BENICARLO'S PALACE

Nicola (left) and the team during an essay with the penetrometer

This week we have visited a beatiful palace in Benicarlo (2 hours north from Valencia) from the 18^th Century. Fernando Vegas and Camillla Mileto, in my opinion, two of the greatest architects, recommended us to spend some time there because this week a team from the “Italian National Research Council” specialized in the non-destructive proof and assessment of the ancient timber would be there. We spent the whole day with the Italian team and watched and learnt how they perform their work, Maria Diodato, one of the members, was our host. I took some notes and pictures which are roughly summarized below.

Here the summary of how they asses the structural timber elements.

• First of all they measure the timber element, the cross section, the length, position, etc. Then they indentify the visual defects such as the knots in wood and their dimensions, the direction of the grain and so on. Nicola, the director of the team, taught me why the importance of the position of the knots in a structural element and how to know the effects of that.
• Before they start to use the “Penetrometer” they check the sound of the element hitting it with a rubber hammer (with the practice you can distinguish the sound of the sound timber, they say). In those places where the timber is internal damaged they use the penetrometer to calculate the resistant cross section of the element. The penetrometer consists in a “drill device” which pushes a kind of steel needle in the timber, the resistance of the needle to go through the timber gives a graphic where you can see the resistance of the cross section. With this device you can also evaluate the heads of the beams embedded in walls.
• Other device they use is the Hygrometer. They use it in the heads of the beams to see the inner humidity of the timber. Usually, if it is below of the 20% the timber is sound and if it is above is pretty easy to find fungi or xylophagous.

Using the Hygrometer at the embedded head of the joist

When you put all the results together you have to use the European Code to get, according to the corresponding table, the strength values for that type of wood. I remember that the American NDS has similar evaluations of the existing timber.

It is amazing how they do it, they checked every single wood element beams, joists, rafters, … They also have index cards of each one with the data they get.

Hall of the palace. Imperial stair at the background

The palace itself is gorgeous, it has an original eigtheen century kitchen, with decorative tiled walls, that is one of the best preserved in the Valencian Community and in Spain. See some pictures of the palace. I forgot to mention that the town of Benicarló has terrific beaches, weather and artichokes :)

Decorated tiled walls in the kitchen