Clay preserves wood
The equilibrium moisture content of clay is so low that it always removes moisture from the wood.
Because clay has a low equilibrium moisture content, it keeps adjacent wood dry. This reduces the risk of fungal and insect infestation.
Clay is a diffusion-open building material, which means that it draws moisture wherever it can get hold of it. This not only works when buffering fluctuations in room air humidity, but also directly when combining the building materials clay and wood.
If, for example, a timber frame construction is lined with earth bricks, the direct contact between clay and wood is in no way harmful, on the contrary: you make sure that the clay mortar has as many points of contact with the wood as possible.
Wood and clay are ideal partners in building with natural materials. The clay protects the wood in a completely natural way from moisture and thus also from wood pests, which love moist wood, from mold and other messes. The reason for this is the structure of the clay minerals. Clay has a superfine, multi-layered crystal structure, on whose relatively large surface an extremely large number of water molecules can accumulate: one gram of clay has a surface area of around 800 m².
If the wood that is in direct contact with clay is damp, the clay removes moisture by virtue of its diffusibility. Water molecules penetrate from the wood into the capillaries of the clay until it is dry and cannot release any more molecules. If the wood contains a lot of moisture (or if it keeps getting wet for whatever reason), this process continues until the first water molecules have reached the outside of the wall, where they are dried off by the wind: a capillary suction is created, which becomes wood permanently and reliably dehumidified.
If, for example, a timber frame construction is lined with earth bricks, the direct contact between clay and wood is in no way harmful, on the contrary: you make sure that the clay mortar has as many points of contact with the wood as possible.
Wood and clay are ideal partners in building with natural materials. The clay protects the wood in a completely natural way from moisture and thus also from wood pests, which love moist wood, from mold and other messes. The reason for this is the structure of the clay minerals. Clay has a superfine, multi-layered crystal structure, on whose relatively large surface an extremely large number of water molecules can accumulate: one gram of clay has a surface area of around 800 m².
If the wood that is in direct contact with clay is damp, the clay removes moisture by virtue of its diffusibility. Water molecules penetrate from the wood into the capillaries of the clay until it is dry and cannot release any more molecules. If the wood contains a lot of moisture (or if it keeps getting wet for whatever reason), this process continues until the first water molecules have reached the outside of the wall, where they are dried off by the wind: a capillary suction is created, which becomes wood permanently and reliably dehumidified.