Mass Timber

Create a mass-timber-piece.

Mass timber inspires innovation.

Valued for its natural beauty, strength, and versatility, wood offers endless possibilities in architecture and design. Conveying warmth and sophistication, it can be used as a load-bearing structure and an interior finish material. Mass timber construction is capturing the imaginations of leading building and design professionals, who continue to evolve and advance its potential.

Sideyard

Photo: Stephen Miller | Skylab

View project

Download the Mass Timber Design Manual, Vol. 2

Download Now

Wood construction resource library

Get access to the latest wood resources. Explore guides, research, and case studies for sustainable building.

Browse All Resources

WHAT IS MASS TIMBER?

Mass appeal.

Mass timber is a new category of wood product that can revolutionize how America builds. It is comprised of multiple solid wood panels nailed or glued together, which provide exceptional strength and stability. It’s a strong, low-carbon alternative to concrete and steel. Mass timber building designs are pioneering better places for us to live and work, and new code changes were passed for the 2021 code cycle that allow mass timber buildings up to 18 stories tall.

CROSS-LAMINATED TIMBER

CLTease.

CLT is a wood panel system that is rapidly gaining in popularity in the U.S. after being widely adopted in Europe. The material’s strength, dimensional stability, and rigidity allow it to be used in mid- and high-rise construction.

Learn More About CLT

Cross laminated timber panel assembly illustration

NAIL-LAMINATED TIMBER

Nailed it.

NLT is a century-old construction method that is undergoing a design renaissance. It can be found in historical buildings as well as in new projects, where its structural performance and design elegance come together to create inspiring spaces.

Learn More About NLT

DOWEL-LAMINATED TIMBER

Get dowel to business.

DLT is gaining traction for its ease of use with computer-controlled (CNC) machinery—such as lathes, routers, and mills—and its all-wood composition. DLT is similar to NLT but uses wood dowels to join boards instead of nails or screws.

Learn More About DLT

GLUED-LAMINATED TIMBER

Glulamorous.

Glulam is a structural engineered wood product commonly used for beams and columns in residential and commercial applications. Glulam allows for long spans of exposed framing, as well as attention-grabbing curvatures.

Learn More About Glulam

connections

It's all about connections.

Effective mass timber connections provide strength, stiffness, stability and ductility. Review these helpful tree-sources to learn more.

Design Specification for Wood Construction

Mass Timber Connection Design

Connection Calculator

An illustration that show the different mass timber connections

Featured CEU

Introduction to Wood Building Systems

Take the CEU

Mass timber construction building system

How tall can you go?

In January 2019, the International Code Council (ICC) approved a set of proposals to allow tall wood buildings as part of the 2021 International Building Code (IBC).

Based on these proposals, the 2021 IBC will include three new construction types:

Type IV-A – Maximum 18 stories, with noncombustible protection on all mass timber elements.
Type IV-B – Maximum 12 stories, limited-area of exposed mass timber walls and ceilings allowed.
Type IV-C – Maximum 9 stories, all mass timber permitted to be exposed (with a few exceptions e.g. shafts) and designed for a 2-hour fire resistance.

These new types are based on the existing Heavy Timber construction type (renamed Type IV-HT) but with specified hourly fire-resistance ratings for building elements and added levels of noncombustible protection. The code will include provisions for up to 18 stories of Type IV-A construction for Business and Residential Occupancies.

View Infographic

Illustration for different heights in wooden buildings

Featured CEU

Design and Construction of Taller Wood Buildings

Take the CEU

Tall wood mass timber building construction

Construction trends.

Illustration of a Hybrid Building with wood floors

Hybrid Construction

Combining wood and concrete or steel in hybrid construction provides a cost-effective and sustainable solution for many occupancy types as well as improving building performance and design.

Read About Mass Timber Differentiators

An illustration of a Taller Wood building

Tall Wood

With recent changes in building codes on the horizon—and a quest to find more sustainable ways to build up—we are seeing a marked rise in the number of taller mass timber buildings popping up across North America.

Read About Tall Timber Trends

An illustration of a light-frame building with a wooden structure.

Infill and Overbuilds

Overbuilds are a technique to add additional stories on top of an existing building, maximizing development area per square foot. Infill refers to the development of vacant lots surrounded by other, existing buildings. Both building types are ways to address urban densification.

Read about Infills + Overbuilds

Learn about hybrid construction in this podcast episode with Benton Johnson of SOM.

Fire Safety

In terms of fire protection, building codes require all buildings to perform to the same level of safety regardless of materials. Wood buildings can be designed to meet rigorous standards for performance, which is why the International Building Code (IBC) allows the use of wood in a wide range of building types.