Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
construction-physics.com
Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
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Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#2> 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 was made by laying 2x4's up side by side and nailing them together. They were knotted, warped, reject pile boards and someone collected a big pile and planed one side straight then laminated them into a 20ft or so floor over the basement of a church building. Big massive center beam under it and no other supports but the walls. 3+ in thick and that heavily nailed; no worries.
It was fine finished and lovely from the top; the bottom was moreso to my eye: you could see how woven together it was and how far from perfect the individual boards were.
In both cases the design was inefficient and used profligate amounts of wood compared to what could have been done with steel or other methods. In both cases the wood was extra cheap or free and someone was making expedient use of it.
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#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.
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#4> 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…
> It was fine finished and lovely from the top; the bottom was moreso to my eye: you could see how woven together it was and how far from perfect the individual boards were.
This seems like a fitting description of society in general.
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#5Not a very convincing article. The fact that mass timber uses more wood is right there in the name. Everyone knows this. The point is you get a better building. The cavities in a wood-framed building cause all manner of problems with respect to heat, draft, cold, damp, and noise. Filling the cavity with solid wood variously solves such problems.
All the stuff about the capital cost of making laminated wood is irrelevant. Only the marginal cost of the assembly matters.
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#6Not a very convincing article. The fact that mass timber uses more wood is right there in the name. Everyone knows this. The point is you get a better building. The cavities in a wood-framed building cause all manner of problems with respect to heat, draft, cold, damp, and noise. Filling the cavity with solid wood variously solves such problems. All the stuff about the capital cost of making laminated wood is irrelev…
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Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#7> 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.
It's a false equivalence, light-wood framing is typically used in single-family homes or shorter (Steel and concrete is typically used for 10-20 story multifamily housing.
Mass timber is being pushed by the timber manufacturers as an alternative to steel and concrete, no one's seriously proposing you build your 2-story 2500 sqft home out of laminated beams instead of studs, trusses, and joists.
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#8Not a very convincing article. The fact that mass timber uses more wood is right there in the name. Everyone knows this. The point is you get a better building. The cavities in a wood-framed building cause all manner of problems with respect to heat, draft, cold, damp, and noise. Filling the cavity with solid wood variously solves such problems. All the stuff about the capital cost of making laminated wood is irrelev…
Mass timber isn’t meant to replace stick built buildings that are 5 stories or less, it’s meant to replace reinforced concrete for buildings over 5 stories, up to around ~25 stories [0]
[0] https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/delivering-mission/apply/w...
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#9The article says it's trying to rebut a recent FAS article - which starts with:
> Mass timber can help solve the housing shortage, yet the building material is not widely adopted because old building codes ...
> Mass timber can help with housing abundance and the climate transition.
And the FAS article's call to action seems to be "Congress needs to increase the USDA's budget".
So, yes. Easier than rebutting "warm water is dry and crumbly". One wonders whether the Federation of American Scientists has ever heard of "NIMBY", "zoning", or "environmental impact". Let alone "house-poor" or "local government".
Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
#10Here in Seattle, an eight-story mass-timber apartment building was recently finished, claimed to be the first of its kind in the US:
https://timberlab.com/projects/heartwood
This was built close to my house, so I got to watch the frame rise. It was an interesting process, and it makes a certain amount of sense to emphasize timber construction in this heavily-forested region. I have to agree with the headline, though.