Surface mould growth on five modified wood substrates coated with three different coating systems when exposed outdoors

Modified wood has potential for above ground use, but surface treatment might be a request in such applications. Three coating systems were applied on furfurylated Scots pine, acetylated Scots pine, heat treated Scots pine, oil heat treated Scots pine, heat treated Norway spruce, and eight reference wood substrates and exposed outdoors to evaluate their ability to resist surface mould. Samples of the surface were taken for fungal identification to examine any relationship between treatment and fungal species. Both water-borne and solvent-borne coatings with various fungicides were included and the test was carried out according to EN 927-3. The degree of mould growth mainly varied with time and type of paint. Of the modified wood substrates furfurylated Scots pine had the lowest degree of mould growth and acetylated pine had the highest after 3.5 years. A brown semi-transparent acrylic paint had the lowest degree of mould growth after year 1, year 2.5 and year 3.5. Larch heartwood, copper-organic preserved pine and pine heartwood performed best as wood substrates. No differential patterns in susceptibility to various fungal species were detected on the surface of the coated wood substrates – Aureobasidium pullulans was the dominating species on all the wood substrates.