FAQ'S ABOUT WOOD

When the wood protection peels off ’before time’, it is often because of humidity in the construction or inadequate preparation. If you use a film forming product on wood with a raised moisture level, the moisture will create a pressure from within the wood, and push off the wood protection. Typically this will appear more quickly, if you
have applied wood protection on wood, where you have not cleaned the wood, so that there were still dead wood fibres on the surface.

The tape test can be used for two different purposes:

1) Check wood for dead wood fibres.
2) Check if the existing coating adheres to the wood.

Use a transparent tape with good adhesion. Press the tape firmly onto the surface and rip it off. Assess the back
of the tape. If there are visible wood fibres, the surface was not cleaned sufficiently before applying wood protection.

Applying wood protection on horizontal surfaces, is probably one of the biggest challenges. This is du to the heavy impacts that horizontal surfaces are exposed to. Especially two conditions are vital: 1) the weather 2) the mechanical impact from the foot traffic on e.g. a wooden deck. A horizontal surface is 100% exposed, when it
rains, snows, freezes or melts several times during the day, or when the sun is shining (UV-rays).

Depending on which side of the equator you live, the direction towards the sun’s orbit will always be more exposed. In the Norhtern hemisphere, south and west facing wood is highly exposed. It is also a well known fact that the closer you are to a sandy beach, the more quickly the wood protection will degrade. This is caused by the wind carrying sandgrains through the air and thus acting like sanding paper.

All types of wood are exposed to risks resulting from UV-rays. UV-rays expose the wood for degradation and drying.

Heat treated (Thermowood®) wood provides a protective effect without the use of chemicals. The wood is heated in industrial plants to temperatures around 200°C (in the entire cross section of the wood). Wood mainly consists of three chemical agenst: lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, where the latter is the one that absorbs
the most moisture. When using heat treatment, a degradation and transformation takes place - mainly of the hemicellulose, which makes the wood less moisture absorbant. The wood becomes more stable and more
resistant to fungal attacks. The heat treatment causes the wood to change to a darker shade. Heat treated wood only needs treatment with a preservative, if there is a risk of termite attacks.

If untreated wood is left outside, it will very quickly be attacked by bacteria and micro fungi, which are a part of the wood’s natural degradation process. In the beginning it is not visible, but the wood becomes more porous and absorbes more water. This creates excellent conditions for more fungal growth. Over time the attack
becomes more and more visible in the shape of dark discolouration of the entire wooden surface or black incrustations on the surface, which resemble normal dirt. If you have an outdoor wooden surface, which has
been left untreated for a longer period of time, it will be wise to disinfect the surface, before applying wood protection.

In general this can be caused by 2 things:

1) During application of a water based product, the humidity has been high, and this will prolong the drying time.
2) The second - and more complicated factor - is the wood species.

Some wood species contain a ”resin”, which has a chemical reaction with the wood protection. This process can prolong the drying time.This applies to e.g. Teak, Iroko, Western Red Cedar and Larch.

The wihite rings or spots are either caused by water, or that the surface has not completely hardened. Normally this takes at least 3 weeks. We recommend that you do not clean or use/spill water on the floor for the first week after application.

”There is a wide range of signals that indicate wood has been damaged, including holes, sawdust, noises coming from within the wood, depressed soil, dead insects found next to windows, etc. Both the insect
and the type of damage produced, or the appearance or size of larvae are useful to identify the type of treatment required.

• Large woodworms leave oval, 5 to 10 mm (diameter) flight holes. A dull noise heard when knocking on wood can be a sign of attack. If larvae are inside, it is possible to hear the noise they make while feeding. Their tunnels are near the surface. Adult larvae are 13 to 30 mm long and of light colour.

• Fine woodworms make many round, 1,1 to 3 mm (diameter) flight holes. Their tunnels have an irregular shape and contain dust and excrements. Adult larvae are white and 4 to 6 mm long.

• Moths make holes similar to those made by fine woodworms (diameter of approx. 1.6 mm). Their tunnels mainly follow the grain. Larvae are white and 4 to 6 mm long.

• Termites attack (coniferous and nonconiferous) wood and other materials, such as textiles, paper and even plastics.Termites open interior galleries leaving an outer, 1 to 2 mm thick shell intact. They make no noise when feeding on the wood. Termites are 4 to 6 mm long.

Remove grease, dirt etc. with a suitable detergent. Lime- and soap residues can be removed with 32 % acetic acid diluted 1:3 with water. Rinse with clean water. Sand the surface matt with fine sandpaper (grit 120-180) and remove the sanding dust. The surface should now be clean, dry and solid. Floors with old, worn down varnish, polished and waxed floors, must be sanded down to clean wood surface. Plane and vacuum.

When mounting hardwood, you need to pre-drill screw holes and countersink the screws.This is particularly important, when using corrosion resistant screws, which are easily screwed in too hard resulting in the heads of the screws falling off. We recommend to place the screws at least 50 mm from end grain to avoid cracks and splits.

• Depending on the degree of wood degradation after stripping, in addition to sanding, it may be necessary to rough-grind damaged parts and to replace them with healthy wood.

• The dosage applicable to curative treatments is always higher (always follow instructions given on the container label).

• For beams and joists larger than 10x10 cm, bore holes (diameter: 8-10 mm; depth: 2/3 of timber width) from top to bottom. Inject treatment product until saturation. Product can also be injected in the insects’ flight holes (1 every 3 cm).

• Once treatment is finished, fill holes and cracks using putty.

Some wood species contain water soluble elements or tannins, which can cause disolouration of the surface, when impacted by water. If e.g. you treat teak or oak with a waterbased, opaque white wood protection, the water from the wood protection will dissolve the pigments in the wood and cause discolouration on the surface.

We recommend to clean your wooden cladding once a year with a suitable cleaning agent. If wood protection is peeling or cracking (see item 2.3 Tape Test), you will need to sand the peeling surface, clean and then apply a maintenance coat.

If you have used wax on a surface, you can only apply wax on top of wax - no other top coats can be used.