Winter harvested wood, or Why is it profitable to build from winter wood? How to distinguish a winter forest from a summer one

Due to the widespread misconception about the advantages of winter-harvested timber, regardless of time, potential Customers from Contractors winter forest they ask. What kind of forest do you have now, summer? Yes. I would like a winter frame. Even if it happens in August or September...

The seemingly significant advantages of building a house during a crisis are the ability to demand privileges and discounts. But organizations with a good reputation know their worth, because they understand the principles of work for which they are not ashamed. Others use tricks. For example, passing off a summer forest as a winter one. It will be difficult for the Customer to distinguish a winter log house from a summer one in the finished product on his site without an examination.

You can independently distinguish a winter forest from a summer forest by the timber at the Contractor’s Production Site before or during the felling of the log house. Based on temporal, logical and visual characteristics. After you have already prepared the forest for cutting down a house - planing logs or water hammering, it remains possible to check whether it is a winter forest or a summer forest using a simple chemical effect.

Most reliable way temporary, also logical. When you need a strictly winter forest, a contract for cutting a log should be concluded until the end of spring at the latest. Then he is still there and has not yet begun to suffocate in the heat in the bark. Ideally, it is better to order a log house in September-October (with the condition of felling in December-February). Before prices rise due to winter demand. The de facto winter forest is accessible from mid-November. By this time, they are trying to sell the summer harvest and turn the remains into lumber.

Visual signs include the appearance and strength of the bark. In the winter forest it is solid; the bark is more difficult to remove. If it dries to the wood over time, the fragments are difficult to completely remove without planing or sanding. In a summer forest, the bark begins to peel off even when transporting timber. Nothing wrong with that. The bark will be removed in any case.

Another way is to watch the reaction of a drop of iodine to the starch content in the tree. Of which there are many in the winter forest. It protects the wood from destruction in frost by binding the moisture accumulated in the trunk during warm periods to another state of aggregation. On a fresh cut of a forest harvested in winter, iodine spreads into a large spot and changes its color to blue. Upon contact with the summer harvest, the original brown tint remains. The age and ripeness of the wood do not affect the result. The humidity of the wood has an effect - the lower it is, the less clear the results.

You can order a wooden house when it is convenient for you, finances have been collected, the project and foundation are ready. Main - coniferous forest must be healthy. It is not so important whether it is prepared in winter or summer.

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 mainly cut in winter because it is dry in winter. A wet summer forest is obviously worse. Summer wood cracks much more during the drying process. Look at the cracks.

Answer from On Indyukov[guru]
If this is a log house, then it is almost impossible to distinguish a winter forest from a summer one in a dry state. Except that.. .
....iodine!
if you drop iodine on a cut, it will be 2 shades
if it is brownish red, the tree is summer
if the blue tree is cut in winter.
And if it's sawlog:
1.Visually. As a rule, winter forest does not turn blue (if stored normally on pads). In the summer, in the winter forest, the bark has already dried out and partially fallen off. After harvesting, summer timber must be removed from the plot within a few days. Otherwise, it starts to hurt (various bugs, blue stains, fungus). It is better not to build a house from such a forest.
2. Measure the moisture content of the wood 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 the difference!! If the log house is treated with an antiseptic, it will stand for a long time and look beautiful!! And untreated wood from any forest will turn blue and black. And if they tell you that the log house is from a winter forest, then they are simply trying to deceive you)) A winter forest is considered to be one that is cut down at a time when there is no sap flow in the trees, and in such winters as it is now, it is all like a summer one!!

Let's try to figure out when (and why) it is necessary to harvest timber for the construction of a log house.

The object of our consideration will be only coniferous species.
In my article Forest for felling. Coniferous or deciduous? I showed that hardwood (with the exception of oak) is not suitable for the construction of log walls due to its low resistance to rotting and low durability.

Actually, I had never bothered with the question of preparation time before. For his buildings, he harvested or bought exclusively winter wood because this has been customary in our area since ancient times. Our ancestors established this experimentally, having probably tried both winter and summer forests to build walls.

One day, having accidentally landed on the website of a wood seller, I was surprised to learn that summer wood was 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 winter and summer coniferous forests?

Let's see what arguments the sellers have in defense of the summer forest.

1. Earlier in the summer the peasants were so busy that logging had to be postponed until the winter.

Weak argument.
Any village resident knows that in the summer, between the busy periods of sowing, haying, and cleaning, you can always carve out a couple or three weeks of relatively free time. A house is built once and for life. Therefore, one summer it was possible to work more intensively.
Moreover, if the summer forest had the same qualities as the winter forest, then the forest would be harvested in the summer. Working in a summer forest is much easier than wading through snowdrifts.

2. In winter, timber is easier to harvest and transport.

I agree about the export.
But about the harvesting... If at least one of the “argumentators” tried to work felling wood 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 strength doesn't matter to us. We build walls, not ceilings in the Bolshoi Theater. When using forests to make 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 one.

So what? After debarking, by spring the moisture content of the logs will decrease and will be much lower than that of fresh wood cut down at this time. If the debarking of the forest is completed in early March, then by the time of the offensive warm days the forest dries out so much that it is not afraid of either “blue” or mold.

5. Due to lower humidity, a log from a summer forest shrinks less.

Very well noted!
But since absolute humidity summer forest differs from winter forest by only 10 - 12%, then the difference in the shrinkage of the log house will be ridiculous and amount to several millimeters!

6. Crack formation in winter forests is greater than in summer ones.

Excuse me, but this is nonsense! 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 forest sellers stick out from them.

To be honest, the defenders of the winter forest write no less absurdities. You can find in them about the narrowing of annual rings in winter, and about the freezing of moisture in trees through the bark, and about the drier winter coniferous forest, and about the fragility of the summer forest...

Everyone mindlessly repeats cliches once invented by someone, and there is no reasonable answer to 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 forest scientists.

What is the most important quality for scaffolding?

We open the textbook “Wood Science” by L.M. Perelygin: “When unfavorable conditions service (which are the conditions in which the walls are located - V.S.), which include variable humidity and environmental temperature, the wood is destroyed quite quickly. The rate of destruction is determined by the natural resistance of a given rock.”

This means that the main quality of timber is its natural resistance to physical and biological destructive factors, that is, the wood’s resistance to rotting.
Not only durability (service life), but also the atmosphere inside the log house depends on this. Rotting processes release harmful substances that adversely affect the health of people in this log house.

We read further the textbook by L.M. Perelygina:
« The durability of wood is largely determined by the content of resinous substances in it. Thus, the durability of pine wood under the same service conditions is higher than that of 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 established that in fresh resin, collected in the summer, contains less levopimaric acid than resin collected in winter. This is due to the summer increase in metabolism and the processes of intense evaporation of needles.

A similar picture with the content 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. Effect of cutting time.
“With regard to resistance to rotting, a tendency towards a decrease was found for wood cut down during the growing season (spring-autumn). This is explained by the higher content of organic substances in wood in an easily digestible form ( nutrients)».

Another quote from the book by E. Yu. Lundberg, “The Art of Construction.” “With regard to tree damage, winter felling has the following meaning: the amount of nutrients in winter is the lowest; Summer felled wood rots more easily, since it contains nutrients in a more diluted form and is generally richer in nutrients.”

Well, now everything is clear!

Coniferous wood, which is harvested in summer, has an increased content of nutrients and a reduced concentration of natural antiseptics - resin acids and essential oils. Therefore, SUMMER-cut wood has LESS RESISTANCE TO ROT than winter-cut wood.

Putrefactive bacteria and various types of fungi (including mold) require nutrients in order to develop. And since the nutrient content in wood harvested in summer is much higher, and the concentration of natural antiseptics is lower, rotting 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 went into action.

But when industrialization began in the Soviet Union (preparation for war), a lot of timber was needed constantly. That’s when they forgot about seasonality in logging. But scientists provided a theoretical basis for this (they would have tried not to!), or simply hid the difference between the winter and summer forest.

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.

To summarize, 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 winter cutting is a must!

I deliberately do not talk about cedar because of its high cost.

It can be said about larch that, firstly, due to its high density, it is difficult to process, and secondly, for the same reason, it has increased thermal conductivity.
In general, previously 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 the living space;
Used for a frame crown in the presence of a foundation.

Another positive quality for the winter forest.
Since sap flow in trees stops in winter, logs or boards from such a forest release very little resin when heated, which is especially valuable for heat-stressed bath conditions.

And now about the specific timing of felling.

In Belarus, the harvesting of coniferous construction timber used to be carried out in December - January. The bark must be removed before the arrival of spring ( deadline- first ten days of March) and put them in a stack for a year or two to dry. They were 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 structure or a product made from it also depend on what time of year the tree is cut down. »

“According to tradition, timber began to be harvested after winter Nikola, on December 19th. In some places it was believed, and not by chance, best time one month for preparation..."

"By folk signs the timber was cut down on the new moon: the forest cut down due to the damage to the moon’s disk rots.”

“This is what they wrote in an old Russian magazine in 1867: “... felled four identical years, from the same place and soil pine trees During December, January, February and March, by making four ceiling beams from them, they showed by their load that the tree cut down in January by 12, in February by 20, in March by 38 withstood less weight than the one felled in December. »

After reading the rationale for choosing winter wood, a logical question arises: “How durable is winter-harvested wood more durable than summer-harvested wood?”

I managed to find the answer again from Alexander Sobolev in the book “Wooden House”:

“Of two pine trees of the same place and the same years, buried in damp soil, after eight years, the pine cut down in February was completely imbued with rottenness, meanwhile, cut down in December, after 16 years of lying in the same damp soil, turned out to be still 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 durability of the summer forest can be considered the same.

So, The durability of winter-harvested timber (December-January) is presumably two times greater than that of summer-harvested timber.

When logging in the summer, in addition, two more serious problems arise.

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 you a story from my youth as a construction brigade.

At the end of the 70s of the last century, in one of the shift camps of Strezhevoy, we built a canteen from round timber. In violation of all safety rules (students are prohibited from working on felling trees), the forest in the taiga was felled themselves. Mainly fir and pine; spruce was found, but rarely.

The students were supervised by a carpenter, his name was Vasily. He himself was from somewhere central regions Russia.

So, Vasily lamented the forced summer felling of the forest. He said this: “In winter the forest sleeps. And if you cut it off, it will remain dormant, but alive. A structure built from such wood will also be alive. When we cut down the forest in the summer, we kill it. And a structure made from such a forest will be dead.”

We, the Komsomol members of that time, laughed at his superstitions. And now, in the age of the craze for esotericism, no, no, and I think: “Maybe there really is something in this?”

Companies specializing in the manufacture and construction of wooden log houses often list the use of winter-cut timber as their competitive advantages. Let's look at the difference between a log cut down in winter and lumber harvested in the warm season.

Traditional approach

Throughout Russia, wooden buildings (mostly churches) that were built hundreds of years ago have been preserved. Their durability is explained by the unique properties of wood, which, even without modern antiseptics, can resist biological destruction.

The secret of the ancient masters was making the right choice building material for the construction of a house or other structure. Before the era of industrial logging, each tree to be cut was carefully selected. The craftsmen knew how to determine the quality of sound wood and its resistance to natural destruction by the external signs of a living tree.

Log harvesting was carried out mainly in winter for a number of reasons:

• summer time is entirely devoted to field work;
• it is easier to transport logs to the construction site on a sled in the snow;
• In winter it is possible to reach places with marshy soil.

But another important reason was high quality timber harvested in winter - due to the fact that during the cold season the sap flow of the trees is stopped, the logs harvested in winter were relatively dry and suitable for construction without additional drying.

Industrial timber harvesting

Today, forest cutting is carried out using modern, high-performance equipment that can quickly remove branches from a fallen tree. The finished canes are delivered to the storage location for removal from the plot.

Even today, it is preferable to carry out harvesting in winter: it is easier to transport logs on hard snow-covered ground, rather than through mud, which is stirred by the wheels or tracks of special equipment; the logs will not absorb excess moisture from contact with dampness.

Winter forest is still valued higher than wood harvested in summer or autumn. IN winter time air humidity decreases, and the wood releases its moisture through the bark. If we compare the mass of identical logs harvested in different time year, the canopy cut in winter will be lighter than the summer one due to lower humidity.

There are several types of wood material used in construction. The whips are marked as follows:

• Timber. Its main difference is a slight 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 - optimal choice for the construction of a log house. It is suitable for making chopped logs, i.e., the log is not rounded, but the bark is simply removed, revealing the heartwood with an intact top layer. The logs are laid alternating between the butt and the top to keep the crowns horizontal.

Easier to install due to its own exact dimensions, but requires a more careful approach to processing to protect against biological damage, moisture and ultraviolet radiation. This is explained by upper layer The densest wood is cut off during rounding, and the wood pores remain open.

Logs from the logs are used as timber for the construction of a bathhouse, gazebo or outbuilding. Their thickness is not sufficient for the construction of a warm log house.

The main advantages of timber harvested in winter

• such wood is less susceptible to biological destruction (subject to proper storage after harvesting);
• winter logs are lighter, which simplifies and speeds up construction work;
• shrinkage of the finished log will require less time, lower risk of structural deformation;
• the logs that make up the frame crack less, which has a positive effect on their functional parameters and appearance the buildings.

In the old days, the ends of felled timber 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, clogging the ends prevented the collection of moisture from the air and the penetration of insect pests into the wood.

Today, freshly cut wood is treated by responsible producers with a protective antiseptic to prevent biological destruction. Before processing, the bark is removed from the logs. When storing wood, it is important to ensure good air circulation so that the wood does not rot.

In order for the benefits of winter wood to continue after the house is built, construction must be completed before the onset of hot weather.

How to determine forest quality

If you want to make sure that the house will be built from high-quality winter-harvested material, you can check some of the properties of the wood yourself:

• drop a drop of iodine on a fresh cut of a log - if the surface turns blue under the influence of iodine, it means the wood is wet and was harvested in summer or spring;
• the presence of bark on the logs is a sign of improper storage or a sign that the wood has just been harvested (in freshly cut logs the bark holds tightly, in the case of winter wood that has lain until summer or spring, it is removed in layers to the core);
• The edge of the cut on the end of a log harvested in winter is smooth, while that of a summer log is jagged, shaggy at the edges and wavy in the center, since wet wood cuts worse.

If you have doubts about the harvesting time and quality of the material, you can order a wood analysis from a specialized company.

Building a house is a serious step in life, which should be approached with all responsibility. Therefore, the craftsmen of the Marisrub company are ready to take on your concerns, namely, prepare and process materials, build a house from winter wood that will last for many decades.

Eco-friendly construction. Estate: I am planning to build a wooden house from rounded logs. Everywhere it is written that you need to make a log house exclusively from wood harvested in the winter because... he is the best. However, few places say how to determine whether it is a winter forest and how to check the sellers

I am planning to build a wooden house from rounded logs. Naturally, the first thing that arose was the question of ordering a log house. I looked through a bunch of books and everywhere it is written that you need to make a log house exclusively from wood harvested in the winter because... he is the best. However, few places say how to determine whether it is a winter forest and how to check the sellers.

Of course, conscientious carpenters harvest timber in winter, and in spring and summer they cut logs and assemble them. However, what prevents unscrupulous producers from harvesting wood in the summer, when it is easy to do, put it in storage and sell logs from it all winter and half of next year under the guise of winter wood. Let's try to figure this issue out together.

First, a little theory or why the winter forest is so good:

In winter, the trees enter a state of dormancy; they are prepared for a long winter. The pores close, sap flow and growth stop, excess moisture is discharged through the root system.

Therefore, with the further use of products from such wood, we receive the following advantages:

• when heating logs, no resin will be released from them
• the wood is more dense and dry i.e. less susceptible to deformation and cracking
• the material goes through a long period of natural drying, since from the moment of preparation to summer heat several months pass
• winter timber harvesting is carried out at low temperatures, which means that the wood retains its natural light appearance longer and is less susceptible to infection by fungi and insects.

Now let's move on to practice - How to recognize what is being sold to you by the type of winter wood.

I’ll say right away that it’s difficult for a non-specialist to do this, but it’s possible.

There are several ways:

First– it’s better to see it once - it’s ideal to go to the site where the log houses are made and look at the unsanded wood from which the house is made. If you see dirt on the bark, this indicates that it was cut down in the summer; if dark spots appear on the saw cuts, this indicates that the forest was exposed to rain. Winter wood, when properly stored, usually does not turn blue. In the summer, the bark of the winter forest has dried out and partially flies off.

Second- choose proven ones. Everything is clear from the name; you probably turned to carpenters from whom your friends or acquaintances have already placed orders. Conscientious sellers must have the addresses of those to whom they have already supplied log houses or even installed them. Take an interest in the reputation of suppliers and a lot will become clear.

Third- order time factor - for an additional guarantee it is worth buying timber, log wooden house or baths in winter months starting in January or February, or at least in the spring. The reason is simple - it is at this time that the harvesting of winter wood begins, and that cut down in the summer, as a rule, ends. Therefore, at the end of summer, in the fall, it’s time to start designing a wooden bathhouse or house and choose suppliers and carpenters. Because for the development of a project sketch, selection internal layout clarification of details, drawing the so-called timber frame for a residential building will take from a month to two. In the meantime, the winter forest will arrive, from which we need to build.

Fourth- trust but check. If you have been offered a ready-made log house under the guise of a winter one and it is not possible to comply with steps 1 and 3, at least carefully inspect the product. There should be no deep cracks on the logs - this is not only a sign of a summer forest, but also indicates a violation of the drying technology. Logs should dry slowly naturally, and the longer the better: the tree needs to dry not only outside, but also inside. Those. if you are offered a box house made of summer wood, felled during the same period, then dry summer external southern walls will dry out very quickly, and internal and northern walls will dry out more slowly and due to internal tension, a large number of cracks

You should be especially wary if the manufacturer offers a wooden house box coated with an antiseptic. Here they can say that they cut it last season, they didn’t sell it, so they treated it with a septic tank (or maybe with bleach to pass it off as new). Moreover, such unfortunate carpenters will prove that they cut it in winter. But why do you need unnecessary problems - it’s better to control everything and get a high-quality log house.

Fifth- instrument control. Some authors advise placing one drop of iodine on a cut log. Because in winter starch wood bigger tree it should turn blue at this point. Next, you can measure the moisture content of the log at a depth of 10-15 cm. But for this you need special device moisture meter

These are the methods for determining winter wood for construction. Each of them is not particularly effective, however, if you use them in combination, then the likelihood of getting a high-quality frame for a wooden log house or a house made of timber is quite realistic. published