In the recent period, many studies have confirmed that the service life of wood in outdoor applications depends on inherent durability and the ability of the wood to remain dry. This means that the wood does not get wet during rain events, however if it does, wood should dry out quickly. In the respective study, we focused on tests that highlight wood water-relations, predominately short-term absorption of water, and contact angles of water on wood. These tests are used already to evaluate the water performance of wood. We used 22 different materials that were installed on the model object of the Department of Wood Science and Technology. One part of the materials was thermally modified, the part treated with waxes and the part impregnated with copper ethanolamine preservatives. Half of the samples were artificially aged according to the SIST EN 84 standard. We exposed the samples to different relative air humilities and determined wood moisture, contact angles and short-term absorption of water. In addition, correlation between the results was performed. We have confirmed that the water performance of wood with different moisture content is not uniform, and it depends on applied biocides, modification and other treatments... The contact angles of the water on the aged samples are different in comparison with those on the non-aged samples depending on the different wood moisture content. Thermally modified samples exhibited the best correlation between the obtained results.
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