scope:

Introduction

The Guideline VDI 3798 Part 1 Examination and Treatment of Materials Damaged by Immissions, particularly those in Historo-Cultural Objects provides Instructions on how to examine or treat objects of cultural and historical value (usually monuments). For each examination and treatment a number of facts, informations and fmdings need to be collected and documented so that they are still available many years afterwards and a renewed collection of data is avoided. This need for documentation of all collected data is stressed several times in the Guideline VDI 3798 Part 1. The Charta of Venice [1] and the Ger¬ man State laws on the conservation of monuments [2] likewise call for the documentation of all collected data.

The present Guideline presents a documentation procedure which spells out the minimum requirements placed on the recording of data that concem the treatment of damaged objects of cultural and historical value. Experts in all concemed fields co-operated to put the Guideline together taking Guideline VDI 3798 Part 1 [5] into consideration.

The presented documentation procedure systematically lists all informations or observations which need to be documented. Because it is not a chronological procedure the sequence in the provided checklist does not reflect the sequence that is pursued in practice.