Wooden buildings have their own properties and expected lifespan, much like buildings made using other materials. In order for that lifespan to be as long as possible, we have to understand the properties of wood as a building material. It is renewable and eco-friendly, but prone to decay and attacks from various fungi and moulds. Those fungi and moulds have some common properties such as the fact that they thrive in environments with high humidity (from 30 % to 60 %) and temperatures between 23 °C and 30 °C. Wood has its own natural resistance to mould, but for economic reasons we want to improve it. Best known procedure for improving wood%s natural resistance is impregnation with biocides. Another procedure that emerged recently is thermal modification, which promises very good results. If we wish to keep humidity below critical level, we have to measure it. That can be done with various gauges. Most well-known ones are resistive. On objects of Franja Partisan Hospital and the hut in Mozirski gaj we used the Gigamodule gauge with a Thermofox data logger manufactured by Scanntronik. Both objects are made from spruce wood. Franja Partisan Hospital is located in a narrow valley, right next to running water; it is built from impregnated wood, while the hut in Mozirski gaj from thermally modified wood, with the exception of 2 small elements built from impregnated wood. Those 2 buildings were used as a direct comparison between impregnated and thermally modified wood. We found that humidity of thermally modified wood is lower than that of impregnated wood, which means that we can expect its lifespan to be longer
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