Untreated and ammonia treated spruce wood were impregnated with modified melamine resins with the aim of investigating the impregnation duration and depth in case of the two different wood states and its effect on various characteristic parameters of the final impregnated wood samples. The resin-impregnated wood samples were air-dried and then oven-dried in order to permit the cross linkage of resins. The experiments showed that the ammonia pre-treatment allowed shortening of the duration of impregnation from approximately 24 hours to 2-6 hours. Dimensional stability, mechanical properties and water repellence of impregnated wood samples were tested. Ammonia pre-treatment of wood allows a better penetration of melamine resins into the cell wall that can be expressed by higher compression strengths of the ammonia-resin impregnated samples compared to untreated wood samples impregnated with the same resins.