Journal of Architectural Conservation
Volume 14, Issue 3, November 2008
Restoration of Outdoor Plaster Pavement Floors in a Medieval Czech Castle
Zuzana Slizkova and Milos Drdacky
Paper Summary
Substantial tests and analyses of an ancient exterior plaster floor at Karlštejn Castle in Bohemia have led to the design of a new material for replacing and repairing a historic mortar floor. The replacement material has a reasonably high degree of similarity and compatibility with an acceptable level of safety and reliability. The floor was cast in situ during extensive restoration works at the end of the nineteenth century and exhibits surprisingly high durability and strength. The investigation used some non-standard testing methods developed for small-size specimens. In designing the new material, attention was paid to lime mortars with hydraulic admixtures. A metakaoline-modified mortar was finally recommended as the repair and replacement material for restoring the rampart outdoor pavement of Karlštejn Castle.
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Figure 5 Frost resistance of the metakaoline-modified lime mortar and the slag-modified lime concrete. Legend: VAPO 2:1:4 or VAPO 3:1:6 – dot-and-dashed line, original Karlštejn mortar – full bold line, mixtures without OPC – full line, mixtures gauged with OPC – dashed line.
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Milos Drdácký Assoc.Professor, Dipl.Eng., Ph.D., DrSc., IABSE, ASCE, RILEM, ICOMOS
Miloš Drdácký is a research fellow and the director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ITAM AS CR). He has been actively involved in research on historic materials, architectural heritage and historic cities for more than fifteen years.
Zuzana Dipl.Eng., Ph.D., ICOMOS
Zuzana Slížková is a research fellow and head of the Department of Particulate Media of ITAM AS CR. She has been involved in several major conservation projects over the past twenty years and has participated in several research projects supported by the European Commission research programmes, focusing on stone and mortar conservation and environmental issues in degradation processes.
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