Unbelievable, but true: wooden houses could not stand for 100 years, but churches have been standing for 3-4 centuries! Why is that
Have you ever thought about the fact that peasant wooden houses were no more than 100-150 years old, and old churches have stood for at least 300-400 years, and have a very great potential? And this despite the fact that many churches are not heated at all, and houses without heating rot much faster.
Interestingly, it was the lack of heating that benefited the churches, since breakdowns of pipes and furnaces and negligence in the Russian empire accounted for about 45 percent of all fires. That is, many houses simply burned down and did not live to be 50-100 years old. But in the churches there were almost no fires, and they were not set on fire on purpose - the God-fearing peasants could not take such a step.
The second nuance is rotting. The tree is heavily rotted and the logs have to be changed frequently. Gradually, fungi and bacteria eat up any home, but rot is not a sentence. Wooden structures were made so that whole crowns could be changed without any problems.
Usually they rotted from below, since the buildings were simply on the cobblestones, which did not prevent moisture from entering the house. Therefore, replacing logs is quite common for wooden houses.
They did the same with churches, so rot is not a problem.
The third nuance is what the churches did from larch. - such wood is much less susceptible to decay, and has a density one third more than that of pine. It is difficult to transport, cannot be floated, but in operation it is very reliable. And the churches were made of it.
Even during the restoration of churches, there are very frequent cases when the larch base was left untouched, since it is perfectly preserved. Even 200-300-year-old logs are still very strong and were not subject to decay.
Plus, people put their best effort and resources into the church. The holy places were made for centuries, so the walls were smooth, even, and a lot of money was given to the craftsmen for them.
And another very interesting nuance
In 1864, a decree banned deforestation and the construction of settlements, so the huts were remodeled more than once. The old house is decaying, it is being dismantled, and a new house is being built in its place, adding fresh ones instead of rotten logs. Therefore, very few copies have come down to us from the ancient huts - they were dismantled and sent either for firewood or for building materials. But the churches were treated very carefully, they were often restored, and therefore they have been perfectly preserved to this day!