When deciding to build a house from logs or timber, the first thing to do is to find out exactly from which forest (winter or summer) the house will be built (the same goes for ready-made options). It is worth noting that when building a house from cedar or another type of wood, the fact at what time of the year the material was harvested is important.
The wood that is harvested winter time, is valued much higher, as it has a number of features, unlike the summer one. If you are planning to build a durable, strong house, then you should give your preference to the winter forest.
Purchasing material for cedar houses or hand-cut bathhouses on your own, it is worth knowing a few signs of the difference between a winter forest and harvested material at another time. This article will present a small list of differences with which you can independently distinguish a winter forest from a summer one.
1. Selecting the season for purchasing raw materials. For example, you decide to buy material in October. If consultants assure you that the material is winter felling, you should immediately think about it. With a high probability, you are being told false information, since by the autumn the harvesting of winter timber for most manufacturers is already over.
2. Worth paying Special attention on the ends of the logs, on their shade. The ends of the winter forest have a lighter shade than in the summer or during the rainy season. If you find dirty marks or dried pieces, this is clearly a summer harvest. The winter forest is taken out in the snow, so it is clean and in bark. The summer forest is taken out on the ground from this it turns out to be peeled from the bark and dirty.
3. Cuts on logs (longitudinal) should be even, without characteristic waviness, since in winter the forest is cut down much easier and more evenly.
4. In the winter forest, resin dries up from the end of the log where the sapwood is, but this is not the case in the summer forest, since there is a lot of water in it.
5. You can also pour iodine on a log, it changes its color if there is a lot of moisture in the tree.
The visual differences were listed above, but there is also a chemical way. It can help distinguish logs from winter or summer harvests. The thing is that a tree harvested in the cold season is distinguished by a core that contains a large number of starch.
To figure out how to harvest this method, you will need ordinary iodine. By applying the solution to the core of the log, the determination takes place. On a forest that was harvested in winter, iodine will not change, unlike in summer - it will turn blue.
Starch, which is contained in the winter forest in winter, changes its state, binding all its useful elements, including water, into a kind of mass, and its distribution along the trunk occurs evenly. This condition allows the water (which is in the tree) to evaporate more slowly, which means that the material suffers less during drying. As for iodine, it interacts only with pure starch, such as in summer harvest forests.
When building a house from cedar, take into account the above points.
Companies specializing in the manufacture and construction of wooden log cabins often indicate the use of winter felling in the list of their competitive advantages. Consider the difference between a log felled in winter and lumber harvested in the warm season.
Traditional approach
Throughout Russia, wooden buildings (mainly churches) have been preserved, which were built more than one hundred years ago. Their durability is explained by the unique properties of wood, which, even without modern antiseptics, is able to withstand biological destruction.
The secret of the ancient masters was right choice building material for the construction of a house or other structure. Prior to the era of industrial logging, each tree for felling was carefully selected. The craftsmen knew how to determine the quality of heartwood and its resistance to natural destruction by the external signs of a living tree.
Logging was carried out mainly in winter for a number of reasons:
- summer time is devoted entirely to field work;
- on a sleigh in the snow it is easier to deliver logs to the construction site;
- in winter it is possible to reach places with marshy soil.
But another important reason was the high quality of winter felling wood - due to the fact that the sap flow was stopped in the trees during the cold season, the logs harvested in winter were relatively dry and suitable for construction without additional drying.
Industrial timber harvesting
Today, logging is carried out using modern high-performance equipment that can quickly remove branches from a fallen tree. Ready whips are delivered to the place of storage for removal from the plot.
Harvesting is still preferable today in winter: whips are easier to transport on solid snow-covered ground, and not on mud that is stirred by wheels or caterpillars of special equipment, logs will not absorb excess moisture from contact with dampness.
Winter wood is still valued above timber harvested in summer or autumn. In winter, the humidity of the air decreases, and the wood gives up its moisture through the bark. If we compare the mass of identical logs harvested in different time year, a whip cut down in winter will be lighter than a summer one due to low humidity.
There are several types of wood material used in construction. Whips are marked as follows:
- Timber. Its main difference is a small difference in the diameter of the log from the side of the butt and the top. The diameter of such a log is about 25-30 cm.
- podtovarnik. This is the crown part of the tree, suitable for making logs of small diameter.
- Sawlog. The wood is used to make lumber.
Winter timber is the best choice for building a log house. It is suitable for the manufacture of chopped logs, i.e., the log is not rounded, but simply the bark is removed, revealing heartwood with an intact top layer. The logs are stacked, alternating butt and top, to keep the crowns horizontal.
It is easier to install due to its precise dimensions, but requires a more careful approach to processing to protect against biological damage, moisture and ultraviolet radiation. This is due to the fact that the top layer of the densest wood is cut off during rounding, and the wood pores remain open.
Logs from the undercarriage are used as timber for logging a bathhouse, gazebo or outbuildings. Their thickness is insufficient for the construction of a warm log house.
The main advantages of timber harvested in winter
- such wood is less susceptible to biological degradation (provided it is properly stored after harvesting);
- winter logs are lighter, which simplifies and speeds up construction work;
- it will take less time to shrink the finished log house, the risk of structural deformation is lower;
- the logs that make up the log house crack less, which has a positive effect on their functional parameters and appearance the buildings.
In the old days, felled woods were covered with lime or clay to clog the pores. This caused the log to dry evenly, releasing moisture and resin along the entire length of the trunk. Also, the blockage of the ends prevented the collection of moisture from the air and the penetration of pests into the wood.
Today, freshly cut wood is treated by responsible growers with a protective antiseptic to prevent biological degradation. Before processing, the bark is removed from the logs. When storing timber, it is important to ensure good air circulation so that the wood does not rot.
In order for the benefits of winter wood to be preserved after the construction of the house, the construction must be completed before the onset of hot weather.
How to determine the quality of the forest
If you want to make sure that the house will be built from high-quality winter harvesting material, you can check some of the properties of wood yourself:
- put a drop of iodine on a fresh cut of a log - if the surface turns blue under the influence of iodine, then the wood is wet and was harvested in summer or spring;
- the presence of bark on logs is a sign of improper storage or a sign that the forest has just been harvested (for freshly cut logs, the bark holds tightly, for a winter forest that has lain until summer or spring, it is removed in layers to the core);
- the edge of the saw cut at the end of a log harvested in winter is even, while in summer it is jagged, shaggy along the edges and wavy in the center, since wet wood is cut worse.
If there are doubts about the time of harvesting and the quality of the material, you can order wood analysis from a specialized company.
Building a house is a serious step in life, which should be approached with all responsibility. Therefore, the masters of the Marisrub company are ready to take on your worries, namely, to prepare and process materials, to build a house from a winter forest that will last for many decades.
-> Logging time for felling.
Let's try to figure out when (and why) you need to harvest wood for building a log house.
The object of our consideration will be only conifers.
In his article Forest for a log house. Coniferous or deciduous? I showed that hardwoods (with the exception of oak) are not suitable for building log walls due to their low resistance to decay, and low durability.
Actually, before I never bothered with the question of time for harvesting. For his buildings, he harvested or bought exclusively winter wood because it has been so customary in our area since ancient times. Our ancestors established this empirically, having probably tried both winter and summer forests for the construction of walls.
One day, accidentally ending up on the site of a timber seller, I was surprised to find out that the summer forest is not only no worse, but even better. But the argumentation of the advantages was so absurd that I decided to figure it out for myself, so what is the difference between a winter and a summer coniferous forest?
We look at the arguments in defense of the summer forest from the sellers.
1. Previously, in the summer, the peasants were so busy that logging had to be postponed for the winter.
Weak argument.
Any villager knows that in the summer, between busy periods of sowing - haymaking - harvesting, you can always carve out a couple - three weeks of relatively free time. A house is built once and for a lifetime. Therefore, one summer it was possible to work more intensively.
Moreover, if the quality of the summer wood was the same as that of the winter one, then the wood would be harvested in summer. Working in the summer forest is much easier than wading through snowdrifts.
2. In winter, it is easier to harvest and transport timber.
I agree about the export.
But about harvesting... If at least one of the "argumentators" tried to work on a tree felling knee-deep in snow, he would very quickly forget about his "argument".
3. In terms of mechanical strength, summer wood does not differ from winter wood.
Sorry, but durability doesn't matter to us. We are building walls, not ceilings in the Bolshoi Theatre. When using wood for the manufacture of lumber, in my opinion there is no difference when it is harvested.
4. The humidity of the winter coniferous forest is greater than that of the summer.
So what? After debarking, by spring, the moisture content of the logs will decrease and will be much lower than that of a fresh forest cut down at this time. If the debarking of the forest is completed in early March, then by the onset of warm days the forest dries up so much that it is not afraid of either “blue” or mold.
5. Due to lower humidity, a log house from a summer forest shrinks less.
Very well pointed out!
But since the absolute humidity of the summer forest differs from the winter one by only 10-12%, the difference in the shrinkage of the log house will be ridiculous and will amount to several millimeters!
6. Cracking in the winter forest is greater than in the summer.
Excuse me, but this is BAD! Under the same storage and drying conditions, the opposite is true.
You can find a lot more "arguments", even in serious construction magazines, but they are all far-fetched and the ears of summer wood sellers stick out of them.
To be honest, the defenders of the winter forest write no less absurdities. They can be found about the narrowing of annual rings in winter, and about the freezing of moisture in trees through the bark, and about drier winter coniferous forest, and about the fragility of the summer forest ...
Everyone thoughtlessly repeats the clichés invented by someone once, and a reasonable answer to the main question “what is the difference between a winter forest and a summer forest and which is better?” no.
Well, let's try to figure it out ourselves, with the help of forestry scientists.
What is the most important quality for scaffolding?
We open the textbook "Wood Science" by L.M. Perelygin: “Under unfavorable service conditions (which are the conditions in which the walls are located - V.S.), which include variable humidity and ambient temperature, the wood collapses rather quickly. The rate of destruction is determined by the natural resistance of the given rock.”
This means that the main quality of the timber is the natural resistance to physical and biological destructive factors, that is, the resistance of wood to decay.
Not only durability (service life), but also the atmosphere inside the log house depends on this. The processes of decay emit harmful substances that adversely affect the health of people in this log house.
We read further the textbook by L.M. Perelygin:
« The resistance of wood is largely determined by the content of resinous substances in it. So the resistance of pine wood under the same service conditions is higher than spruce and fir wood, which is explained by the different resin content.
The main component of pine resin is levopimaric acid (content 34 - 37%). The concentration of this and other acids determines the antiseptic properties of the resin.
It has been found that fresh resin collected in summer contains less levopimaric acid than resin collected in winter. This is due to the summer increase in metabolism and the processes of intensive evaporation of needles.
A similar picture is with the content of essential oils.
Therefore, since the concentration of resin acids and essential oils in winter resin is greater, the antiseptic qualities of winter resin are higher than those of summer resin.
And again Perelygin:
Influence of forestry factors. Influence of felling time.
“With regard to resistance to decay, a tendency to its decrease was found for wood cut down during the growing season (spring-autumn). This is explained by the higher content of organic substances in the wood in an easily digestible form (nutrients)."
Another quote from the book by E. Yu. Lundberg, "Building Art". “In relation to tree damage, winter felling has the significance that the amount of nutrients in winter is the smallest; A summer felled tree rots more easily as it contains nutrients in a more diluted form and is generally richer in nutrients.”
Well, now everything is clear!
In coniferous wood, which is harvested in summer, there is an increased content of nutrients, and a reduced concentration of natural antiseptics - resin acids and essential oils. Therefore, the SUMMER CUTTING WOOD HAS LESS RESISTANCE TO ROTATION than the winter cutting wood.
Putrefactive bacteria and various kinds of fungi (including molds) need nutrients in order to develop. And since the content of nutrients in wood harvested in summer is much higher, and the concentration of natural antiseptics is less, then decay will be more intense.
Thus, wood harvested in summer has a shorter service life than wood harvested in winter.
That's it. The casket, as it turned out, opens quite simply and everything falls into place.
Before the revolution and in the first years of Soviet power, not only timber, but also sawlogs were harvested exclusively in winter. After felling and debarking, softwood logs were stored in warehouses for at least a year. And after that they got down to business.
But when industrialization began in the Soviet Union (preparation for war), it took a lot of timber and constantly. That's when they forgot about seasonality in logging. And the scientists summed up the theoretical basis for this (they would try not to let it down!), Or they simply hushed up the difference between the winter and summer forests.
But then it was right and justified. A great country was being built.
And now we are building for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren. Therefore, we have the right to know the truth, at least in order to make an informed choice.
Summarizing, we can say the following:
For the construction of a log house, winter-cut pine is best suited, as the most durable and rot-resistant tree!
And if you do not have the opportunity to purchase pine for your log house, purchase other coniferous wood (spruce, fir), but definitely winter felling!
You can see the gradation for the resistance of different breeds to decay, as well as the service life, in Table 1 and Table 2 of the articleWood for felling. Coniferous or deciduous?
I deliberately do not talk about cedar because of its high cost.
It can be said about larch that, firstly, it is difficult to process due to its high density, and secondly, for the same reason, it has increased thermal conductivity.
In general, earlier larch, given its high resistance to decay, was used only for specific purposes:
they laid several crowns directly on the ground without a foundation, which were used as an unheated room (basement) under the floor of a dwelling;
Used for a crown crown in the presence of a foundation.
Another positive quality for the winter forest.
Since sap flow stops in trees in winter, logs or boards from such a forest emit very little resin when heated, which is especially valuable for heat-stressed bath conditions.
And now about the specific timing of the felling of the forest.
In Belarus, coniferous timber was previously harvested in December-January. The bark must be removed before the arrival of spring (the deadline is the first decade of March) and stacked for a year or two to dry. Built from dry wood.
Alexander Sobolev talks about Russian traditions in his wonderful book “ Wooden house". Here are a few quotes:
“The quality of wood, the durability of a building or a product made from it, also depend on what time of the year the tree is cut down. »
“According to tradition, the forest began to be harvested from the winter Nikola, from December 19th. In some places it was believed, and not by chance, best time for harvesting one month…”
"By folk omens the timber was cut down on the new moon: the forest cut down on the damage of the disk of the moon rots"
“Here is what they wrote in an old Russian magazine in 1867: “... pine trees cut down for four identical years, from one place and soil during December, January, February and March, after making four ceiling beams from them, showed by their load that the tree , felled in January by 12, in February by 20, in March by 38 withstood less severity than felled in December. »
After reading the rationale for choosing a winter forest, a logical question arises: "How much more durable is winter wood than summer wood?"
I managed to find the answer again from Alexander Sobolev in the book "Wooden House":
“Of two pines of the same place and one year, buried in damp soil, after eight years, the pine felled in February was completely rotten, meanwhile, cut down in December, after 16 years of lying in the same damp soil, turned out to be quite healthy…”
That is, a tree harvested in December is TWO times more durable than a tree harvested in February. Since February is the month preceding the growing season, the persistence of the summer forest can be considered the same.
So, The durability of winter harvested timber (December-January) is presumably twice as long as that of summer harvested timber.
When logging in the summer, in addition, there are two more serious problems.
First: The damp summer forest turns blue very quickly. Even timely debarking and stacking often do not help.
Second: A damp summer forest is likely to be attacked by insect pests.
In conclusion, I want to tell one story from my youth in the construction team.
In the late 70s of the last century, in one of the rotational camps of Strezhevoy, we built a canteen from round timber. In violation of all safety regulations (students are forbidden to work on felling trees), the forest in the taiga felled themselves. Mostly fir and pine, spruce came across, but rarely.
The carpenter led the students, his name was Vasily. He himself was from somewhere in the central regions of Russia.
So, Vasily lamented about the forced summer felling of the forest. He spoke like this: “In winter, the forest sleeps. And if you cut it off, then it will remain sleeping, but alive. A structure built from such a forest will also be alive. Cutting the forest in the summer, we kill it. And the structure of such a forest will be dead.”
We, the then Komsomol members, laughed at his superstitions. And now, in the age of the esoteric craze, no, no, and I’ll think: “Maybe there really is something in this?”
Increasing demand in winter months(December-February). Does not weaken until the summer. The reason: the wood of winter harvesting is considered to be of higher quality, it cracks less, gives less shrinkage to the log house. Allegedly, winter wood is drier, less prone to blue, blackening. Is everything really so simple?
Cracks (shrinkage cracking of wood) winter conifer or harvested at other times of the year is almost the same. The main difference between winter and the warm season is that the tree is in a state of hibernation (rest) / growth (development). There are no obvious differences in the integrity of the structure, physical and mechanical properties. In principle, it cannot be.
More important is the influence of the rate of change in the humidity of the surrounding air, the increase in street temperature. The more smoothly (gradually) the changes occur, the less the tree cracks. Winter road with a sharp warming on the street begins to tear quite significantly. It doesn't matter if the north side of the tree or the other.
There are differences between winter and summer forests. But, for better or worse, even academics find it difficult to draw conclusions. The difference does not in any way affect the shrinkage of the log house, the healing possibilities of coniferous wood. Affects the rate of moisture exit from the log, first free, then bound. Painting the ends doesn't help much. To relieve strong internal overstresses, it is easier for a tree to crack than to restrain them (deform). In winter, shrinkage is moderate. What happens next depends on what kind of summer it will be. The fungus that causes the blue color of wood does not multiply in the cold. Only with the onset of heat with increasing humidity (June-September).
Least of all then an autumn tree cracks in a log house. Since the sap flow is already small. The initial intense shrinkage due to a gradual cooling stretches for six months. When working with coniferous forests, it is not the time of harvesting that is more important, but the availability of the required volume when it is necessary to cut a log house + antiseptic treatment in production with the onset of the warm season. No observance of storage technology will help to avoid bark beetle, blue, cracking of the winter harvest forest if stored for too long. In any case, the timber must have been healthy from the start.
In addition to the blue, which appears faster on pine due to the higher resin content, conifer tree blackens in the sun. To eliminate, bleaching of log cabins, grinding + subsequent antiseptic treatment are used. In winter, the days are shorter, there are fewer sunny days, the log turns gray, and surface darkening is easy to remove by grinding. In summer there is more sun, especially on the south side of the house. The tree darkens more. It is not necessary for a log to lie idle for a long time: they prepared it and immediately cut it down. Who needs a blue winter forest in summer? Better fresh.
The biggest misconception about the winter forest is the low moisture content due to the lack of sap flow in the tree trunk. In fact, the amount of bound water on the vine is the same at any time of the year.
There is more free water in the winter forest. The percentage of moisture is 15% higher in winter than in summer. Standard KAMAZ with the same cubic capacity at the weight control point in January - a cube of pine 800-850kg, in July 700-750kg approximately. In autumn, by cold weather, the tree produces special starchy substances (pectins), which protect cells from destruction in frost. Therefore, water molecules combined into large micelles do not crystallize into ice. And they do not tear, expanding, from the inside the tree.
The preference for the winter forest in Russia was given because of the calendar of agricultural work. There was more free time in winter, the country before the revolution was predominantly agrarian. In winter, it is easier to bring out the ephedra on the snow with a horse on a sleigh / dragging than on a cart in spring, summer, and autumn. Mudslides, lack of roads - everything is like in our time. Hence the sign, which really means little: a sign of suitability for felling a log house is the sound of an ax hitting a tree trunk with the butt of an ax. The sound in the winter forest will be sonorous on any frozen tree.
how to distinguish a log house from a winter forest from a summer one? and got the best answer
Answer from Vladislav Seleznev[newbie]
The forest is mostly cut in winter because it is dry in winter. The summer forest is damp, obviously worse. Summer wood cracks much more in the process of shrinkage. Look for cracks.
Answer from Mon Turkeys[guru]
If this is a log house, then it is almost impossible to distinguish a winter forest from a summer forest in a dry state. Except that.. .
....iodine!
if you drop iodine on the cut, then there will be 2 shades
if it is brownish red, the tree is summer
if the blue tree is cut down in winter.
And if it's a sawlog:
1. Visually. The winter wood as a rule does not turn blue (at normal storage on laying). In summer, in the winter forest, the bark has already dried up and partially flew off. Summer forest after harvesting should be taken out of the plot within a few days. Otherwise, it starts to hurt (bugs are different, blue, fungus). It is better not to build a house from such a forest.
2. Measure wood moisture at a depth of 10-15 cm. You need a fairly expensive moisture meter.
Answer from rub.schik[guru]
You won't be able to tell!! If the log house is treated with an antiseptic, then it will stand for a long time and look beautiful!! And not processed from any forest will turn blue and blacken. And if they tell you that a log house is from a winter forest, then they are simply trying to breed you)) A winter forest is one that is cut down at a time when there is no sap flow in the trees, and in such winters that now it is all like summer !!
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