Are you looking to reduce your carbon impact? Is speed of assembly (or speed to market) important to you? Do you or your tenants prefer the natural beauty of wood? If so — mass timber might be the way to grow!
JLG’s team has compiled everything you need to know, including the benefits and challenges of working with Mass Timber!
BENEFITS OF MASS TIMBER
1. Development Differentiator: Post-COVID, high-quality dwellings are in demand. Mass Timber offers a warm, biophilic environment that attracts tenants, securing leases easier and faster.
2. Return on Investment (ROI): A mass timber office building may cost about 20% more, but rents can be about 40% higher. Plus, with fewer added finishes and prefabrication techniques, these types of buildings can go up about a month and a half faster than a traditional one, cash flowing even sooner.
3. Speed of Construction: Prefabrication and digital fabrication techniques allow buildings to be built faster. Plus, you can leave that beautiful wood exposed and save yourself the cost of a ceiling!
4. Efficiency: Mass timber uses all parts of the log to minimize waste and maximize carbon benefits. Glued-laminated beams (glulam), cross-laminated decking (CLT), mass plywood panels, and other forms of mass timber utilize higher-grade material where strength is paramount, and lesser material where it experiences less stress.
5. Carbon Negative: Forests are one of nature’s largest carbon sinks. A large tree can capture over 5,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. Sustainable forestry practices maximize growth and sequestration over time in an endless cycle beyond what nature can accomplish on its own.
CHALLENGES OF MASS TIMBER
1. Tolerances and Sequencing: Timber requires precise fabrication and different skills than conventional concrete and steel. Fabricating timber is an art of voids and cutting away, more like a marble statue than a concrete pour. You only get one chance to cut away, requiring significant forethought. Every connection requires careful thought about planning for expansion, contraction, and milling tolerances.
2. Lateral Loads: Timber often wants to be combined with steel to handle substantial lateral loads and avoid bulky build-ups. Integrating multiple systems creates additional complexity, but the expression brings out the unique strength and beauty of each material.
3. Protection: As a dynamically beautiful material, timber is almost always left ex-posed and is one of the first things installed. All subsequent trades have the potential to irreparably damage the finished product if care isn’t taken.
4. Finish Quality: Wood has a variability in color and grain that can be apparent from piece to piece. It can even get a “suntan” if left exposed. Most is irreversible, but cleaning can improve some weathering or damage.
At JLG, we’re reducing our carbon impact, helping developers attract tenants faster, and reinforcing responsible investments with the beauty of mass timber.
