Book excerpt: The book examines advanced, non-standardized techniques that have been developed for determining different properties of cement paste, mortar and concrete, and provides state-of-the-art information on methods for monitoring hydration-induced changes in cement-based materials (CBMs). These methods are often nondestructive and allow quasi-continuous monitoring covering the time span from placement of the material to formation of a fully hardened cement composite. The book also presents various applications of acoustic emission for characterizing fresh concrete, recent developments in ultrasonic methods for characterizing CBMs since placement, application of ambient response methods for measuring elastic modulus, methods for determining deformational characteristics of CBMs since setting and methods for in situ measurements of stresses in concrete elements during hardening.