Cardanol is an excellent insecticide, fungicide, and termiticide derived from thermally treated cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) and has been extensively explored in the chemical industry and for medicinal uses. However, its potential for wood protection remains unexplored. This study aims to understand the bio-durability and weathering properties of cardanol-treated wood. The southern pine and yellow poplar wood samples were vacuum impregnated with both saturated (solid) and unsaturated (liquid) cardanol, and the mass gain without and with leaching tests was measured. Then the cardanol-treated wood samples were subjected to AWPA E10 soil block test and artificial weathering test. It was found that the mass gain of solid cardanol-treated pine (83.8 ± 2.6% and 81.5 ± 2.6% for samples without and with leaching, respectively) was significantly higher than those treated by liquid cardanol (64.9 ± 5.2% and 54.7 ± 5.4% for samples without and with leaching, respectively). Results from the soil block test indicated better anti-fungal properties of both solid and liquid cardanol-treated wood samples, with less than 25% average mass loss, than those of the control group, with over 40% average mass loss, after the soil block test. The 7-day weathering test shows that the total color change (ΔE) of liquid cardanol-treated samples was the lowest (ΔE = 3.7 ± 0.5), followed by the control group (ΔE = 6.8 ± 0.6) and solid cardanol-treated samples (ΔE = 12.2 ± 3.3).

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