Arucas Stone (Piedra de Arucas) is a welded tuff quarried in the town of Arucas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Archipelago. This rock has been quarried for centuries, not only for building but also for many other purposes, such as manufacturing water cisterns or conduits, and especially for carving. The quarrying and economic activity related to this stone have profoundly shaped the history and economy of the city of Arucas, in terms not only of extraction, but also of a highly valued local artisan tradition of stone carving. Immigrants from the Canary Islands even brought this stone to several countries in South America, where it was used to erect numerous important architectural heritage sites. Nowadays, this stone is only quarried in two areas, even though it is often required for the restoration and rehabilitation of historical buildings. Its special characteristics, and, above all, its historical importance, make this stone a prime candidate for Global Heritage Stone designation.
Roofing slates are a category of building stones which have a very distinctive feature: High fissility, which allows them to be split into tiles that are thin, regular and large. There are several types of roofing slates, depending on their lithology. The four main lithologies are low-grade slates, slates stricto sensu, phyllites, and mica-schist. Occasionally, other rocks such as quartzites, serpentinites, or shales, can also be used as roofing slates. Roofing slates must ensure waterproofing, a quality that depends on both the rock and the installation. Installation must therefore take into account parameters such as the pitch, orientation, and overlap of the tiles in order to avoid capillarity, which could jeopardize waterproofing. These parameters are usually included in installation manuals. However, despite the fact that roughness is a parameter known to have an important effect on capillarity, it has never been thoroughly analyzed. Roughness varies depending on the type of roofing slate, but installation manuals do not take this factor into account. This study has measured surface roughness in different types of roofing slates using a laser scanner and determined the capillarity values along and across the grain direction. Furthermore, the role of dissolved salts in capillarity has likewise been studied.
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