2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Not a single summer cottage is complete without wood materials. Even if the main buildings are made of a different material, there is still a very wide list of objects, the creation of which cannot be done without wood. This can be a wooden fence, a canopy for gardening tools, pergolas, wooden flooring, posts or boards for framing flower beds and beds. Maintaining a beautiful appearance and preserving the shape of wooden summer cottages can only be done with good protection of wood materials. They must be protected not only from moisture, but also from damage by rot and fungi
Constructive protection
Of course, the main enemy of wood is moisture. But the degree of its harmfulness depends on the duration of exposure to moisture on the material. That is, it is necessary to create conditions under which moisture can dry quickly without harming the tree.
Protection against rising moisture
There is no absolutely dry land. Even during dry periods, we add water ourselves, watering the beds and flower beds. If the beds are framed with wooden boards, then moisture from the ground penetrates from below into the boards and rises up along them. To prevent such movement, it is necessary not to create direct contact of the wood with the ground.
Building a solid foundation
If a wooden structure is built on a solid foundation, for example, we are building a wooden shed on a concrete foundation, then the wood is laid on a waterproof bitumen layer.
When constructing a canopy for a motorcycle or a car, or a pergola, the posts are fixed in concreted anchors so that a gap of at least 2 centimeters remains between the base of the post and the surface of the concrete support. This makes it possible to avoid direct contact of the wooden end with the ground and allows the wood to dry better after moistening.
Drainage device
If our timber structure is being built without a foundation, and direct contact with the ground cannot be avoided, drainage can be arranged. For example, this situation arises during the construction of a wooden fence, when the pillars are fixed directly in the ground; or when framed by small columns of flower beds.
To prevent the movement of moisture from the soil up the pillar that destroys the wood, you need to build a small drainage from a layer of gravel and easily drying sand, on which a wooden support is installed. It will be even more reliable if such drainage is arranged from the sides of the support. Then rainwater will quickly pass through the drainage layer, without creating dangerous contact of wood directly with moist soil.
Protection of wooden structures from the abyss of heaven
When protecting wooden structures from rainfall, the properties of the tree species from which they are made must be taken into account. After all, there are tree species that nature itself has well protected from the adverse effects of moisture and all kinds of pests.
The Almighty, creating trees and endowing them with a life longer than herbaceous plants, provided them with such protective forces as wood oil, resin, tannin - tannic acid.
But even the resin does not always cope with the protection on its own. For example, pine and spruce, whose wood contains resin, is almost not moisture resistant. Therefore, pine and spruce timber structures have to be additionally protected from moisture.
And such tree species as cedar or teak, the wood of which is impregnated with oil, in most cases does not need additional protection, coping with moisture on their own.
To protect moisture from heaven, wooden supports are covered from above with protective caps made of plastic or metal, which, in addition to protecting against moisture, also perform a decorative function.
In connection with the different reaction to moisture of wood species, protective equipment is created, designed specifically for certain types of species. But we'll talk about this in the next article.
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