A high number of studies on the decay performance of wood in outdoor exposure have been conducted in the past. However, no testing methodology for wooden components exposed above ground reflecting the variety of different loads has been established so far. Many test protocols were modified in different ways throughout the years and results were often published in an encoded or incomplete way. This makes it difficult to obtain comparable results to work on a comprehensive above ground testing methodology. Therefore a comparative study on moisture performance and the resulting decay response was conducted. Five different wood species were brought out in 24 different test set-up representing a wide range of different exposure situations. After three years of exposure moisture load as well as decay development differed between both the test methods and wood species. Different parameters were identified influencing the moisture performance of wood in the respective test set-ups and finally an attempt was made to set up a methodology providing sets of test methods for differently severe applications.

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