{"id":4675,"date":"2015-06-29T10:12:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T10:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.sdps-bbs.com\/?p=4675"},"modified":"2025-01-16T18:05:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T22:05:35","slug":"the-value-of-constructing-with-timber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/the-value-of-constructing-with-timber\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of Constructing With Timber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Logs\"Article shared in NASF May 15, 2015, E-Newsletter\u200b<\/a>
\nLloyd Alter<\/a>, Managing Editor
\nTreeHugger.com\u200b<\/a><\/p>\n

As we continue to burn through our nonrenewable resources at an alarming rate, it is important that we never underestimate what we can do with our resources that can be replenished.\u00a0One of these, wood,\u00a0is an extremely valuable material but\u00a0has been underutilized in construction for one big reason: fires. Every so often,\u00a0a wood structure\u00a0like the 188-unit apartment complex in Richmond, BC, burned down in 2010<\/a>\u00a0goes up in a blaze and\u00a0hinders\u00a0the support of timber construction in a big way.\u00a0While this is a valid concern, there are several things to consider before abandoning hope. Most of the big building fires covered by\u00a0the news have been on uncompleted buildings still under construction. This means that fire suppression systems haven’t been installed yet, and oftentimes incomplete floors lacking fire-retardant drywall, or walls of any kind, give\u00a0the fire huge ventilated areas to spread. This is hardly fair to mark these fires as a failure of\u00a0wooden construction. In completed buildings, close to 80 percent of fires are contained to the rooms they are started in.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, fire damage\u00a0isn’t limited to wooden buildings. Structures made of concrete, steel or other construction materials can still weaken and collapse under the heat of a fire. In fact, heavy timber resists fire very well, burning slowly and\u00a0creating a layer of char\u00a0that helps to preserve the structural integrity of the inside wood.A recent advancement in timber technology to note is Cross-Laminate Timber\u200b<\/a>, or CLT. CLT is made from stacks of industrially dried and fully glue-coated\u00a0lumber.\u00a0It is exceptionally strong, multi-purpose and\u00a0lightweight. Construction using CLT is quick because it is easy to prefabricate and transport.\u00a0Like heavy timber, CLT produces a layer of char when burned, and when used in construction, engineers factor in this layer and use enough wood to allow charring to form while still maintaining enough internal wood to be structurally sound. Also cosmetically, CLT looks pleasing and can be left exposed, reducing building cost.\u00a0CLT has been considered the future of wood-based construction and for good reason.<\/p>\n

So with some of\u00a0the negative stigma of wooden construction debunked and the values of timber buildings explained, this leaves the biggest value of it all to think about: renewability. Timber is the only 100% renewable material for building construction.\u00a0One billion cubic meters of logs are produced each year in North America and Europe alone, creating 200 million cubic meters of engineered timber and done in a careful\u00a0way so that forests maintain their size. This is enough material to build 150,000 offices a year.\u00a0Timber also\u00a0locks up carbon that was absorbed by the tree during its growth, reducing pollution. As we look to the future, we should look to the trees. It’s time for\u00a0timber construction.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/strong>
\nNASF May 15, 2015 E-Newsletter\u200b<\/a>, National Association of State Foresters\u200b
\nMaking the Case for Wood Construction<\/a>, Treehugger
\nTimber Offices: The Time Has Come<\/a>, ARUP
\nThe Education Store<\/a>, Purdue Extension Resource Center\u00a0(search\u00a0“timber”)
\nWhat is Cross Laminated Timber?<\/a>\u00a0American Wood Council\u200b\u200b
\n2014 Indiana Forest Products Price Report and Trend Analysis<\/a>, Indiana Department of Natural Resources<\/p>\n

National Association of State Foresters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article shared in NASF May 15, 2015, E-Newsletter\u200b Lloyd Alter, Managing Editor TreeHugger.com\u200b As we continue to burn through our nonrenewable resources at an alarming rate, it is important that we never underestimate what we can do with our resources that can be replenished.\u00a0One of these, wood,\u00a0is an extremely valuable material but\u00a0has been underutilized in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,53,55],"tags":[60,71,73],"class_list":["post-4675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forestry","category-urbanforestry","category-woodproductsmanufacturing","tag-forestry","tag-urban-forestry","tag-wood-productsmanufacturing","audience-for-enthusiasts","audience-for-homeowners","audience-for-landowners","audience-for-professionals"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4675"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30897,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions\/30897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}