Recently I was lucky to see with my own eyes the exhibits of the Ethnographic Park-Museum of the history of the Chusovaya River. The main advantage of this wonderful place is that it is open-air. Here you can see wooden buildings dating back to the 16th - 19th centuries, brought from all over Russia.
What surprised me most was that over hundreds of years, some of these structures collapsed in less than half. Some of the elements were restored, logs and roofing elements were replaced. But all this is a trifle, considering that most of the wood has been perfectly preserved to this day.
Not all brick and stone houses can last that long. It is also striking that in ancient times they did not use chemicals for wood processing. How did our ancestors save their homes? After all, the logs were not affected by small insects and bugs.
Naturally, I wanted my wooden house and bathhouse to stand for a long time. I asked myself: is it possible today to build a building from logs that will serve for several centuries?
I shared my observations with a builder I know. Several years ago, he participated in the construction of a wooden house where my father lives today. Since this person has no experience, I have no doubt about his professionalism.
He told me that log houses built today can also last for more than one hundred years. True, we are talking about logs of pine that grew in northern latitudes and dried up there.
Such pine dead wood is called Kelo. Since the climate is rather harsh in the north, trees grow slowly there. Their diameter increases by no more than 2 millimeters per year. Thanks to this, the wood is quite dense. If dead wood is not specially removed, it can stand for a very, very long time.
As a result, no bark or branches remain on the pine trunk. Moreover, it does not rot even in the absence of chemical treatment. This wood does not dry out or crack over time. No wonder such a pine is called "stone".
Indeed, wood is very hard, it is difficult to process it, and therefore building a house out of it is not an easy task.
In addition, a ready-made "stone pine" log house is several times more expensive. The construction of a small house will result in a pretty penny.
Unfortunately, some sellers sell low-quality dead wood under the guise of a Karelian rusk. Gullible buyers do not notice that the logs are rotten and corroded by woodworms. Remember that Karelian deadwood is three times more expensive than ordinary wood.
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