Building Fast with Mass Timber

Why wood? As cited by the Canadian Wood Council and backed up by their numerous case studies, “wood is renewable, versatile, meets code, and costs less." Significant efforts by the CWC have resulted in a growing awareness and demand for the utilization of wood in modern building construction. Changes to the BC Building Code in 2009 and the expected changes (2015) to the National Building Code of Canada are resulting in increased wood use in mid-rise construction. The BC Wood First Act, implemented in 2009, has also contributed to an increased demand for using more wood for all publicly-funded buildings in BC.

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Why mass timber? Multiple studies in the last two years have shown that the construction cost of a well-designed mass timber building is very close to the cost of a concrete or steel building – generally within +/- 3-5% on total construction cost – and often greatly increases the speed of construction, by up to 20-30%.

On our own Surrey Christian School – a 20,000 sqft building comprising FLT on Glulam beams and columns – the 2-storey superstructure was fully erected, including shear walls, in 4.5 days. In addition to the reduced costs and construction time, there is the benefit of structural efficiency - a mass timber building can be up to 75% lighter than a concrete building, reducing foundation sizes and easing handling of materials.

Some examples of timber projects across the world and their construction times are below. For more details on many of the projects, refer to the excellent Survey of International Tall Wood Buildings put out by FII earlier this year. Note not all erection times are directly comparable due to the widely varying building types included.