The use of durable wood species for wood decking in outdoor applications, e.g. garden terrace (use class 3) is gaining more and more interest on the part of consumers and architects. To get detailed information on the practical use of deckings, a project was started in 2010. In total 71 different decking materials (0.03 m²) were installed and evaluated over 30 months. Beside other parameters, the emphasis was to evaluate the applicability of qPCR (quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique for measuring the dynamics of increase in biomass of the organism groups responsible for biofilm formation. For this purpose 8 decking materials (durable, not durable, modified and waterbased varnish treated wood species) were investigated concerning surface growth of biofilm forming microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and algae). The surface treatment of the decking material (larch and acetylated pine) with wood preservatives improved the performance concerning the biofilm building, and made them even more resistant to growth of microorganisms than the deckings from species with high natural durability. Periodical maintenance of the decking comprising cleaning, sanding and in some cases also rebrushing of the panels showed an influence on the estimation of biomass directly due to the removal of the biofilm.

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