It is widely accepted that wood moisture content (MC) is the key factor when it comes to durability of wooden structures exposed to weathering. The moisture performance of wood and wood-based products has been recognized as key element in wood durability and wood protection. Actually, it should be considered as major component of the material-intrinsic resistance of wood, but never found its way into a standardized test method (Brischke et al. 2014). Results from field trial at Department of Wood Science and Technology in Ljubljana, floating and submersion tests to determine the residual moisture after cycles of absorption and desorption, the water uptake after 24 h in 100 % relative humidity as well as the capillary uptake in tensiometer test and contact angle measurements are presented in this paper. The influence of accelerated ageing of treated wood on moisture content was also tested in some short-term water uptake tests. As a result, twenty-two wood-based materials were ranked depending on to various conducted tests.

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