I have been asked dozens of times over the past few years how the US can move CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) panel construction from custom medium to large scale projects to use in every day residential construction projects.
When deciding to custom build a home, there are many options for consumers. For example, they can go to a home builder and ask to see some of their stock home designs that can possibly be tweaked, or they can simply google “home design plans” and hundreds of websites will pop up where you can either choose a stock home plan to download and send to your builder, or you can take the stock plan and pay an architect to customize it for you.
This is what we need to see happen for CLT residential home construction in the United States.
In order for this to happen we need to put the cart before the horse, and we need to have architectural firms and designers working closely with the CLT and glulam beam producers to design homes based on stock 48 inch wide up to 60 foot long CLT panel and stock glulam beams.
We need to see websites starting up with stock and customizable home plans based solely on stock hardware, CLT and Glulam beam sizes.
Then we can move towards having regional or national building materials distributors carry hardware as well as stock CLT panels and glulam beams that they can supply local builders.
Then the building materials distributors need to be able to work with local contractors and modular construction remanufacturing plants, possibly with CNC routers, to be able to cut out windows, doors and angle cuts for installation. This is already being done in Italy at small scale CLT job shops. There isn’t any reason why we cannot do the same here in the US.
Someone just needs to get the ball rolling with architects and designers. Is there possible funding through the Softwood Lumber Board and Woodworks to get this off the ground and running?
@David_Stallcop I love your big picture thinking. This plan sounds feasible to put together, we just need to put the right buts in the right seats and start pushing this cart up the hill.
Regarding…
My good buddy Aitor has built such a site (https://stoor.pro/) that is capable of hosting these architectural CLT plans… I’ll go get him on Pakira to share his thoughts.
The best place to start here might be Boise in Milton, Blue Linx in Pensacola, and Weyerhaeuser in Pensacola. @william_giguere have you heard about any distributors starting to stock CLT panels? @Chuck_Frye Did you have any luck finding that LVL distributor?
The Softwood Lumber Board is handing out $2M for CLT projects with a March 30th deadline and this competition is managed by WoodWorks! @David_Stallcop your vision is broader than a single CLT project, but could have a much larger impact… I wonder if they would be interested helping get this off the ground.
I would also love to see this topic brought up with some of the presenters at the International Mass Timber Conference in Portland Oregon next month. I look forward to seeing some of the Pakira members there! https://masstimberconference.com/
Great to hear possibilities for implementing CLT more in the residential sphere-- I think it’s a huge opportunity because it introduces people to Mass Timber on an everyday, intimate scale, instead of just seeing one sort of niche office building or skyscraper made of CLT. And it has the potential to be a lot more sustainable than other methods of building.
Since most of my architectural experience has been designing for densely populated cities (in the US and elsewhere), I also see a huge opportunity to introduce CLT as the new material for apartments and other large housing developments. If the cost can be reduced sufficiently, I could even see CLT being used for more affordable housing because it’s modular, relatively quick to construct, and still somewhat customizable on the interiors. In cities across the US, there’s a huge need for housing and a move to increase urban density through projects like that-- so maybe also being in conversation with developers to create affordable housing could be an interesting route.
Our biggest hurdle was finding an experienced team in Missoula, Montana. Once we got the architect, the builder, the engineer, and the panel producer - all on one Zoom call together. That’s when the magic happened. It’s also extremely tough because the best players in the game are always busy and with the housing market doing what it’s doing, builders and architects and engineers can be stretched 2 years out before they can even think of scheduling you… We are developing a 1 bed / 1 bath, 600 sq ft Mass Timber ADU, that fits into new zoning requirements. We also got a lot of push back at the conference saying the sweet spot for residential is 6 - 12 stories… Well, I’m sorry to say that size of a residential project doesn’t work in every market, but it’s the safe and easy answer to give out. We don’t have small-scale residential multi-family comps to base anything off of. It’s the wild wild west out here still.
