The vast majority of wood from Slovenian forests is not durable, so it decays (too) quickly if used in outdoor applications. When we use wood for commercial purposes, we want to slow degradation processes down as much as possible. In the respective study, wood from selected native species (Picea abies, spruce bark beetle damaged wood, Abies alba, Pinus sylvestris, European larch, Larix decidua, Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus and Robinia pseudoaccacia) was impregnated with a copper-ethanolamine biocide product or thermally modified. The samples were then exposed to the field test site of the Department of Wood Science and Technology in Ljubljana, where decomposition was assessed annually. The samples of hornbeam and beech decayed the fastest. The exposed hornbeam and beech wood started to decay a year before the reference spruce wood, and the decay at larch and pine heartwood was determined a year later. The first decomposition on the spruce appeared after two years. The best-performing wood was black locust. The impregnation successfully protected softwood species but was less successful for beech and hornbeam wood. Thermal modification proved to be a successful protection process for all species tested.
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