Welcome to Issue 002 of The Concrete Corner – February 2026.
Issue 001 examined how aggressive urban runoff attacks concrete from the outside accelerating carbonation, surface spalling, and chemical degradation. Issue 002 turns to an equally destructive and far more common threat: the moisture that rises silently from below.
Rising damp is groundwater moving upward through porous masonry and concrete via capillary action. It asks no permission. It respects no finish. It carries dissolved salts that crystallize within pores, blister plaster, peel paint, corrode embedded reinforcement, and weaken mortar bonds over time. The faint tide mark at skirting level, the powdery white deposit along a wall base, the bubbling paint after a wet season ;these are not cosmetic defects. They are early evidence of continuous moisture ingress that no amount of repainting will stop, because the capillary pathway remains active beneath the surface.
Rising damp is not a theoretical risk. It is a daily construction reality. Yet it persists largely because it is misdiagnosed, under-detailed at design stage, and poorly executed on site. The result is recurring repairs, declining durability, and buildings that cost far more to maintain than they should.
This issue addresses rising damp systematically: its mechanisms, the design and site failures that allow it to take hold, and the interventions ; chemical, structural, and procedural ;that can stop it permanently. We also examine binder selection, admixtures, and curing practices that reduce porosity from the outset, making moisture management a core durability requirement rather than a remedial afterthought.
Engineers, contractors, supervisors, and building owners: the tools to prevent rising damp are well established. This issue puts them in your hands.
Happy Reading
The Concrete Corner Team
Eco Concrete Ltd
[email protected]
+256 772 435 763, +256 0781 994 833
