THE DECAY OF WOODWORK OUT OF DOORS.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 38, 23 February 1884, Page 7

THE DECAY OF WOODWORK OUT OF DOORS.

How to prevent the decay of woodwork exposed in open air to the changes of the weather, to alternations of wet and dry, heat and cold, is a problem that has taxed the ingenuity of man everywhere, and particularly in new countries, where wood is the only material available, or at least the only one easily employed in the erection of buildings. Most timbers, worms and insect enemies apart, will last a long time if kept constantly dry or constantly wet in an equable atmosphere ; but they will not long resist the effects of constant alternations from dry to wet and from wet lo dry. More especially is this the case where the wood is placed in the ground, as in the cage of the mani rams of wooden houses, of posts for railings, &c. Charring, painting, or tarring the surface of the wood is often adopted ; but these remedies, even if always applicable, do not always produce successful results. They need to be continually renewed, and they certainly do not preserve the wood from the disease known as dry-rot. This is fortunately a rare case of decay in the Colonies, being due generally to defective ventilation, a fault which tim-ber-built houses in the Colonies do not labour under. The decay of wood embedded in the earth is also difficult to guard again bt ; but a simple precaution, costing neither money nor labour, will increase the durability of posts put in the ground by fifty per. cent. This is simply by taking care that the wood is inverted — i.e. placed in the opposite direction to that in which it grew. Experiments have proved that oak posts put in the ground in the same position sts that in which they grew, top upwards, were rotten in twelve years, while their neighbours, cut from the same tree, and placed top downwards in the soil, showed no signs of decay for several years afterwards. It is supposed that the capillary tubes in the tree are so adjusted as to oppose the rising of moisture when the wood is inverted. Whatever the cause, the fact is one of importance, not only in the Colonies, but at Home also.