European Committee for Standardization

Durability of wood and woodbased products - Testing and classification of the durability to biological agents of wood and wood-based materials
 N EN 350

Annotation

This European Standard gives guidance on methods for determining and classifying the durability of wood and wood-based materials against biological wood-destroying agents.

The methods can be applied either to individual wood species, batches of wood and processed woodbased materials, including heat-treated, preservative-treated wood and modified wood. However, this standard is not intended to replace testing of the efficacy of biocides.

The wood-destroying agents considered in this standard are:

— wood-decay fungi (basidiomycete and soft-rot fungi);

— beetles capable of attacking dry wood;

— termites;

— marine organisms capable of attacking wood in service.

Data on the biological durability of selected wood species considered of economic importance in European countries are presented in Annex B (informative), which also provides information relating to their geographical origin, density, sapwood width and treatability.

NOTE Treatability, durability to disfiguring fungi, permeability to water and performance in use of wood and wood-based materials are also important issues. However, because standardized methods aiming to assess and classify these factors do not exist and/or have not been extensively experienced yet, preliminary guidance is given in Annex C (informative) for the classification of wood treatability with aqueous wood preservatives, Annex D (informative) for the classification of the permeability to water, Annex E (informative) for the durability to disfiguring fungi, and Annex F (informative) for the classification of performance.