How To Choose An Antiseptic For Home Treatment?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Building your own home is extremely exciting and very enjoyable. That's just in order for the beloved house to serve faithfully as long as possible, it is important to choose a good and high-quality antiseptic for its processing. Modern store counters invariably delight us with an abundance of a wide variety of antiseptics, but how to determine which one will be the best?

It's important to know

In order not to miss the mark with the choice of a suitable antiseptic, it does not hurt to know that different parts of a house under construction differ in a completely different degree of risk. In accordance with the currently used internationally recognized standards, all wood used in construction is divided into five risk classes, called HC (Hazard Classes). Since the highest, fifth class is relevant exclusively for marine construction, it makes sense to dwell in more detail only on the first four.

1 class. This includes interior finishes and any wood elements located on the upper floors of the home that have not been incorporated into the baseboards and outer walls. Despite the fact that wood in these places is subject to only short-term condensation of water vapor or short-term moisture, without proper protection it can become an excellent target for attacks by various insects.

Grade 2. This includes the floor beams of the first floor, wooden valleys, as well as shingles for roof tiles and ceiling beams built into the outer walls of the upper floors. If the moisture level in these areas is above twenty percent, the wood can be affected by harmful insects or fungus.

Grade 3. The third class includes enclosing structures (not in contact with the soil surface), platbands, as well as external doors and all windows. This wood is under the threat of constant and sufficiently strong moisture, therefore, it largely needs high-quality protection from fungus, as well as from mold and from insects.

4th grade. Plank floors in baths, any walkways, elegant garden furniture and all load-bearing wooden frames - all these structures belong to the fourth class. This also includes any wooden elements that are in direct contact with water or soil. This type of wood requires the most reliable protection.

Types of antiseptics

Currently produced antiseptics are divided into two independent types: film-forming or impregnating. The former can be both opaque (they are also called opaque), and transparent (or glaze), and the latter can be made both on an organic and on a simple water base. Both types perfectly tint wood, but at the same time their main characteristics differ somewhat: film-forming agents reliably protect wooden structures treated by them from abrasion and from any other mechanical influences, as well as from moisture and ultraviolet radiation, and impregnating agents perfectly protect against fungus and give wood the ability to "breathe".

Impregnating preparations can be safely used in the interior, as they do not have an unpleasant odor. As a rule, these are priming antiseptics. Gradually absorbing into the surface layers of wood, such products endow the treated areas with the ability to resist the formation of blue and the most unpleasant fungal mold, as well as repel water that falls on them. Such antiseptics are applied using a spray, a good roller or a convenient brush.

True, this is just the first stage in ensuring proper protection - a biocide without a protective film can easily evaporate, quickly wash out, and sometimes decompose under the influence of direct UV rays. That is why it is strongly recommended to cover the primed areas with a film-forming agent. Antiseptic primers significantly increase adhesion, increasing the service life of the finish coat and reducing the consumption of the composition used. Today, the most popular among them are Valtti Aquabeys and Valtti-Pohjuste from the popular manufacturer Tikkurila, Vivaprotect from the Latvian brand Vivacolor, domestic Senezh Ecobio, etc.

When it comes to choosing a suitable topcoat, it depends entirely on the requirements for aesthetics and, of course, reliability. Film-forming (that is, glazing) agents form a thin transparent film on the wood, which makes it possible to emphasize all the beauty of building materials. However, this film cannot boast of high stability, so from time to time it will have to be updated. The best glazing coatings are considered to be products equipped with a UV filter - under such a reliable protective layer, the wood will not fade. These include "Senezh Aquadecor", as well as "Valtti Aquacolor" or "Pinotex Natural" and some others.

And such covering preparations as the Finnish Woodex Aqua Solid or Vinha from the well-known manufacturer Tikkurila are much more durable, but they completely hide the amazingly beautiful wood texture.

When choosing an external antiseptic, preference should be given to drugs belonging to the class of indelible or difficult to wash, and if necessary, preserving the construction site for the winter, it will not hurt to treat the wood with high-quality non-film-forming antiseptics of the so-called intermediate protection - they will allow the tree to "breathe".