IRG Documents Database and Compendium


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Growth conditions for fungal decay in wooden constructions – practical experience versus literature
2011 - IRG/WP 11-10758
Data regarding moisture and temperature requirements of decay fungi found in literature have been compared to experience from observations in a large number of Norwegian buildings. A number of selected situations are discussed, among those exposure to high relative humidity, exposure to free water and decay in the supposedly adverse conditions on Svalbard. The moisture content in wood has to be at...
M Sand Sivertsen, J Mattsson


Cobblestone Church in Gross Gievietz: Historic Wooden Construction and Potential for Conservation and Use
2011 - IRG/WP 11-10760
A majority of cobblestone churches situated in the German Federal State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern demonstrates immense construction deficiencies and are threatened by decay. The historic cobblestone church located in Groß Gievitz, built in the 13th century, is one such church in which the roof beam constructions have degraded considerably due to deficiencies in reconstruction measures. This paper d...
A Schulze, W Unger


Improving our understanding of moisture and other durability-related properties of wood in building envelope performance prediction
2011 - IRG/WP 11-20468
Building science has become an increasingly important field in recent years with rapid changes in construction methods, building materials and consumer expectations. The field has also been brought to prominence by a few large-scale premature building envelope failures in a few regions across the world. Considerable effort has been put into developing hygrothermal models to simulate heat, air, vap...
Jieying Wang, P Morris


Termite resistance of timber envelope treated with imidacloprid then modified by typical building site operations
2011 - IRG/WP 11-30570
Imidacloprid is a new envelope insecticide approved by Australian regulatory authorities for framing timber. It is a non repellent insecticide. Results are reported for timber envelope treated with imidacloprid and altered post treatment with typical building site operations to expose untreated surfaces. These modifications included, cutting, notching and drilling. Pinus radiata timber samples w...
K Day, A Siraa, P Lobb


In-situ experimental treatment and consolidation of degraded timber elements from a XIX century building
2012 - IRG/WP 12-10767
This paper presents the in situ experimental conservation work performed on three timber structural elements from a XIX century building: two floor beams and one roof beam. The palace was built in 1877 in the centre of Lisbon initially with residential purposes. It has four floors, with timber structural horizontal elements, stairs and roof beams (generally of Pinus sylvestris L.). The exterior wa...
D F Henriques, J de Brito, L Nunes


Durability of wooden shop-name signage coated with Urushi lacquer and gold leaf attached to the facade of building in Japan
2012 - IRG/WP 12-20493
Wooden shop-name signage plated with gold leaf is one of the characteristics of newly developed westernized commercial buildings appeared after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 in Japan. The signage still remains mainly in old districts. The signage with independent letters (Chinese character) shows off the name of the shop with golden colour on the façade of building. The number of these shops...
K Yamamoto, M Kiguchi


WOOD: its importance in our life
2012 - IRG/WP 12-40583
As it is described by Hoadley (1980) and Tsoumis (1991), wood is an organic material yielded by trees which increase in diameter by the formation of new woody layers which envelop the entire stem. Wood has served man since he appeared on Earth (as a fuel and/or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, paper, and artworks). It is important to appreciate th...
I Usta


Wood-leather panels – A biological, fire retardant building material
2012 - IRG/WP 12-40615
The poor flame retardant properties of wood-based products are among the severest obstacles, hindering its use in the commercial building sector. Recently, some attempts to improve the fire properties, relying on inflammable salts or reactive halogen compounds, have been presented, although they either cause problems with machining or embody harmful compounds (halogen derivates). In this paper, ...
S Wieland, U Stöckl, T Grünewald, S Ostrowski, A Petutschnigg


Communities of mold fungi on flooded building materials
2013 - IRG/WP 13-10799
A small building built to residential code was flooded using farmland pond water to a depth of two feet at Tuskegee University. The building was drained and left enclosed for an additional three weeks. A total of 168 material samples were removed either immediately after opening (wet) or seven months after flooding (dry). Wall materials sampled included fiberglass batt insulation, gypsum wallboard...
F Skrobot III, H Aglan, S V Diehl


Method for determining the critical moisture level for mould growth on building materials
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20530
The natural conditions of relative humidity (RH) and temperature (T) in different parts of a building is rarely constant over time. Instead, RH and T often vary cyclically and may pose a risk of mould growth as these conditions are the two key environmental parameters that controls mould growth. Consideration to both humidity and temperature conditions and the susceptibility to mould in a material...
A Ekstrand-Tobin, P Johansson, G Bok


A Vision of the Chilean Treated Wood Industry
2013 - IRG/WP 13-40619
Chile is an important actor in the world wide forestry industry, activity which represents 3,1% of the Gross National Product (GNP). The wood products sector, which includes pulp and paper, is the second source of export in Chile with USD 6,500 millions income per year. Native species are the main forestry source with 15,9 millions has., but the principal commercial activity is based on 2,3 mil...
F J Latorre, T A Hanke


Performance standards for wood in construction – delivering customer service life requirements
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20537
There is increasing need for consideration of performance classification for wood products in construction, as evidenced by the CPR, warranty providers and end user demands for information. This means we need to radically consider how the tests we conduct on wood for durability (especially biological durability) can inform on service life and how they might if possible be translated into a perform...
E Suttie, C Brischke, F Englund, E Heisel, J Jermer, D Lorenzo, M Polášek, S Thelandersson, J Van Acker


Nondestructive Detection of Biodeterioration in Indonesian Traditional Wooden Construction of “Joglo”
2014 - IRG/WP 14-10834
To decide the repairing and reinforcement method for wooden constructions, it is necessary to get the enough and precise information on the status of the construction beforehand, especially the distribution and the degree of the biodeterioration, such as decay or insect attack (e.g. termite attack). In this study, damage of biodeterioration to teak wood used in Indonesian traditional wooden const...
Y Yanase, T Mori, T Yoshimura, Y P Prihatmaji, J Sulistyo, S Doi


Performance classification of wood in construction – drafting a user friendly European standard
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20545
The performance classification for wood products in construction is an extremely important topic in Europe and beyond – warranty providers and end users demand service life and performance information in the face of competition with other materials. The European project PerformWOOD has formalised and drawn together the on-going research to focus on generation of a material resistance factor for ...
E Suttie, C Brischke, L Meyer, J Van Acker, M Kutnik, E Heisel, F Englund, J Jermer, S Thelandersson, M Polášek, D Lorenzo


Communities of mold fungi in moisture damaged building materials
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20542
The critical conditions needed for the development of mould and decay fungi have been modelled for different building materials. However, current knowledge of indoor microbes growing on building materials relies on culture-based methods and more advanced molecular biological techniques should be employed to study the complex microbial communities in building materials. In this paper molecular biol...
E Sohlberg, H Viitanen


The development of accelerated test systems to evaluate the durability of framing timber
2014 - IRG /WP 14-20547
Various accelerated decay resistance trials including small simulated wall units, samples exposed in enclosed tanks and ‘I’ samples in stacks have been explored and used to test the durability of treated and untreated radiata pine framing at Scion since 2001. These testing methods have been established to determine the effectiveness of commercial formulations in preventing decay in framing sub...
T Singh, D Page, J van der Waals


On-site remediation treatments for framing timber in leaky buildings
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20549
Weathertightness failures in New Zealand buildings due to the combined effects of cladding choices, design and construction faults and the use of untreated framing timber has led to the so called ‘leaky building syndrome’. The latest estimated cost of the leaky building crisis in New Zealand is about NZ$11 billion. This research was conducted to provide a better understanding of the option...
T Singh, D Page, A Bennett


Applicability of wood durability testing methods to bio-based building materials
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20561
It is well known that organic materials may be susceptible to attack from a range of fungal organisms and any bio-based material used in locations where there is the possibility of microbiological activity must be expected to be able to withstand or prevent such attack. There are a wide range of test methods and standards in place to test susceptibility although most of these test individual compo...
S F Curling, B K Stefanowski, E Mansour, G A Ormondroyd


Development of a rapid screening method to determine the susceptibility to mould growth of novel construction and insulation products
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20562
Wood-based materials are commonly used in building construction/insulation as a replacement for solid timber. However, these materials are susceptible to microbiological growth and different environmental conditions influence the vulnerability of wood-based materials. Moulds are a common problem found within homes and cause aesthetic damage, health problems and can increase material vulnerability ...
B K Stefanowski, S F Curling, E Mansour, G A Ormondroyd


Performance of bio-based building materials – viewpoints from the first year of COST Action FP1303
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20572
Maintaining and expanding the market potential for bio-based building products in indoor and outdoor construction uses remains a key activity for industries in the forestry and biotechnological sector, particularly in Europe. Whilst there are ongoing activities within IRG for collecting and populating a database on performance on wood, the performance data for many other (i.e. non-wood) "environme...
D Jones


Building solid foundations to support market growth of preserved wood in the UK – treatment quality, product approval and the largest national field trial of preservative treated wood in 50 years
2015 - IRG/WP 15-30662
The Wood Protection Association (WPA) has just commissioned Britain’s largest ever durability trial of home grown timber, having contracted Building Research Establishment (BRE) to conduct a long term controlled field trial of sawn and pressure treated British Softwood posts at two sites with differing soil conditions. This large scale Field Trial is the last of an innovative and substantial thr...
E Suttie, G Ewbank


Termite Management and the U.S. Experience: A Case for Wood Treatment & Integrated Control
2015 - IRG/WP 15-30678
A brief overview of termite control is given using specific experiences from the U.S.A. Five major types of termite treatment now prevail: soil applied chemical barriers, in-structure chemical barriers (in-situ applied wood and foundation treatments), physical barriers, treated wood and termite baits. In general, ‘stand-alone’ pretreatments or ‘primary’ treatments are often discussed and ...
J D Lloyd, K van den Meiracker


Termiticide Residues in Building Foundation Aggregate Fills After Trench and Surface Applications
2015 - IRG/WP 15-30679
Termiticide concentrations (ppm) in aggregate fill were determined by measuring active ingredient (a.i.) residues of two pyrethroid termiticides, Up-Cyde Pro® 2EC-cypermethrin, and BaseLine® EC-bifenthrin, at 24.0 hours, and then at 6.0- and 12.0-months after ‘horizontal’ surface applications, perimeter ‘trenching and rodding’ applications, or ‘rodding only’ trench applications at lo...
B M Kard, C E Koneman, K T Shelton, C C Luper, R A Grantham


Modelling the performance of bio-based building materials
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20582
The ‘bio-based economy’ represents a growing area of development globally and covers a wide range of building materials including wood and wood-based products. A ‘bio-based’ material is intentionally made from substances derived from living (or once-living) organisms. In this context it means that the materials and products are made from renewable resources, with the criteria that a renewa...
C Brischke


The durability of manufactured structural building materials
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40718
The projected market potential for Engineered Wood Products such as CLT (cross laminated timber) is very positive however, potential prolonged rain leakage or moisture exposure during construction and in-service could pose considerable concern for its durability and reputation. This research was conducted to assess the decay resistance of CLT and OSB (oriented strand board) in an accelerated trial...
T Singh, D Page


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