Journal of Building Pathology and Rehabilitation (2023) 8:56

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41024-023-00297-z

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Characterization of historic masonry of the twentieth century: Casa

Salinger, Blumenau‑SC
Natália Salamoni1 · Gustavo Gutierrez de Oliveira Rodrigues1 · Abrahão Bernardo Rohden1 ·
Igor Guilherme Benevenute1 · Luís Antônio Da Rocha1

Received: 12 April 2023 / Revised: 9 May 2023 / Accepted: 11 May 2023

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Abstract
The preservation of the historical heritage of a locality is of paramount importance for the identity of a society to remain
alive, valuing knowledge of history, cultural and social elements, becoming a record for its successors. The Salinger house
is a listed heritage site in the city of Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil, a case study for the present work given the impor-
tance of knowing the materials and methods used in the construction so that its restoration can be carried out later. For this
reason, the aim of this study is to characterize the materials used in the masonry of this historic building from the twentieth
century and to evaluate the mechanical properties of walls built with the material. With that in mind, the ceramic blocks
were characterized as to their geometry, specific mass, water absorption and mechanical strength. In addition, for the mortar,
a mix used at the time was defined, without the addition of Portland cement, only with lime, whose mechanical behaviour
in tension and compression was measured. Finally, mechanical characterization tests were carried out on walls made with
these materials, demonstrating that the system built at the time did not have a structural function, being functioning only with
bearing capacity. This result was already expected since in the half-timbered constructions of the time, the blocks served
only as closing masonry.

Keywords Ceramic blocks · Heritage · Mechanical properties · Uniaxial compression · Stress strain

1 Introduction in the national territory. To the detriment of such reasons,

the preservation of these monuments, in addition to telling
With technological development and changes related to history, represent the evolution and development that that
habits, customs and human demands, civil construction has region has gone through.
accompanied all this evolutionary effect, mainly to make Over the years, historic buildings have become scarce
such changes indispensable. In this sense, countless new and less and less preserved in Brazil. With this, maintaining
buildings were and are built continuously over the years, the constructive works has become a discursive agenda in
thus making the urban environment with a great housing several axes, mainly so that Brazil does not lose its identity
effect. and keeps the works preserved.
However, having new buildings is a central part of the It is known that investments destined to the recovery
evolutionary concept, but it is questionable about what and maintenance of national historical heritage have been
actions have been taken with the historical heritage disposed reduced over the years. However, it is necessary to increase
investments in heritage preservation, especially in projects
* Natália Salamoni committed to sustainable development [14].
nasalamoni@gmail.com It should be noted that over the years old buildings tend
Gustavo Gutierrez de Oliveira Rodrigues to present vulnerabilities, resulting from the time of use, as
gustavogutierrez01@hotmail.com well as the degradation of materials. In this sense, it is of
Abrahão Bernardo Rohden vital importance that specific methodologies be adopted to
abrcivil@gmail.com achieve the proposed evaluation objective [10].
The adoption of methodologies requires knowledge of
1
Blumenau Regional University Foundation, PPGEA, the most varied aspects of the building, mainly regarding
Blumenau, Brazil

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the characterization of the materials used. Identifying the The choice of the site for the new facility had numerous
characteristics presented makes it possible to have a base of advantages, mainly because it was not included in an area
support for the revitalization of the construction, mainly by prone to flooding, because it was close to the Itajaí-Açu
allowing the reproduction of the materials used at the time River, in addition to its proximity to the cargo transported
of construction [11]. by navigation and the then Santa Catarina railroad.
With a similar aim, other researches have been carried The move from the headquarters to the new premises took
out aiming at the characterization of materials used in his- place around 1892. The new construction had characteristic
toric buildings for subsequent restoration [11] estudaram neoclassical features, which corresponded to a large part of
as características físicas e químicas das amostras de arga- the constructions found in the vicinity. Aspects related to the
massas e tijolos de barro da Igreja Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, use of noble materials, symmetries in facades, decorations,
localizada no centro de Aracati, estado do Ceará, Nordeste classic woods, and well-defined geometries made the build-
do Brasil. Além das características físicas e químicas, [1] ings present great exuberance (Fig. 2) [13].
investigaram a caracterização mineralógica de argamassas In full growth and in a location with privileged access,
históricas de Belém do Pará dos séculos XVIII e XIX. Salinger house has undergone expansions over the years,
Based on the information obtained in the characterization which have made the development more volumetric, in
of the materials, it becomes possible to restructure the build- addition to having a large built area. In this way, with each
ings that, for other reasons, showed wear and tear over time. expansion submitted, this development stood out in the
However, currently there is a great lack of information about city and contributed to growth in the localized region. For
the characteristics of the materials used in old constructions many years, Salinger house was one of the main commercial
in Brazil and which today are national heritage. In this way, hubs in Colonia Blumenau. However, with the advancing
it is necessary to characterize these for knowledge of the years and the increase in technological development, Salin-
materials used to enable the necessary maintenance, in addi- ger house, little by little, reduced its activities. Attributed
tion to the reasons for adopting these techniques. to these factors, the commercial concentration permeated
Due to the reduced availability of characterizations of to other parts of the city and with the passage of time and
historic building, this work aimed to characterize the blocks because it is a historic building, it became the Historical and
used in a construction and evaluate their performance against Cultural Architectural Heritage of Blumenau [13].
the insertion of loads in a masonry wall. With the imminent wear and tear of materials, together
with the effects of natural weather, the construction deterio-
rated over time (Fig. 3).
2 Case study presentation The weathering began to degrade the blocks, the frames
that contained glass lost their functionality, the structure no
The Salinger house is in the city of Blumenau, in the State of longer had useful security, that is, global security presented
Santa Catarina. Initially, the region of Blumenau was inhab- numerous difficulties.
ited by Indians, mainly on the banks of the Garcia stream Since 2003, Salinger house became part of the structure
and the Itajaí-Açu river. Around 1846, Doctor Hermann of the Blumenau Regional University Foundation (FURB),
Bruno Otto Blumenau immigrated from Germany in search which studies the elaboration of projects to enable means to
of knowing and verifying Brazilian conditions [13]. restructure and recover it. However, aspects related to high
In the mid-1850s, Doctor Blumenau obtained from the costs are still an obstacle to the continuation of activities.
Provincial Government areas that enabled him to establish
an agricultural colony, and with the development and exten-
sive work it would become the city of Blumenau. With the 3 Materials and methods
imminent arrival of German settlers, countless merchants
created businesses in the city, among them Gustav Salinger 3.1 Materials
and Peter Christian Feddersen, founders of one of the busiest
spots in the still Colonia Blumenau. They arrived in Blume- The masonry walls were composed of ceramic blocks
nau in the mid-1880s and worked very intensively exporting removed from the rubble next to the Salinger house in Blu-
inputs, until the creation of their first branch, Salinger house menau, Brazil, in addition to mortar consisting of lime and
(Fig. 1), located in the vicinity of the village of Altona, cur- water.
rent Itoupava Seca neighborhood [13].
With the advances seen in business and the expansion 3.1.1 Ceramic block
of branches, Salinger and Feddersen changed the address
of their first branch to the new headquarters, located in a Twenty whole ceramic blocks were removed from 10 differ-
region of rapid development with great business potential. ent points on the walls of a shed at the back of Casa Salinger,

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Fig. 1  Location of the studied area

Fig. 3  Construction deteriorated over time

Fig. 2  Side view of the Salinger House [13]

that accompanied the blocks (Fig. 5). Cleaning was car-

totaling 200 ceramic blocks (Fig. 4). Although the blocks ried out with the aid of sandpaper and a brush, so that
were removed from the rubble, care was taken to choose the the necessary materials could be carefully removed. This
most visually preserved blocks. cleaning was carried out very carefully, precisely with
After removing the samples, they were subjected to a the intention of not modifying the actual dimensions of
manual cleaning process to remove parts of the old mortar the blocks.

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Fig. 4  Location of withdrawal of samples from the collection points

Considering that the most used restoration mortars are

those with a 1:3 ratio due to the better workability of the
mortar and the fact that Portland cement is not used in the
composition, but lime [9], for the present study it was 1:3
ratio mortars prepared, proportion of lime to fine aggregate.
The lime used to compose the mortar was CH II. This
grade can absorb temperature variations and has good resist-
ance to factors such as rain, humidity, and wind actions.
Therefore, the mortar made with this lime can be applied
both indoors and outdoors.
For the fine aggregate, sand from the Itajaí-Açu river with
fineness modulus 2.4 and specific mass 2.65 g/cm3, available
in the heritage region, was used. Furthermore, the dry mate-
rials were mixed with water until they reached a consistency
index of (220 ± 10) mm. The water used comes from the
public supply network of the city of Blumenau.
Fig. 5  Samples from the collection point 3
3.2 Methods

3.1.2 Masonry mortar The methods used for the characterization of ceramic blocks,
mortars and masonry walls will be detailed.
Seeking to more accurately reconstitute the characteristics
of the materials used at the time of construction of the 3.2.1 Characterization of ceramic block
heritage, the trace reconstructions carried out in mortars
from Casa Salinger by [12] were analysed. In their study, The ceramic blocks were characterized in terms of their
the authors found that the mix composition of mortars was geometry, specific mass, water absorption and mechanical
between 1:3 and 1:6, proportion of binder to aggregate. strength according to the guidelines imposed by [8], which

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establishes some requirements for ceramic components for the consolidation table each, for later carrying out tests of
masonry. tensile strength in flexion and resistance to axial compres-
The geometric characterization of the ceramic blocks was sion at 28 days, carried out according to [2].
performed using a digital calliper with a minimum sensitiv-
ity of 0.05 mm. As the faces of the blocks had irregular
3.2.3 Characterization of ceramic block masonry
shapes, three measurements were taken in the three dimen-
sions of each ceramic block (length, width, and height),
Two masonry walls with 13 rows of 4 ceramic blocks were
and an arithmetic average was taken to determine the final
built in the FUBR materials laboratory, in accordance with
dimensions of each of the 20 blocks.
[4]. The mortar joints were executed with dimensions of
The specimens were dried in an oven at (105 ± 5) °C,
(15 ± 2) mm, according to the simulation of joints and joints
until the weights stabilized, to determine the dry mass.
with dimensions of specific use in the standard.
Afterwards, they were immersed in water at room tempera-
Both ends of the walls, upper and lower, were levelled
ture for 24 h. Then, they were removed and placed on the
by capping with Portland cement, to avoid localized cracks,
bench to drain excess water, and the wet mass of the blocks
making the site more resistant than the laying mortar.
was determined. Then, the submerged mass was determined
After 28 days of building the walls, they were tested for
by weighing the specimens submerged in water with the aid
uniaxial compression. For the test, metal beams were placed
of a scale with a basket.
on the upper capping to distribute the loads applied to the
The specific mass of the dry blocks (d) was determined
wall using the hydraulic jack. These loads were controlled
through the mass of the dry sample ­(ms), mass of the sample
by the hydraulic jack that had a meter clock in which it was
in the saturated surface dry condition ­(msat) and mass of the
possible to monitor the load applied manually.
submerged sample ­(msub) (Eq. 1).
Regarding the instrumentation for monitoring the defor-
ms mations acting on the structure, first two beacons were fixed
d=
msat − msub (1) on each wall using a medium fluidity epoxy-based structural
adhesive. The beacons were positioned from the third layer
With the dry mass (­ ms) and wet mass (­ mu) values, the of mortar on the lower base of the wall. Then, the deflec-
water absorption index (AA) of each specimen was deter- tometers were positioned from the third layer of mortar on
mined (Eq. 2). top of the wall (Fig. 6).
mu − ms The load measurements started at 2000 kgf, with load
AA =
ms
× 100 (2) increases of 500 kgf being established, always monitoring
the deformations shown in the deflectometers and analysing
Finally, 20 blocks were subjected to the axial compres- the cracks as they became evident.
sion strength test, in accordance with [6]. Thus, the blocks
were cut perpendicular to their largest dimension, overlap-
ping their largest faces, with the inverted surfaces bonded
with a thin layer of Portland cement paste, with a maximum
4 Results and discussion
thickness of 3 mm. After joining the blocks, their faces were
smoothed by capping with Portland cement paste, also with
4.1 Ceramic block
a maximum thickness of 3 mm. Before the resistance test,
4.1.1 Geometry
the specimens were immersed in a tank with water for 6 h.
Thus, the compressive strength (ft) of each specimen was
From measurements of the length, width and height of each
determined through the ratio between the breaking load (F)
block, the average dimensions of each set of blocks taken
by the load application area (S) (Eq. 3).
from a location were determined (Fig. 7).
F As observed, the results show some variability between
ft = (3)
S the dimensions found, with the greatest difference found in
the length dimensions. That said, the average dimensions of
length (Fig. 7a), width (Fig. 7b) and height (Fig. 7c) of the
3.2.2 Characterization of masonry mortar blocks resulted in values close to (260 ± 8) mm, (125 ± 5)
mm and (65 ± 6) mm, respectively.
The mortars were prepared by mixing the sand, lime, and According to the terminology and requirements imposed
water in a concrete mixer, until the mixture was completely by [4], ceramic blocks must be identified with the manu-
homogenized. Afterwards, prismatic specimens measuring facturer of the block, as well as the manufacturing dimen-
4 × 4 × 16 cm were moulded, in two layers with 30 falls from sions (width, height, and length). Still, the ordinance brings

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Fig. 6  Positioning of instrumentation on the walls

Fig. 8  Average specific mass of ceramic blocks

engraved on the body of the blocks are related to the fact

that the pieces are of an old handicraft characteristic
production, dated before the standardization of ceramic
Fig. 7  Average dimensions of ceramic blocks: length (a), width (b), blocks by INMETRO regulations.
and height (c)

4.1.2 Specific mass
standard measures for the blocks and dimensional tolerance
in relation to the measurements carried out. The specific mass was obtained from the values of dry
Comparing the results obtained with the INMETRO mass, saturated mass, and submerged mass of the blocks
guidelines, the blocks do not have the manufacturer’s identi- (Fig. 8).
fication, do not have the manufacturing dimensions engraved Through data analysis, it is observed that the specific
on their surface, do not correspond to the standard measures, mass of the heritage ceramic blocks ranged from 1.77 to
and do not respect the dimensional tolerance margin related 1.46 g/cm 3. These values are lower than the minimum
to the average of the effective dimensions of 3 mm. apparent specific weight of 18 kN/m3 (1.8 gf/cm3) that
It is believed that these non-conformities related to must be considered when calculating structures with solid
the dimensions of the blocks and the lack of information bricks, according to [5].

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4.1.3 Water absorption subsequent testing of resistance to axial compression, at 28

days (Table 2).
The water absorption test was carried out with the aim of As was already expected, because a mix with only lime
simulating the performance of the ceramic blocks exposed to and not Portland cement was used, the tensile and compres-
weather conditions, such as rain or another factor that results sive strengths of the mortars showed low values, with the
in water saturation conditions in the blocks. Thus, the water value of traction in flexion being lower than that of axial
absorption index of each block was determined from its dry compression. However, they were still higher than those
and saturated mass values (Fig. 9). found by [9] for mortars with a 1:3 ratio (lime:sand) that
The results show that the absorption index of the ceramic their studies obtained tensile strengths of 0.25 ± 0.03 MPa
blocks has values between 10.4 and 27.0%. As recommended and compression strengths of 0.5 ± 0.1.
by [3], the absorption index of each block should be between The average axial compression result of the mortar was
8 and 22%. Thus, the tested blocks respected the lower limit. subsequently correlated with the uniaxial compression test
However, regarding the upper limit, about 32% of the blocks of the masonry walls.
tested had their water absorption index higher than that rec-
ommended by the standard. 4.3 Ceramic block masonry

4.1.4 Compressive strength Before assembling the wall, the ceramic blocks were
immersed in water to absorb enough moisture so that the
For the test of resistance to axial compression, only two mortar did not lose mixing water to the blocks (Fig. 10).
samples were tested from each place where the blocks Two small walls of ceramic blocks with mortar joints
were removed, totalling 20 samples, since after the test the were executed. Wall 1 had 13 rows of masonry and dimen-
samples were discarded because it was a destructive test. sions of 108 × 12.5 × 96 cm. Wall 2 also had 13 rows and
After preparing the specimens, the samples were tested in dimensions of 106 × 12 × 97 cm. Blocks for building the
a hydraulic press, and the strength was obtained from the wall were chosen at random. Even with variations of its
ratio between the breaking load of each sample by the area physical and mechanical characteristics, randomness was
of application of this load (Table 1). chosen to better represent the historical construction. The
Through the analysis of the axial compression strength thickness of the mortar for laying the blocks was 1 cm.
values obtained, all samples of ceramic blocks have higher
strength values than 3.0 MPa presented in the [3], the aver- 4.3.1 Uniaxial compression
age strength being in the order of 5.6 MPa. Also, a high
resistance of 23.9 MPa was observed in only one of the The uniaxial compression test was then carried out after the
tested blocks, which may have come from the artisanal pro- mortar had cured (28 days) with the aid of a reaction beam
duction of the time, given the difficulty of technical control
of the production of the blocks.
Table 1  Compressive strength of blocks
4.2 Masonry mortar Block pick-up location Local average (MPa) Average (MPa)

1 4.205 5.509 ± 2.265

During the preparation of the mortars for the execution
2 4.225
of the walls in the laboratory, three prismatic specimens
3 8.715
were moulded for testing the tensile strength in flexion and
4 4.905
5 4.93
6 8.285
7 6.37
8 5.435
9 4.45
10 3.57

Table 2  Results of flexural Strength Average (MPa)

tensile strength and axial
compressive strength of mortars Tension 0.421 ± 0.165
Compression 0.873 ± 0.147
Fig. 9  Average water absorption of ceramic blocks

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blocks and the mortar. However, it is important to point

out that the blocks had a certain variation in the compres-
sive strength values, which must also have influenced the
final strength of the walls.

4.3.2 Stress strain

With the help of the deflectometers, it was possible to

correlate the stress versus the deformation presented by
each wall, as well as the deformations presented by each
of the two deflectometers placed on wall 1 (Fig. 11.a) and
on wall 2 (Fig. 11.b).
From the stress-strain curves, it was possible to observe
that wall 1 presented less deformation and fewer cracks,
however, the rupture load was also lower than that of wall
2, which presented greater deformations at low stresses
and reached higher rupture stress. These differences
Fig. 10  Ceramic blocks immersed in water
between the two walls may have occurred due to variabil-
ity in the mechanical properties of the materials, intrinsic
Table 3  First crack stress and wall rupture stress inconstancy of the material (ceramic block and mortar
Sample First crack stress (MPa) Rupture
set), internal cracks in the blocks, variation in the thick-
stress ness of the joints or lack of filling in the mortar joints,
(MPa) since that the materials that made up the walls, ceramic
blocks, and mortar, were the same.
Wall 1 1.11 1.41
Also, despite both walls having similar dimensions and
Wall 2 1.33 1.96
the number of joints and rows being the same, it was found
that possibly wall 1 had failed due to buckling, justifying
the large difference in results between the walls.
and hydraulic pump, allowing controlled loading of the walls Regarding the two deflectometers used on each of the
during the test. During the test, the first cracks were moni- walls, there is a similarity between the stress-strain curves
tored, as well as the rupture of the walls (Table 3). for the two deflectometers installed on wall 1. On the other
Based on the test, the walls suffered intense cracking dur- hand, the measurements taken by the deflectometers on
ing the application of the load. However, the cracks did not wall 2 were discrepant. However, the structural behaviour
appear before the application of 50% of the failure load. On of the wall was also different for each of its sides. Linear
wall 1, the stress of the first crack corresponded to about cracks were observed on both walls, with 15 cracks on wall
79% of the failure stress, while on wall 2 it occurred at about 1 and 14 cracks on wall 2 (Fig. 12).
68% of the stress. The right side of wall 2 (deflectometer 2) showed
Based on the values of the compression tests of the excessive deformations, greater than those on the oppo-
ceramic blocks and mortars, it is observed that the average site side. On the other hand, the behaviour registered by
rupture stress of the walls was 1.682 MPa. Comparing with deflectometer 1 indicated continuity between the elastic
the compression results of the ceramic blocks (5.593 MPa) phase and the shortening region, not presenting a flow
and the mortars (0.873 MPa), both walls presented inter- limit. Based on this, it is observed that the stress-strain
mediate compression stresses at rupture, being closer to the curve of the left region of the wall presents a brittle mate-
lower compression values of the mortars. rial behaviour, while the right region follows a standard
With this, it is understood that the mortars were probably behaviour of a ductile material. This may have occurred
the limiting factor in the compressive strength of the walls, due to the random choice of blocks that made up the wall,
since their resistance is closer to that of the walls, with the since the blocks have variations in their mechanical prop-
resistance of the walls being 1.9 times higher than that of erties, observed in the compressive strength. Furthermore,
the mortars and the resistance of the blocks 3.3 times higher it was possible to observe more cracks in the region of
than walls. deflectometer 2, corroborating the results presented in the
The breaking strength of the masonry walls were lower stress-strain curve of that wall.
than the average between the compressive strengths of the

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Fig. 11  Stress strain curves of wall 1 (a), and wall 2 (b)

Fig. 12  Wall 1 (a) and wall 2 (b) rupture

4.3.3 Modulus of elasticity to the elastic region of the material. For materials that do
not have a well-defined yield point, the modulus of elas-
The modulus of elasticity can be obtained from the angu- ticity is calculated through the correlation between the
lar coefficient of the stress–strain curve by inclining the stress and strain corresponding to the intersection point
straight line of the graph to the yield stress, corresponding

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Table 4  Determination of the Sample Modulus of Finally, regarding the stress-strain curve of the walls,
modulus of elasticity elasticity both showed characteristics of a ductile material, present-
(MPa) ing deformations before rupture, with cracks being observed
Wall 1 1.46
on the surface of the walls.
Wall 2 2.13
Thus, from the characterization of the walls and blocks
used in the building at the time of its construction, knowl-
edge was obtained for a possible future recovery of the site.

of a straight line parallel to the initial linear section of the

Author contributions All authors contributed to the conception and
diagram considering a strain of 0.2% [7].
design of the study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis
The modulus of elasticity of the walls had to be estimated were carried out by IGB and LAdR. The main text of the manuscript
from a deformation of 0.2% due to the difficulty in determin- was written by NS and GGdOR. ABR revised the manuscript. All
ing the yield level and the great variability obtained in the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
stress-strain curves (Table 4).
Funding The authors have not disclosed any funding.
Considering the values of modulus of elasticity, it is pos-
sible to observe that wall 2 obtained a higher stiffness value Data availability All data has already been made available.
when compared to wall 1. This may be related to the possible
rupture by buckling of wall 1, as mentioned before. Declarations
Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.

5 Conclusions

For the analysis of historic masonry, ceramic blocks from a References

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