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Comment by RamblingCTO | Hacker News Reader

European half-timbered houses are out of what then? They're still standing strong, being around 700 years old. Or how about the stairway in Hallstatt? Or the wooden house Kirkjubøargarður? Is wood not truly biodegradable? I think I know what you might mean, but it's not as black and white as you make it to be.

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Wood are certainly biodegradable, and some takes a long time to degrade. Afaik many wood houses use paintings or coatings to protect from nature (at least where I live). So, I wonder if it applies to European half-timbered house.

Agreed. But you can also smoke the wood a bit, helps with the weather. Also the interconnectedness is something that helps I think. Because you reduce the surface.

I live much closer to the tropics, how big of a problem are termites in Europe?

I don't think it's a problem at all, never heard about that to be honest.

Could part of that be explained by the use of old growth wood? My understanding is it's much more robust than modern wood.

I would expect something that was biodegradable to biodegrade in less than 700 years. If you have that sort of time, plastics are sort of biodegradable as well.

Being biodegradable doesn't mean that it will degrade in any circumstances. Lumber in a house is usually protected from many biological degradation agents, even if it is not chemically treated. If you took that same wood and threw it in a pile exposed to rain and bugs, it would be gone in less than 100 years.

Are you listening to yourself? Are you really trying to say that wood is not biodegradable? Lolwut

Aren't those treated with varnishes and oil to prevent it from degrading?

My experiences with exterior varnish (terrible) and oil (marginal at best) would suggest that design is very important.

Eves to protect cladding are essential and if you get a lot of wind and sun, very wide eves.

A combo of UV and rain just punishes wood, and oil/varnish doesn’t handle it well.

Paint fares a lot better.

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