Performance of recent and old sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) wood

• Excellent performance of sweet chestnut wood against wood decay fungi was confirmed.
• Durability of this wood species is not affected by ring width.
• Sweet chestnut wood retains its excellent properties even after 35 years of use.
• Our results opens several possible reuse alternatives for recovered sweet chestnut wood.

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) heartwood is one of the most durable European commercial wood species. Various aspects that could potentially influence the durability were studied in the present research: presence of extractives, ring width and weathering. The properties of wood that had been in outdoor use for 35 years were also examined. The results indicate that ring width and weathering (outdoor use) did not influence the durability. None of the fungi used were able to degrade sweet chestnut heartwood in a modified EN 113 experiment. After extraction with methanol or water, specimens lost between 11% and 15% of total mass by leaching of extractives. However, extraction only slightly decreased the durability of the leached wood. This indicates that other components (in addition to water and methanol soluble extractives) could be responsible for durability. Furthermore, analysis of 35-year-old wood showed that not all relevant properties of the old sweet chestnut wood deteriorated within the mentioned time frame. This proves that old sweet chestnut hardwood can potentially be reused for a variety of applications.