Linden is one of the most popular medicinal plants. It has been used for these purposes for a very long time and not in vain. Linden is a real treasure trove of health. The inflorescences, which are known to everyone as linden blossom, are most often used as a medicinal substance. In this article we will talk about the beneficial properties and contraindications of linden, how to use it, how to collect and prepare it.
You can learn more about the linden tree from this article.
Peculiarities
Linden has technical characteristics comparable to aspen. It belongs to hardwood and has a uniform density. The raw material does not retain its geometry when dried. It may crack and warp.
Linden dried to a moisture content of 6-10% becomes stable, so only dry finishing material is used to decorate the bathhouse.
Density of dry material – 495 kg/m3. The wood may be white, pale yellow, light brown or pinkish in color. In order to give a white linden a yellowish tint, it is enough to hold it in the sun for a short time. The treated wood surface has a moderate natural shine.
Knots and other defects are rarely found in the smooth texture of linden. The material has low wear resistance. This property allows it to be bent and polished without consequences. The strength of linden dried to a moisture content of no more than 15% for compression along the fibers is 39 MPa and for bending 68 MPa. The specific gravity of dry wood is 0.53 g/cm3.
Linden blossom honey
Not only bees can make tasty and healthy honey. If you don’t have the opportunity to enjoy a natural product, you can prepare its analogue yourself. The ingredients are simple: a liter jar of sugar and linden flowers, a glass of filtered water and the juice of half a lemon.
The flowers need to be washed thoroughly, filled with water and boiled for at least half an hour over low heat. Strain the resulting broth, add granulated sugar and simmer for another hour, then add lemon juice to the pan and cook for another 10-20 minutes.
Application of linden
The material is widely used in interior decoration. Most often, lining made from it, imitation timber and block house are used for these purposes. Recently, the popularity of wall parquet has been growing. This type of material is used for finishing bath walls and ceilings. Less often, edged and unedged linden boards are used.
Linden is ideal for styling antique rooms. In addition to finishing materials, furniture and decorative elements made from this type of wood are widely used in the bathhouse.
Experts recommend making the entire interior trim from linden only in small-sized baths. In large-area baths, combined finishing is used.
How does he behave in the bathhouse?
Dried wood can withstand temperature changes typical for a bathhouse. The finishing material made from it is not chemically active. Unlike conifers, when heated, it does not emit harmful substances that can cause toxic poisoning in humans. It does not crack or deform.
The high density of the material helps it dry quickly after getting wet. Linden does not absorb heat from the heated air of the steam room, so it does not heat up too much and it is impossible to get burned on it. When heated, linden releases a medicinal aroma into the steam room. It has a relaxing effect on a person.
Experts recommend that if there is no linden finish in the bathhouse, use products or decorative elements made from this wood. Wood is not of interest to rodents, but after 6-8 years of use it must be replaced. This is due to the fact that linden is prone to rotting and quickly darkens.
Important! A bathhouse trimmed with linden must have a high-quality ventilation system.
Each time after taking a bath, it must be well ventilated. In a poorly dried room, linden becomes covered with fungus, which is very difficult to remove. The problem is complicated by the fact that the process of decay of the material begins from the inside and cannot be detected immediately.
In the bathhouse, linden material is used for cladding walls, ceilings and canopies. It is better to make floors from larch.
useful coals...
Linden charcoal was used internally for poisoning, flatulence and diarrhea. It is an excellent anti-putrefactive agent. Meat sprinkled with charcoal powder stops rotting and regains its former freshness. They also purified water with it. Coarsely crushed coal and a little sulfuric acid were poured into the spoiled water - the water became clean. Coal was given orally for scurvy and scurvy damage to the gums, for bad breath, and for belching. Take 1 teaspoon of pure powdered charcoal with water 2-3 times a day.
Even tooth powder was prepared from linden charcoal: oak bark, gravilate root and alum were added to linden charcoal. You can make powder from coal with honey. This remedy is used as an external remedy for festering and poorly healing wounds.
Interior decoration
The best option for finishing the interior of a bathhouse is lining.
3 types of profiles of this finishing material are made from linden:
eurolining (products with grooves on the reverse side and a compensation shelf at the joint);
softline (eurolining with rounded edges);
calm (planed panel with a semicircular chamfer).
The most widely used profile in bathhouse finishing is eurolining. It has optimal thickness and width, and can have different lengths, which contributes to economical consumption of material during finishing. Installation of eurolining is carried out on a wooden frame specially constructed for this purpose. It is made from guide bars with a cross section of 50x50 mm or 40x50 mm, which are attached to the walls.
The frame cells are filled with heat-insulating material. For these purposes, you can use “Rockwool Light Bats”. Aluminum foil for Teraspan saunas with a thickness of at least 100 microns is placed on it.
Slats with a cross section of 20x50 mm or 30x50 mm are fixed on top of the foil. The distance between adjacent slats is from 40 to 60 cm.
Important! The bars should be installed when installing the frame perpendicular to the planned location on the lining walls.
The profile is attached to the slats using clamps.
This is a special hidden fastener, thanks to which the profile can be easily removed during dismantling and does not have to be broken. The same method of installing lining is used for lining the ceiling in bathhouses. It is better to purchase thermolip for finishing a bath. This is material dried to a moisture content of 6-12%. It is resistant to rotting and does not change its geometric shape when exposed to temperatures and moisture.
Installing a canopy in a steam room
Linden is ideal for arranging multi-tiered wooden benches, which are convenient to place in a steam room. They should be free of knots, have a surface that is pleasant to the touch, and not heat up too much so as not to cause a burn to the human body. Linden meets these requirements in full.
This tree has hypoallergenic properties, under the influence of steam it releases phytoncides into the air that have medicinal properties, has a smooth surface without knots and a pleasant texture. The frame for the canopy can be made to reduce the cost of the structure from a coniferous bar with a cross-section of 50x70 mm. It consists of 3-5 support posts and cross members.
For waterproofing, rubber gaskets are installed at the ends of the racks. The canopy boards are fastened with self-tapping screws from inside the frame so that the metal caps do not burn a person when they are heated in the steam room. A gap of 1-2 cm wide is left between the canopy boards for water drainage.
To improve the performance characteristics of the canopy and increase its service life, the linden is coated with a layer of heat-resistant wax such as “GNature 290 Hartwachs”. It can also be used to treat walls and ceilings lined with linden material. A coating of two layers of wax lasts for about a year.
To install a canopy in a steam room, a rounded profile of category “A” or “B” is used, having a length of 1 to 3 meters. The optimal width of the boards is 90-92 mm, and the thickness is 26-28 mm.
Doors and windows
Linden doors are most often installed only in the steam room. Due to their low thermal conductivity, they retain heat well in the room. Properly processed material cannot be deformed. A linden door leaf can consist of either a vertical or horizontal profile. They make the door to the steam room only one-leaf.
Linden windows are rarely installed in bathhouses. Most often these are small windows in the steam room. To extend the life of wood, it is coated with antiseptics, fire retardants, oil or wax impregnations. Linden windows, due to the porosity of the material, are capable of letting air through and creating natural ventilation in the bathhouse.
Why are sauna logs rarely made from linden?
Despite the fact that linden is considered an ideal tree for a bathhouse, log houses are made from it extremely rarely. The reason for this is the high cost of wood and its fragility. Linden buildings maintain a good microclimate and a pleasant honey aroma is felt, which repels rodents from the structure.
Making baths from linden was common in Rus'. Peter I had such a bathhouse made from a simple solid linden tree. The advantages of linden log houses include the rare occurrence of cracks in the material and the minimum percentage of its shrinkage. The linden structure is lightweight, which reduces the requirements for foundation construction. It is easy to retain heat in it.
Other advantages of the material include:
- Medicinal properties of wood. The substances it releases into the air help cope with colds, cellulite and prevent liver diseases.
- The material is easily amenable to all types of processing.
- The fibers have a low density, which allows the wood to “breathe”.
Expert opinion
Lovkachev Boris Petrovich
Bath master who knows everything about steaming
All these advantages are offset by serious disadvantages. The lack of resin in linden wood causes increased interest in it from tree pests. Linden log houses require frequent treatment with antiseptics and are subject to rapid rotting in regions with a humid climate.
All this forces lovers of linden bathhouses to limit themselves only to interior decoration from it, and make log houses from other types of trees.
Advantages and disadvantages of the material
Before making a choice in favor of a specific lumber and its type, you should take into account all the characteristics. So linden lumber has the following advantages:
- It lends itself well to processing; it is easy to cut out even very complex objects from it.
- When cut, it has a homogeneous structure, the rings are even and tightly spaced, there are no defects. The texture is not bright, so the linden wood surface looks very neat.
- Externally, even an unedged board looks like an expensive variety. This effect is created due to the shade of the wood - pleasant milky with light pinkish tints. The older the tree, the more pronounced its attractive features.
- Fresh wood is pliable without drying, but after drying it becomes very strong. Products or structures can last for decades.
- Almost does not absorb moisture, so it is not prone to rotting. Linden floors are an ideal choice for kitchens and saunas.
- Compatible with polishing, linden is resilient and flexible, which is why linden is also used to create works of art.
- It does not darken over time and retains a beautiful shade.
The tree can live up to 500 and even 1000 years. But such specimens are prohibited from being cut down by law. The age of the tree after processing, that is, its service life can reach up to 60 - 100 years.
Despite many advantages, linden also has disadvantages:
- Damage by microorganisms, which is why it is important to carry out and repeat antibacterial treatment in a timely manner.
- It costs several times more than other breeds.
How to distinguish it from aspen?
It is difficult for an ordinary person to distinguish one type of wood from another.
Most often, linden is confused with aspen. Both types of trees are considered ideal for a bathhouse, but have a serious difference in cost. Aspen is much more expensive than pine needles, and linden is more expensive than aspen. Unlike linden, which can have various shades from white to coffee, aspen stands out for its snow-white surface.
Linden exudes a characteristic sweetish aroma, and aspen exudes a bitter odor reminiscent of birch sap. If the surface of linden becomes silky after processing, then a slight roughness may be felt on aspen. There are also dark falling knots on the surface of aspen.
Chemical composition
The beneficial and harmful characteristics of linden are explained by the presence of a number of chemicals that have been found in all parts of such a tree. It should also be noted that linden is one of the main honey plants in Europe. Its unique aroma attracts bees.
The flowers of the plant contain vitamin C, saponins, flavonoids, tannins, amino acids, essential oils and polysaccharides. The mineral composition is represented by Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn.
Linden leaves are valued for their protein and ascorbic acid. Fatty oils accumulate in fruits after ripening. The healing properties of linden depend on the method of consumption and on the parts of the plant that are used for treatment. The therapeutic result is achieved with constant intake of drinks based on parts of the tree, as well as external use of medicinal raw materials.
Recommendations for processing
The surface of the finishing material is covered with various means to protect it from environmental influences and insects, as well as for decorative purposes. Properly treated linden can last in a bathhouse for up to 100 years.
Modern manufacturers produce a wide range of products that can be safely used for treating wood in a bathhouse.
The most popular among them are:
ship varnish
linseed oil
wax mastics
Steam room products must have natural compositions, water or oil base.
Questions and answers
Why is it better to use eurolining for cladding the interior of a bathhouse, rather than imitation timber or a block house?
This choice is driven by economic considerations. The cost of cladding with eurolining is significantly lower than the cost of imitation timber or block house.
Can cracks appear in a linden log house over time?
No cracks appear in linden log houses during operation until the moment when the wood begins to rot.
Where is it better to install linden doors in a bathhouse?
Linden doors can be installed in any room. They do not absorb moisture, do not deform and do not change their geometric dimensions over time.
How does fake eurolining differ from regular lining?
On the inside of the eurolining there are grooves to remove moisture condensation, which a conventional profile does not have. Eurolining is thinner and has a larger tenon (8-10 mm). This allows you to connect a profile that meets European standards with virtually no gaps.
Is it possible to use linden boards with natural humidity to decorate a bathhouse?
It is not recommended to use such material for finishing work. When it dries, it will become severely deformed.
