Author: Gary Snider

An Interview with Our CNC Team

Posted on by Gary Snider
Curious, detail-oriented, problem-solvers.

Cornerstone Timberframes is continuously learning. As a company, this means we’re always on the lookout for better information, methods, and tools.  Our transition towards CNC (computer numeric control), which allows a computer model to directly guide the cutting of timbers, began in 2017 with the acquisition of a used Hundegger K2. We were so impressed with the speed and accuracy of that unit that we upgraded to the latest and best in 2020, a Hundegger K2 Industry with Robot Drive.

I recently sat down with Cornerstone Timberframes’ CNC Team to talk about their work.  

Are there skills and interests that you, as CNC operators, share that make you well-suited for the work? 

Derek: Being comfortable working with computers is important. Attention to detail is also key because small things, like decimal points, can have a big impact on the result.

Jake: We’re all mechanically inclined and we love knowing how things work. We’re curious and want to know why something happens the way it does.

Matheus: Problem-solving is big. New joinery details will routinely cause error codes and you have to solve them. Figuring stuff out is an everyday part of the job.

Is there any aspect of your work with the K2i that you found surprising?

Derek: The CNC does what you tell it to do and that’s determined by the operator and software. Perhaps one aspect that might surprise someone not doing our work is that the software that runs this machine is constantly being updated.  Software updates will solve an issue, but in some cases will introduce a new issue. That happened this past week when an update caused the big 800mm saw to keep spinning after it was done with a cut, which it shouldn’t do. Thankfully, the technicians at Hundegger respond fast, and we get these types of issues resolved quickly.

Mattheus: What I found surprising is this big machine’s ability to cut fine, delicate details. A great example of this is the little trophies we made for a fun competition. We cut them from maple, and the four corner posts are just 3mm thick. I was expecting these would break, but the machine is incredibly controlled and accurate.

Powerful but delicate, the K2i is superb at executing fine details.

How important is maintenance in your work?

Jake: It’s critical. Every morning all working surfaces inside the machine are cleaned. The CNC spindle and robot drive are lubricated with specific oils. At the same time any replacement blades and tools are also installed.  Before regular operation begins a timber is run through with cutting instructions that test the K2i’s many operations to ensure that tools are cutting accurately and cleanly. 

 Daily tests show that tools are sharp and operating properly.

Does the CNC do everything well, or are there details that are difficult for it to cut?

Mattheus: We have a current job that has lots of round columns and the CNC has trouble seeing and handling rounds. So we “trick it” into seeing these pieces as squares. We attach special saddles to the columns so that the K2i can securely hold and cut them. A few of these columns also need large vee shaped cuts along one side and the K2i can do them, but it takes too long. I think it will go faster if I cut this detail with a circular saw. We’ll see! 

Jake: I figure this K2i cuts about 30x faster than a person can. Of course, this also means that if an error makes it through into the final model, that mistake can be cut multiple times before being detected.  Focus and checking are super-important. 

A lot of our commercial projects use steel brackets, knife blades and connector plates. Timbers, even mass timber beams, are not perfectly uniform and straight, which means that small discrepancies are normal. Combining wood with steel, which has a near-zero tolerance, makes the slots and drillings where these two materials meet especially important and challenging.

CNCs are fast but need creative humans to reach their potential.

What do you see in Cornerstone’s future with respect to CNCs and other tech?

Derek: We’re going to have more technology like CNC’s and robotics, not less.

Mattheus: That’s true, but we’ll also still have timber framing that a CNC won’t do, as long as we have natural and irregular materials like reclaimed barn timbers.

Jake:  Machines will do more of the hard, tedious work. CNC’s won’t replace traditional know-how, they’ll replace the hard, repetitive tasks.

Finally, how do you find working together as a team?

Jake: We’re good at solving challenges together.  Because we run two shifts, one Monday to Thursday and a second Wednesday to Saturday, communication has to be effective between us – which it is.

Derek: We meet each morning to talk about the day’s tasks.  For team members who aren’t here we use emails and shared documents to keep track of details that everyone needs to know.

Mattheus: We enjoy working together. And we learn a lot from each other. Each of us brings our expertise to the work, Derek has lots of previous CNC experience, Jake is an encyclopedia of tools and specifications, and I bring my joinery problem-solving. 

After our half-hour conversation, it’s time for the team to get their day underway. I’m feeling guilty knowing how much work is waiting for them.  They’re laughing about something as they walk back to their work – a healthy sign of a team that has bonded. 

I think about how much our company has changed since we took hold of the potential that CNCs offer. While the technology is impressive, I still find it’s the people that translates that potential into reality.  I’m proud of the great individuals and teams that keep Cornerstone at the forefront of sustainable timber construction!

Choose Black Spruce

Posted on by Gary Snider

Cornerstone Timberframes delivers mass timber structures that meet the highest standards of performance, sustainability, and aesthetic value. In collaboration with our supply partner, Nordic Structures, we proudly utilize black spruce for our mass timber elements — a material that continues to prove itself as a superior and cost-effective alternative to Douglas Fir.

Why Black Spruce?

  1. Reduced Cost Without Compromise

Black spruce offers structural strength ratings equivalent to Douglas fir at a lower material cost. This creates notable savings, particularly when scaled to larger commercial, institutional, or residential builds.

  1. Superior Dimensional Stability

The tight grain and small laminations in black spruce glulam result in increased dimensional stability, reduced checking, cupping, and twisting over time. 

  1. Improved Colour and Appearance

Black spruce is known for its uniform appearance and light colouration.  Its superior ability to receive stain and faithfully render colours makes for creative freedom and a higher architectural appearance. In comparison, fir’s red undertone and tendency to have light and dark alternating stripes create aesthetic limitations.

  1. Locally Sourced & Sustainably Harvested

Grown and manufactured in Canada, black spruce is a renewable resource harvested from well-managed forests in Quebec. Both Cornerstone Timberframes and Nordic Structures are FSC® certified, choosing to follow the most rigorous sustainable forestry program in Canada.

  1. A Decarbonizing Hero

Black spruce is uniquely suited to help Canadians decarbonize construction.  At about age 80 black spruce is mature and begins to decline in health, moving from absorbing carbon to releasing it back to the atmosphere. Nordic harvests mature black spruce, locking their carbon into durable mass timber products. In contrast, Douglas Fir trees live for over 300 years, absorbing C02 throughout their long lives.  It is vital to preserve long-lived trees as carbon sinks if we hope to reach a carbon-neutral future.

The Unlikely Hero of Mass Timber

Posted on by Gary Snider

This feisty little tree grows throughout the northern regions of Canada. It survives harsh conditions, long, cold winters, and short 60-day growing seasons. 

Black spruce thrives in low, boggy landscapes. It reaches maturity at around 80 years and can live up to 120. Under ideal conditions, it can reach 30 metres into the sky and grow up to 36 centimetres across. But this is rare.  Most black spruce will top out at 20 metres (65 ft) and have trunks only 11-15 cm (4-6 inches) in diameter.

Black spruce is well-adapted to wildfires and is one of the first trees to return after a fire. Rather than dropping cones, it holds them in its uppermost branches where they can remain unopened for years. The cones are rigid, resisting weather, squirrels and insects, opening only slowly over time, or quickly when heat from fire softens the cone scales to release the winged seeds.

These cones, held for years, await a fiery dispersal and the start of a new forest.

So far, none of this seems very heroic. In fact, it’s almost surprising that the black spruce is even considered for construction. But here comes a plot twist: small is beautiful, slow is strong, and even early mortality can lead to a new life that saves the day.

Black spruce is the hero. Its list of hardships is now a checklist of preferred traits for sustainable mass timber construction:

  1. The short growing season faced by black spruce produces tight growth rings, which is ideal for creating high-strength wood fibre. 
  2. The tree has small downward-sloping branches, designed to survive heavy snow loads. Small branches leave only small knots in the milled lumber, which allows it to retain superior strength characteristics. 
  3. It often grows in dense stands and is exceptionally straight. As a result, black spruce boards have straight, uniform grain, giving them exceptional stiffness and stability.
  4. Black spruce is a short-lived tree which begins to decline in health around age 80. They also stop taking up CO2 and start to release it as they age further. Not surprisingly, this coincides closely with the historic frequency of natural wildfires. Harvesting black spruce before they decline helps to reduce CO2 emissions.

In contrast, large western conifer species like Douglas Fir continue to absorb CO2 throughout their lives and can act as growing carbon sinks for 300 years or more. As a climate-change mitigation strategy, the science makes a compelling case for protecting long-living trees, allowing them to remain in forests to take up and store carbon. At the same time, using black spruce for mass timber is environmentally responsible, as it locks the carbon of end-of-life trees into durable products and reduces the occurrence and intensity of wildfires.

To make mass timber, black spruce requires a passionate and innovative ally. That ally is Nordic’s parent company, Chantiers Chibougamau, which has worked in Quebec’s northern forests since 1961, turning black spruce into lumber and I-joists. In 2000, after years of development and testing, the company introduced the Enviro-Lam process, a method for making large-section glulams out of small-diameter logs. It was a breakthrough that allowed previously unutilized wood fibre to find a high-value use. In 2010, Nordic Structures built North America’s first Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) line and kick-started the continent’s mass timber movement, with black spruce as its undisputed champion.

Understanding and working with nature provides the best innovations and outcomes. When we adapt our approach to fit the resource, both nature and people can thrive.

A section of Nordic Lam+ shows the innovative 30x50mm (1.25”x2”) lamella made possible by the Enviro-Lam process. Also, on display are the impressively tight growth rings that make black spruce such a structural gem.

Michigan State University’s new STEM building is a marvel of visually impactful design and utility, made possible by black spruce.

5th Annual Sustainability Week US

Posted on by Gary Snider

The Economist, the world’s leading business publication for 181 years, is gathering business and sustainability leaders in New York City to look at the most pressing environmental issues facing society today.

A few of the topics being discussed at this year’s event (June 11 & 12, 2025):

  • Decarbonizing supply chains
  • Food system resilience
  • Circularity vs recycling
  • Water scarcity
  • Clean energy’s role in reducing fossil fuel demand
  • Can cities and states go it alone to reach climate goals?
  • Renewable energy
  • Regenerative agriculture

What Sustainability is:

Sustainability looks at our human society’s ability to continue indefinitely within the natural cycles of Earth’s biosphere.

Earth’s biosphere is foundational to sustainability. It’s the layer between the high atmosphere and the Earth’s crust, where all living things on Earth exist. Compared in scale to the Earth’s size, it’s about the thickness of the outer skin of an onion!

Why Sustainability matters:

Our planet’s carrying capacity is finite and controlled by what the biosphere can provide and sustain.  When biosphere systems are damaged or exceeded, the negative impacts erode Earth’s ability to support life. Human society is at a critical juncture, where continued harm to the biosphere is making planetary conditions less hospitable to life.

Mass Timber and Sustainability:

Construction is energy-intensive, with concrete, steel and synthetic building products topping the list of intensity and unsustainability. The appeal of mass timber is that wood can be harvested sustainably, uses a fraction of the energy to produce, and stores atmospheric carbon for many decades. And that’s just the start.

Mass timber provides these additional sustainability gains:

  • Off-site manufacturing – mass timber elements are fabricated in manufacturing facilities with efficient workflows not affected by weather.
  • Low waste at all stages – timber billets are custom-produced for each project, so cutting waste is minimized. Timbers go to site, complete and ready to install.
  • Lighter, smaller foundations – mass timber is 1/5 the weight of concrete, allowing for big reductions in foundation volumes, schedules, and site traffic.
  • Smaller site crews – mass timber buildings are assembled with crews of 4-6 workers, and with less equipment than concrete or steel.
  • Faster construction timelines – reductions of 25% in an overall build schedule is typical for mass timber, saving weeks of vehicle trips, equipment use, and support services!

Looking Forward:

As climates change, our forests are changing too, and mass timber can help reduce wildfire risks that threaten forest-adjacent communities.

Mass timber is gaining traction within the construction industry and is increasingly recognized by architects, developers, and governments as the building material that best addresses the sustainability issues of our time. The sustainability challenges ahead are certainly daunting. Mass timber is one small contribution, moving us in the right direction.

If you’re interested in learning more about mass timber sustainability and how it can be part of your next project, call us!

Roof Deck Solutions

Posted on by Gary Snider

In this article, we look at a critical but often underappreciated part of timber frames – the roof deck.

In modern timber framing, whether with sawn or mass timber, the roof deck is the first layer that is attached above the ceiling beams or rafters.  It’s a big part of what makes timber frames strong and attractive.  We call them decks because they’re more than a ceiling finish; they carry roof loads and resist forces that could distort or damage a building.

Tongue and Groove

The most popular roof deck material that Cornerstone supplies to client projects is “2×6 tongue and groove boards”, in pine or fir.  These boards have a profile that allows them to fit tightly together and span up to 5’ between rafters.

When T&G boards are nailed onto rafters the high friction connection between boards makes the entire roof act as a single unit which can resist lateral forces, such as those created by high winds.  They also provide these great benefits:

  1. Continuous nail base – which means a nail or screw will always find a solid base to attach to. This makes installing the rest of the roof so much easier.
  2. Work stage – during construction, T&G decking supports workers, making their job faster and safer.
  3. Interior finish included – not only strong, but also good-looking, T&G boards provide an interior ceiling finish that goes well with timbers.

Tongue and groove boards come in other thicknesses and profiles as well. 1×6 is a favourite for accent walls where the look of T&G is desired but the strength of 2” material would be excessive.  And double T&G is made in 3” and 4” formats to be used for spans of 6-8’. It’s harder to find and is often a special-order item that may take 3 months or more to produce.

Mass Timber

Modern and minimalist designs, both residential and commercial, have long spans that require roof decking to match. Laminated wood decking answers this need, coming in 8” and 12” widths and lengths up to 60’.  Spans of 10-12’ are typical.

What’s Next

Micro CLT is a fairly new product that is made up of 3 ply’s of laminated wood that run crossways to each other.  The material comes in panels, in a variety of dimensions up to 6’ wide by 15’ long. Thicknesses range from ½” to 2-1/4” so it can be used as a wall, ceiling or structural roof deck.

The cross-lamination makes this material extremely stable and strong, while keeping all the beauty of natural wood.  Micro CLT often comes with a lap or T&G edge profile, allowing them to fit tightly together.  The panel format will enable them to be installed fast!

Fire Resilience of Mass Timber

Posted on by Gary Snider

Wood Burns

This fact may make the word “resilience” in today’s blog title seem a little optimistic. But time and again, real-world testing in Europe, Canada, and Australia show that in fires, large-section mass timbers maintain their design strength, thanks to how wood reacts to fire.

Fire Testing

To start, let’s look at a recent fire test conducted at the Ottawa Fire and Explosives Testing facility on June 10, 2022

The Canadian Wood Council was assisted by fire researchers at the National Research Council to conduct full-scale fire testing on a two-storey, mass timber office, with open floor plan.  The final test was designed to simulate a “worst-case scenario” and was run without the intervention of sprinklers or firefighters.

The office space was arranged with wood cribbing to about 120% of a modern office fuel load. Window and door openings were left open to allow unobstructed air inflow. An “aggressive ignition package” was used to start the fire, ensuring that flames reached the ceiling as rapidly as possible.

At 10 minutes following ignition the fire is at its maximum intensity and thereafter begins to cool.

By 25 minutes, only the remains of the “office furnishings” continue to burn at a low intensity.

The fire lasted four hours, ten minutes and self-extinguished once the fuel load was exhausted. Despite the intensity of the fire, the building remained structurally sound and, following the fire, was safe to enter.

Char Saves the Day

Why did the office building in the CWC fire test not collapse? The answer is found in the way big timbers burn. As fire envelopes a big timber, it develops a surface char layer, and two effects occur – the char is much less combustible and its also a poor conductor of heat. These characteristics of char dramatically slow the transfer of heat to the interior of timbers, which in turn reduces the rate of burn and limits the amount of material available for combustion. By sizing timbers to account for the char layer, a mass timber structure can endure a “worst case” fire and still maintain structural integrity.

The dramatic photos above leave no doubt that fire is a severe threat to structures and human life. They also show that mass timber acts in a way similar to non-combustible construction. It is the contents that burn while the structure keeps its capacity for loads. In multi-storey buildings this capability allows for fire survival in cases where evacuation becomes untenable and ‘shelter in place’ is the remaining option.

Sprinklers Work

Building codes require multi-unit residential buildings of four stories or more to have automatic sprinklers. They also have hardwired smoke detectors and fire alarm control panels that notify the local fire department. Thus, the probability of a “worst-case” scenario is very low. In Europe, an engineering consulting firm Arup conducted fire tests on a large mass timber structure and found that when a low-pressure water mist suppression system was in use, it effectively extinguished the fire with only “limited discolouration” of the ceiling panels above the fire ignition point and minimal water damage.

Conclusion

While fires will always be a risk, modern mass timber design and construction dramatically improve life safety. While mass timber is extremely difficult to ignite, when it is exposed to fire, its char-forming trait will protect its load bearing capacity. When an operating sprinkler system is in use, fires will be contained within the space where they were initiated.

Mass Timber- Finishing Well

Posted on by Gary Snider

It’s hard to imagine that a half millimeter could dramatically improve our appreciation of a material. But with a stain or finish, carefully chosen and applied, the natural beauty of wood can go from “that’s nice” to “this is gorgeous!”.

Twenty-one years ago, our CEO opened the first five-gallon pail of stain in Cornerstone’s finishing shop. Her unyielding pursuit of technical perfection is a path our professional finishing team has followed ever since.  As Cornerstone entered the world of mass timber our tools and methods adapted. The goal, achieve a super-durable finish that looks great, allows easy clean-up both during and after construction, and makes the owners and occupants proud.

Photo from: Northern Log

One of our first realizations was that mass timber can be very heavy and awkward to handle. Glulam billets that we transform into finished columns and beams can weigh several tonnes and be up to 60’/20m long. Every step of handling requires the right equipment, skilled operators and well considered safety precautions.  Moving a 60’ billet through a 24’ wide shop door with a standard forklift simply doesn’t work.  Thankfully, a company out of Belfast, Northern Ireland had already solved this problem.

A Combilift Sideloader carries loads to the side of the operator and can drive in all directions, making it an invaluable team member when pieces get long.

Standard industry practice for finishing mass timber is quite basic and consists almost entirely of sprayed wood sealers.  These are best described as undercoats, and their stated purpose is “to protect wood from weathering during storage, handling, shipping, and installation”.  Sadly, most proponents and owners of mass timber projects never realize the short-term nature of these finishes. Left as the only coating, they leave timbers looking dull, scuff easily and break down within months of application, leaving timbers vulnerable to moisture, UV damage, and dirt.

Cornerstone’s finishing approach is driven by our craft experience. We see mass timber structures like large furniture. They deserve quality finishes that preserve the beauty of an honourable material and that respect the hundreds of hours of craft work in each frame.  In our view, a finish must do three things: celebrate the beauty of wood, make cleaning and maintenance easy, and look good for years.

Our finishing process for mass timber follows these steps:

  • Billets arriving from the laminator need a good sanding to make them silky smooth
Put the palm sanders away! A set of wide billets gets an initial sanding with…a floor sander.
  • A penetrating base coat sets the client’s chosen stain colour into the wood.
  • A first topcoat of clear finish is applied to protect the base coat.
  • For exterior timbers, a second topcoat is added, providing extensive protection from weather while also enabling easy maintenance.
  • The result:

We may be more than a little biased, but the relatively small cost of quality finishing for mass timber is a true no-brainer. So much aesthetic goodness is developed and preserved, while so much hassle and future cost is avoided. 

It’s a beautiful half millimetre that should be part of every mass timber plan!

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Gary Snider

At Cornerstone Timberframes a few of us with Irish roots look forward to St. Patrick’s Day, and we’re happily joined by our friends and co-workers who are fond of green beer and the sound of tin pipes and bodhrans.

Us few turf cutters, also tend to think of what this time of year represents “back home”. This is when the first green shoots appear, tree buds swell, and Irish farmers are busy preparing their fields. It’s also well remembered that St. Paddy’s Day replaced a more ancient Celtic celebration of earth’s amazing power of rebirth, so was marked as a time of love and renewal of friendship.

In our line of work, with timber frames and mass timber, we also find that this time of year has us thinking green thoughts, especially about the health of the places we depend on for our livelihood.

The Green Challenge

In both Canada and the U.S., the arrival of St. Patrick’s Day coincides with foresters nervously checking snowpack depths, soil moisture and long-range forecasts. In many regions, but especially the west, the past decade has seen a rise of persistent drought conditions. The spring rains still appear, which helps spur plant growth, but this is often being followed by weeks and months of hot, dry, windy weather. The result is that wildfires in BC, Washington State, Oregon, and California are hotter, larger and faster spreading than at any time in recorded history. In BC, 2024 saw forest areas lost to wildfires at more than double the 20-year average.

Climate change is a major driver of drought and fire. And humans have unwittingly assisted. By suppressing wildfires for 90 years, we created whole regions where natural, healthy fire renewal has been prevented. With hot, dry summers, many of these over-dense, mature stands are rich fuel when fire finally arrives.

Keeping it Green: Sustainable Forestry Practices

In 2017 Cornerstone made a deliberate choice to promote the use of mass timber in more commercial and residential projects. Mass timber makes better use of forest resources, is a net drawdown of CO2, and goes hand in hand with better forest management practices.

The use of mass timber is more than just an eco-friendly choice; it strengthens local economies through the creation of well-paying jobs in manufacturing and forestry positions that are often vital to rural towns looking for economic hope. In celebrating the richness of nature at this time of year, we’re reminded that building with wood has a very real connection to both the health of our environment and the economic success of our communities.

Healthy Forests and a Green Future

Silviculture is the practice of studying, caring for, and maximizing the health of forests.  In turn, forests are a major and integral part of our planet’s biosphere. And it’s not an exaggeration to say, that a functioning, healthy biosphere is the life-support system for all living things.

As we raise a glass to St. Paddy, and all things green and growing, we should also thank the foresters, whose silviculture work today in careful planting, thinning and harvesting will have real impact for decades ahead. Their work is daunting, but few jobs are as important or rewarding.

As we face challenges such as wildfires, drought conditions, and the impacts of climate change, the economic and environmental role for wood products is more important than ever.

This St. Patrick’s Day, take a moment and join us at Cornerstone Timberframes to give thanks for forests and those who work to make them more resilient. By managing our forests sustainably and utilizing the wealth they offer, we can work toward a greener, more sustainable future for all.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us at Cornerstone Timberframes!

Engineering Week: Celebrating Our Collaboration with Engineers

Posted on by Gary Snider

At Cornerstone, we take pride in working with remarkable engineers who not only understand timber’s advantages as a building material but also bring attentiveness, creativity, and exceptional analytical clarity to their work.

Over the decades, our relationship with engineers has evolved into a more proactive and collaborative partnership. In the past, we would simply submit final shop drawings for structural review. Now, we engage engineers early in the design process, exploring innovative solutions that excel in function, finance, and aesthetics.

In engineering, as in other professions, standards of professional responsibility provide an important ethical baseline. However, they seldom address the real-world concerns that matter most to clients, such as quick turnaround on questions, openness to collaboration, alternative solutions, reasonable fees, and excellent personal rapport. These qualities are driven by the people and the workplace culture of individual firms.

Three engineering firms exemplify this new approach to collaboration. I’ve changed their names not to avoid giving them credit, but to encourage all engineers to continue striving for a more collaborative, client-centred practice.

Clarity Engineering – This multi-office firm provides engineering solutions across various sectors, including transportation, buildings, and water treatment. We appreciate their thoroughness and highly detailed proposals that are clear and comprehensive. They are champions of value engineering and readily offer studies of alternative solutions.

Grand Engineers – This international engineering firm specializes in mass timber and has established itself as a leader in large, high-profile projects. When project complexity rises, they deliver exceptional solutions that allow architects to utilize intricate geometries, massive cantilevers, and striking curves. They remain at the forefront of monumental wood design.

Boutique Engineering – With a single office and seven engineers, they stand out with remarkably fast responses that reflect a deep understanding of project priorities, constraints, and opportunities. Boutique excels in small and medium-sized projects, consistently maintaining high levels of service. While fees shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor, their great service and fair pricing make for a winning combination.

In the past, the engineering profession may have been perceived as a little distant and occasionally inflexible. These old stereotypes have been overturned thanks to a new generation of engineers who value collaboration and welcome alternative solutions. Cornerstone’s structural engineers appreciate wood and realize the vast potential that mass timber holds for safe, resilient, sustainable construction.

Join us this week to celebrate the contributions that engineers make to our lives and the built world we inhabit. Their innovative ideas and value-driven solutions are truly inspiring!

When Affordable Is Sustainable

Posted on by Gary Snider

Imagine a comfortable, attractive home that is well-designed and has features that greatly reduce the energy demand. It has a heating and ventilation system that is half the size and cost of a regular home. It has exceptionally clean indoor air. It can handle prolonged power outages and stand up to extreme weather. It is far less susceptible to loss from a wildfire or other calamity. In short, it’s as close to future-proof as one can imagine.

And the kicker – its price tag is what your neighbour just spent on their “custom home,” but yours will be completed in 1/3 of the time and will outperform the neighbour’s place in every measurable way. In 20 years, when you sell, your place will have appreciated at twice the rate of your neighbour’s, and if you invested your savings from low utility bills, you now have an impressive nest egg. Although you and your neighbour spent the same on your new homes, you are hundreds of thousands ahead simply by choosing the affordable/sustainable option.

Dozens of authors, scores of studies and thousands of built examples tell us how we can build better. So why are we not there yet? Sadly, the construction industry is the most dysfunctional, wasteful and unproductive sector of our economy, and it’s a system that stubbornly resists change. As homebuyers, we are disadvantaged because so few of us understand how poorly homes are built, and even fewer know that radically better ways exist. A better way, exemplified by companies like US-based Unity Homes, is steadily gaining traction, but you don’t turn a 10 trillion-dollar ship around in a day.

Image source: ThinkWood

To help move the rudder in the right direction, we need more:
1) Collaboration –Affordability happens when trades, regulators, architects and suppliers work together, removing waste and creating efficiency. Silos of power and control are roadblocks to the future we need.
2) Building off-site – Manufacturing is a big part of the answer. Prefabrication provides better quality, reduced costs and shorter timelines.
3) Demands for efficiency – higher efficiency requirements support the building of homes with the lowest lifetime cost of ownership. Affordability is the purchase price plus all the utility and upkeep bills for as long as you live in your home.
4) Innovation & Automation – Building science and advanced manufacturing equipment combined with new ways of using natural materials to achieve more affordable, warmer, healthier homes.

If you’re interested in new and better ways of building, we’d love to hear from you. In 2026, Cornerstone will introduce an innovative yet straightforward wall system that will provide a beautiful option for architects, builders, and clients. It’s exciting to be on the leading edge of change, and maybe a little nerve-racking too. But this is how change starts.

Would you like to dig deeper? Here are a few books on the housing crisis and the role
for cities, policymakers, and you and me on how to resolve it.

  • Our Crumbling Foundation, Gregor Craigie, 2024, Random House Canada
  • Escaping the Housing Trap, Chuck Mahron, Daniel Herriges, 2024, Wiley
    Home Truths, Carolyn Whitzman, 2024, UBC Press
  • You’ll Pay for This!, Michel Durand-Wood, 2025, Great Plains
Image source: Elemental Green