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Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

construction-physics.com

11–20 of 799 posts

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#11

> the mass timber framing uses four to five times the volume of wood as the light-framed wood framing. I recall helping nail 2x6's together into big composite beams, in the 80s in Florida. something like a 32 foot clear roof span was needed and I think we were doing 3 layers for a 6in x 6in final profile. Good job for a kid: "Here's a box of 150 nails. put them all in these boards" I've seen a meeting hall floor that…

I had an addition done where they had to bolt LVL and steel plate together for a rather large span with cantilever. That bit of support isn't ever moving.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#12
To solve the housing crisis you have to build up like the Soviets and Chinese have. They housed a lot of people, quickly.

It’s really not difficult; just takes some brave people to change the zoning laws and rethink some of the building codes combined with financing it.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#13

To solve the housing crisis you have to build up like the Soviets and Chinese have. They housed a lot of people, quickly. It’s really not difficult; just takes some brave people to change the zoning laws and rethink some of the building codes combined with financing it.

But not like the UK and US social housing / projects. They need to be in master planned, well thought out and connected communities.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#14

To solve the housing crisis you have to build up like the Soviets and Chinese have. They housed a lot of people, quickly. It’s really not difficult; just takes some brave people to change the zoning laws and rethink some of the building codes combined with financing it.

But not like the UK and US social housing / projects. They need to be in master planned, well thought out and connected communities.

I cannot upvote this enough. We ruined today through decades of car centric planning, we have to give the future something better.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#15

To solve the housing crisis you have to build up like the Soviets and Chinese have. They housed a lot of people, quickly. It’s really not difficult; just takes some brave people to change the zoning laws and rethink some of the building codes combined with financing it.

But not like the UK and US social housing / projects. They need to be in master planned, well thought out and connected communities.

Mixed use. And also mixing all types of social, free-market rental and owner occupied. Quality for later two could be better, but it should still be next to each other using same services.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#16
Of course timber won't fix the housing shortage. The housing shortage is artificial. There are plenty of empty units across the country. It's a distribution issue of: owners holding vacant units, people wanting/needing to live in specific locations, and individual preferences for bigger, fancier, better school, sfh, etc attributes. With an almost stagnate population growth this isn't really a building issue even if it is a supply side issue.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not like the UK and US social housing / projects. They need to be in master planned, well thought out and connected communities.

I cannot upvote this enough. We ruined today through decades of car centric planning, we have to give the future something better.

This whole chain is a series of ideas that will never happen.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#18
post #3

> the mass timber framing uses four to five times the volume of wood as the light-framed wood framing. So... basically "buy more wood?" I think I'll pass.

You can do things with it that you can't do otherwise. For instance, you can create extremely large spans that weren't otherwise possible in wood framed construction. This creates really cool opportunities when designing the interior of a home.

Framing can be done with LVL as well and the benefit is that it's very stiff. This means a better frame when you have high ceilings and the ability to go 24" off center so you can have more insulation. Can do this with 2x6 as well.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot upvote this enough. We ruined today through decades of car centric planning, we have to give the future something better.

This whole chain is a series of ideas that will never happen.

These are not the vibes I am looking for. If you don’t have hope, what are you even doing?

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#20
post #16

Of course timber won't fix the housing shortage. The housing shortage is artificial. There are plenty of empty units across the country. It's a distribution issue of: owners holding vacant units, people wanting/needing to live in specific locations, and individual preferences for bigger, fancier, better school, sfh, etc attributes. With an almost stagnate population growth this isn't really a building issue even if i…

Raise prop taxes for non-rented vacation units by 150%

Raise prop taxes for rentals by %350.

Raise prop taxes for airbnbs by %500.

Everyone will own a home, and home prices will plummet as people try to unload extremely expensive property taxes. And if it doesn't work, double my percentages. Or just make it 100k per year. Those people crazy enough to keep holding them, will fund the creation of homeless housing. DV's are just landlords and other types of bottom feeders.

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