Water content inside building materials (plaster, brick, stone) is usefull to evaluate their decay level. Passive and active termography are compared, in order to define the most reliable procedure, firstly to map the moisture diffusion and secondary to evaluate the moisture content in the surfaces. Laboratory researches carried out in the last decades and scientific literature permitted to determine that the superficial decay in porous materials is more related to the evaporative speed of the surfaces and the presence of soluble salts than to their absorption capability. Moreover, evaporative fluxes were studied at different environmental conditions and water content in order to find out a correlation between moisture content, evaporation and boundary conditions. The thermal characteristics of timber are highly different from the characteristics of porous materials such as brick and stone and mortar, particularly the thermal capacity of wood is lower. Nevertheless, because of the lower heat capacity of wood, the presence of water greatly affects the wood thermal capacity: the active procedure, guarantees the best results. Lab tests and study case permit to evaluate the sensitivity of the method
