ABSTRACT
Material properties of elements in existing structures including the historic ones are typically tested for design or redesign and safety assessment purposes. Design and redesign process of historic structures is often supported with various standards for testing of material and structural characteristics. This chapter analyzes possibilities of use of destructive or non-destructive methods for testing historic structures, the questions of transformation of experimental data into design values as well as sampling of material extracted from the historic structures. Non-standard testing of mortar and stone on small size specimens is shortly presented in order to complete the portfolio of common building historic materials. The material tests on small specimens gave strengths between 8-10 MPa, that is, two times higher compared to the best brick material, which proved that the tiles were in a very good condition. In-situ, the full saturation of the material during every cycle is not realistic, especially in steep roofs.
