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• Mortars sustainability was reviewed through a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. • Results normalization improved the feasibility to compare diverse LCA studies. • Global warming potential category is strongly affected during mortars production. • Conventional binders' replacement by secondary resources alleviates mortars impacts. The in-depth research on efficient processes and alternative constituents for mortars production has a lack on the quantification of their environmental impacts. This work presents a critical review of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies performed in the construction sector, namely related to mortars. The gaps and barriers of these methods and final results are discussed through an overview of the main achievements on mortars' environmental life cycle studies in Europe. Despite the future trends, LCA studies are more focused on cement-mortars and few researches on air lime, gypsum or earth mortar binders are reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents an expert system to support the inspection and diagnosis of gypsum plasters applied to partition walls and ceilings (inner gypsum plasters – IGP). This system includes the classification of the defects that may affect IGP and their probable causes, which is complemented by the correlation matrices between defects, and between defects and probable causes. It is completed by a classification of the diagnosis methods and the repair techniques suitable for each IGP defect. Individual files containing a complete characterization of defects, diagnosis methods and repair techniques are also exemplified. This inspection system was validated through standard inspections of 119 IGP applied in walls or ceilings in 23 buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]