Cornerstone Timberframes

Mass Timber

A transformation in building design and materials is underway.

“Mass timber” is an approach to building that uses large, laminated columns and beams and a new product called “Cross-Laminated Timber” (CLT).  The breakthrough of CLTs is surprisingly simple: wood panels, up to 8’ wide and 60’ long, are made of between three to nine layers of wood, with each successive layer running crossways to its neighbours.  This allows CLT panels to be used for floors and walls that span far beyond what traditional wood could previously achieve.

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)

wood panels up to 8 feet wide and 60 feet long

Across the USA and Canada mass timber is turning heads with its amazing features and benefits:

  • Environment: uses sustainably forested trees, a renewable resource to capture CO2, creating a carbon sink for generations
  • Traffic: many fewer vehicles are needed on site, reducing noise and emissions by up to 90%
  • Efficiency: mass timbers come to the site, ready to install. Fewer workers are required, making a more efficient site.
  • Time: mass timber buildings go up 25% faster, reducing carrying costs as well as a project’s carbon footprint.

For our customers building contemporary-styled homes and cottages, mass timber is a perfect fit.  It allows for a clean, minimalist look with large, open spaces.  Longer spans between columns, permit for more glass and the stability and strength of mass timber is a great match for wide fold-away doors and curtain-wall windows.

Cornerstone Timberframes offers FSC®-certified timbers.
© Photos: Stéphane Groleau
© Photos: Stéphane Groleau
Cornerstone Timberframes offers FSC-certified timbers.

Sustainable Mass Timber Solutions

Cornerstone Timberframes is proud to collaborate with Nordic Structures, North America’s leading producer of sustainably harvested, mass timber products in Canada and the USA. Situated in the heart of Canada’s eastern Boreal Forest region, Nordic Structures has taken a principled stand on how they do business, and it makes all the difference:

  • The forest is treasured as a place for plant and animal diversity to thrive. The 2.4 million hectares of Boreal Forest in Nordic’s care are carefully managed from planting to harvesting. Wetlands and areas of high biodiversity are preserved, undisturbed. The company is Canada’s first to adopt the new and most stringent standards for forest stewardship.
  • Local communities and stakeholders have a say in how operations are conducted. First Nations are consulted, culturally important places are protected, priorities for land use are respected.
  • Black Spruce is the dominant tree species in the Boreal Forest. It takes between 80 to 120 years for a seedling to grow into a mature tree with a trunk diameter of 75 – 150mm (3-8”). This slow growth results in tight growth rings and exceptionally high strength to weight properties!
  • Nordic Structures, always an innovator, has adapted to the resource, making their Enviro Lam products with small 25 x 50mm (1x2”) lamella. More of each tree is used, parts previously considered unusable. The pay-back comes in the form of better-looking timbers, greater dimensional stability, and higher mechanical strength.
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Black Spruce: Light, Straight, Strong

ARCHITECTS & BUILDERS

Black Spruce

Black spruce is the perfect wood for cross laminated timber and glue-laminated timber, where stability, stiffness and weight are all key considerations.

Canada’s Boreal Forest contains 210 billion trees. About 70% are black spruce – an extraordinary tree that thrives in the northern swamp and rock of the Canadian Shield. Due to the short growing season of the Boreal Forest, black spruce grows slowly, resulting in dense growth rings which give this species a high strength to weight ratio. It is the perfect wood for cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber, where strength, stability and weight are key considerations.
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Let's Start the Conversation

Get in touch to discover how mass timber can be incorporated into your next project!

1.866.326.4456

Contact

1.866.326.4456
info@cstf.ca

Head Office

11 Main Street – Unit D
Kleefeld, MB R0A 0V0 Canada

Canada (Mail)

Unit 3-20 Brandt Street, Suite 150 Steinbach, MB R5G 1Y2 Canada

USA (Mail)

4737 County 101 #235
Minnetonka, MN 55345 USA

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