, adapted in terms of colour and structure and installed for long-term monitoring.

The durability of eleven different water repellents applied on one sandstone type was studied after a long-term weathering at seven different locations in Germany. By measuring colour changes, it could be shown that the formation of black crusts, the deposition of particles and biogenic growth caused a gradual darkening as well as significant changes in total colour over time. Additionally, the water absorption behaviour was investigated with two different methods: applying a low pressure using the pipe method and capillary water absorption measurements from a wet underlay. Afterwards, the test results were analysed with four different evaluation methods: calculation of the protection degree from pipe method and capillary water absorption, determination of the velocity of water uptake during capillary water absorption and calculation of the damaged depth of the stone surface using single-sided NMR technique. The growing damaged depth leads to an increase of the water uptake velocity and to a decrease of the protection degree of the applied hydrophobing agents. Three protective agents based on isobutyltrimethoxysilane showed already after two years of outdoor weathering a clear loss of performance, which significantly increased after 30 years of exposure.

The Baumberger Sandstone, a sandy limestone, is used since the Middle Ages as a building material not only in the surrounding Münster region of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), where it is quarried since to date. To prevent the ingress of water and reduce weathering processes conservation methods, mostly in form of organosilicon compounds, were used. This study deals with the performance of applied hydrophobing agents on Baumberger Sandstone samples and their influence on the weathering processes during long-term exposure. The samples were exposed at several locations in Germany to different climatic conditions for up to 24 years. Afterwards, investigations concerning the water absorption behaviour and the degree of superficial damages were carried out. With an evaluation method on basis of NMR measurements, a very low and uneven distributed effective hydrophobic zone could be detected. This caused an ingress of water in the uppermost part and a progressive weathering of investigated natural stones. Thus the hydrophobic surface treatment did not lead to a significant decrease of weathering or damaging processes. Based on these results a hydrophobic surface treatment of Baumberger Sandstone seems not to be suitable.

Porosity changes in the near-surface area of sandstones due to long-term weathering can produce deterioration. Therefore, porosity analyses on weathered sandstones are significant for detecting possible influences on the pore structure. Classical methods for determining the porosity and pore size distribution in sandstones can only investigate the entire sample volume. In contrast, in this publication, the porosity was analysed in 0.2 mm steps over a depth of 5 mm by means of single-sided NMR measurements on water-saturated sandstones under vacuum. Evaluations of Obernkirchener and Schleeriether Sandstones that were weathered outdoors in Germany for over 30 years are presented. The results showed that the water content in Vol.-% strongly correlated with the normalised NMR signal. The unweathered sandstones showed a uniform distribution of micro and capillary pores throughout the stone depth. As a result of 30 years of outdoor weathering, changes in the pore structure occurred at the sandstone surface due to weathering down to depths of about 0.6 mm. The porosity of the Schleeriether Sandstone samples, mainly the microporosity, clearly increased in this region. Due to the dominance of capillary pores in the Obernkirchener Sandstone, the changes were not as pronounced, but a shift towards smaller pores in the surface area was observable.