Timber preservation

Protecting & preserving timber

The protection and preservation of joinery and structural timbers is essential to the success and longevity of almost every building. This is usually achieved by ensuring the timber components are protected from moisture and remain too dry for insects or fungi to colonise them and begin the process of biodegradation. 

In some circumstances, it can be anticipated that wood will become wet. Where this is the case, the type of wood chosen for exposed situations can be critical. Some wood/timber is far more durable than others and this natural resistance to wood rot and wood destroying insects is important to understand.

Paints, preservatives and coatings can be used to protect and prolong the life expectancy of wooden components. These can be used in manufacturing processes, as part of a maintenance programme or retrospectively to help slow decay or eradicate insect infestation. In so doing, they provide an opportunity to preserve timbers. 

Even the best preserved buildings suffer from timber decay

Even the best maintained and cared for buildings inevitably suffer with the ravages of time, weather and events. This often results in high levels of water in places that it should not be. Timbers that were once preserved, are then at risk of decay. Whether it be an ancient windmill affected by woodworm, a stately home where dry rot has taken hold or the floor of a terraced house where just are decayed by cellar fungus; the retention, preservation and protection of the structure and the timber elements that are susceptible to degradation can and should be retained, repaired and sympathetically restored. 

The retention of every bit of a timber structure affected by insect attack or fungal decay may not be possible, economically justifiable or safe, but with the correct skills, knowledge, equipment, tools and experience; timbers can and should be retained, saved and protected.