Author: Stacey

Earthrise 2024

Posted on by Stacey

Earthrise 2024

“Earthrise” taken on December 24,1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders - Public Domain.

A fresh perspective can be life changing. Fifty-five years ago, this image met the crew of Apollo 8 as they orbited the moon. The astronauts were in awe as they scrambled to find a roll of colour film for Bill Ander’s camera.  

The photo that Bill Anders took, shows Earth, set in the vacuum of space above a cratered, lifeless moon surface. How does this image make you feel?  What thoughts does it give rise to, about this planet, about life, and your place in it?

For many, an image like this brings up complex feelings: empathy for Earth, a sense that we don’t get how special our home is, that there must be a way for people to treat each other better, that life is beautiful, so fragile, and rare.

All our individual and collective actions speak to how we view our Earth home.  On balance, it can be argued that our species has been unkind to the living world and the planetary support systems upon which all life depends.  This must change and it’s why we mark Earth Day and consider our role in bringing about positive change.

On a planetary scale, any single action seems trivial, almost worthless.  But if we worked ourselves into trouble by a few billion unwise actions, we must find our way out by billions of responsible actions, no matter how small.  Everyone has a part.  

At Cornerstone Timberframes we’re actively working on several fronts, to bring about positive change.  Here’s our Earth Day update on what we’re doing:

  • In 2017 we started working with mass timber, which allows for a low-embodied carbon approach to commercial construction.  Mass timber also provides for faster construction while storing large amounts of carbon in the finished building. By 2030 we expect that 75% of our projects will be built with mass timber.
  • Our joinery and finishing shops use a lot of electricity – equal to what 44 Manitoba homes need in a year!  We’re preparing to go solar. This will free up power during peak daytime hours for use in homes, businesses and in the transition to EV transportation. 
A second use for roofs: this is what 375 Kilowatts looks like!
Touring a harvest area in the Trout Lake Forest, near Ear Falls, Ontario
  • Last year we changed our purchases of engineered wood products to 100% FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood. This category of wood makes up an increasing share of our production.  FSC sets high standards for preserving the forests that provide the timber we use.
  • In 2024 we’ll be addressing our wood waste stream that currently needs to be hauled away.  We’ll be using it in a high-efficiency boiler to heat our shops, reducing our reliance on electricity, and ending our need for natural gas.
  • Cornerstone encourages employees to carpool or use active transport whenever possible. Uptake for both initiatives has been good, but we can still do better.  Spring is a great time to tune up our bikes and commit to using the car a little less.
  • In March we joined WoodWorks Ontario, the Canadian Wood Council, and the Ontario Forest Industry Association, to visit sawmill and harvest areas in NW Ontario.  What we found was inspiring.  More First Nations are managing forest lands, deciding how the forests are harvested, renewed, and protected for future generations.  The sawmills we visited have more women in leadership roles and more employees from under-represented communities. Welcome changes that move us toward the world we need.

Being good to our planet also brings good things into our lives. Here are a few of our favourite small-scale ideas that Cornerstone employees are working on in their own lives and communities:

  • Volunteering at the community bike repair shop.  Helping more folks get back onto their bikes, or onto their first bike! 
  • Planting fruit trees in our shop yard (apple, cherry, pear…). Beauty and food combined.
  • Replacing more of our lawn with native plantings like highbush cranberry, milkweed, bluestem, gallardia, wild raspberry. It’s amazing how the butterflies find it! 

At Cornerstone Timberframes, we believe in using Earth Day as an opportunity to evaluate our practices and strive towards being better. We hope that this inspires you to do the same!

Inside Our Shops

Posted on by Stacey

Inside Our Shops

Technology, People, Diversity, Respect

Cornerstone’s roots run deep in the soil of traditional timber framing. From the company’s inception in 1991, the founding Peters brothers maintained a steady focus on technical excellence and quality.  Complementing their deep respect for traditional skills and methods, an interest in finding “better tools”, allowed them to see that new materials, digital design and state of the art equipment did not threaten the craft but freed it to be so much more.

Pete & Wayne Peters, timber frame experts and owners, 1991-2015

By the time Cornerstone began its foray into mass timber construction in 2017 it was clear that the company was ready to automate much of its cutting. Under new owners, Tanya (Pete’s daughter) and husband Nevin Bachmeier purchased our first Hundegger K2, a used CNC machine that quickly proved its worth.  Within three years the limitations of this machine were reached and a new, K2 Industry with Robot Drive was ordered, arriving in mid-2022.

The CNC technology in the latest generation of machines is especially impressive for the range of cutting tasks they can perform, their speed and exceptional accuracy.  Imagine a 24” flangeless saw, a 5-axis universal mill, a slot cutting tool, a drilling unit, and a 6-axis robot with access to a rack of 24 specialized tools, all working from a 3D mass timber model that has been checked for compliance with the architect’s BIM design.

The K2i + Robot Drive can do the work of fifteen carpenters with zero errors and millimeter accuracy.
High quality, dimensionally accurate timber is the starting point for every job entering the shop. An automated, four-sided planer designed for large, long timbers is an essential partner to the CNC.
The K2i can handle timbers up to 60’ long, 12” high by 51” wide. Timbers are checked as they enter the K2 to identify and adjust for any variance that might affect connection accuracy.
With long timbers, a traditional forward facing forklift doesn’t work so well. Omni-directional and side-running forklifts have been a great addition to our shop.

A common criticism of modern wood-working technology is that it replaces people and discourages those left behind from retaining craft skills.  Our experience has shown this to be unfounded: we employ the same number of carpenters as we did before our first CNC arrived.  Injuries and repetitive stresses are reduced, and the variety of creative work and skills being learned has only increased. 

Modern timber framers are comfortable with computer modelling, they’re familiar with a wide variety of tools and techniques and are better able to see the whole project.

Our shop is a meritocracy: skill and cooperation lead to personal and group success
And while CNC cutting can do almost everything, there are a few details that still look better when a human hand guides the saw. A 30’ long chamfer, cut at precisely 26.6 degrees.
When every piece is unique but appears similar, good labelling is vital. New RFI tags incorporated into nails may eventually make these labels redundant.
Not automated. Our dedicated finishing shop hand applies three coats of stain to every timber. Robotics for finishing is widely available and will eventually manage the range of sizes and shapes we produce for our structures.

Cornerstone Timberframes will always seek out and embrace “better tools”.  Our choices will be shaped by our people, a respect for our craft and a love of wood.  The mass timber revolution is going to change our company, but only for the better.

Noise in the Neighborhood

Posted on by Stacey

Noise in the Neighborhood

By Gary Snider

While visiting Germany this spring, I found myself standing at a busy intersection, waiting for the pedestrian signal to change.   A large group of motorcycles approached, went past, then accelerated as they cleared the intersection.  It took several seconds before I realized why the experience felt so odd… the motorbikes were all whisper quiet.

The subject of noise came up a few times that week and I learned that the German public has a much different set of expectations around noise than we do in North America.  They see noisemaking like they do littering, it offends the “public good” and is simply not tolerated.  In Germany, the government sets limits on noise and the penalties for those who fail to curtail it are significant. This “no messing around” approach to limiting noise flows into how they build, especially in places where people must live close together.

During a tour of a new apartment building under construction, our host explained, “We never want to hear our neighbours. No one will want to live in a place where footsteps or music can be heard from another apartment.”  

To illustrate this, he went to the unit directly above the one we were in and he jumped repeatedly, landing with as much force as he could. He was not a small person – but we heard nothing. Clearly, something in the design and materials used in this building were making a big difference. (See the blog “Big Wood Wall” for a description of the building system used in this multi-family apartment).

Coming back to Canada, I’m paying more attention to the sounds I hear at home and work.  The neighbour’s idling diesel truck, five doors down, can be heard in my living room.  The concrete plant 100m from my office makes a humming sound that enters even when my office window is tightly sealed.  My noise list is growing and I’m aware that low frequencies have no problem passing through 2×6 walls and even triple-pane windows.

Noise Reduction by Design

If the health benefits1,2 of a low-noise home are important to you, here are four key ingredients you’ll want your designer to include in your plans:

1) Reflect – hard, smooth surfaces bounce sound waves better than soft and textured surfaces. This is a good starting point for the outermost (cladding) layer in your wall assembly.

2) Gap – Sound is a vibration and air is a poor conductor.  By adding an air void behind the cladding, the “survivor” sound, that gets past the reflective layer, has to “jump” through a low-density space.  The means of creating the gap is all-important: small contact surfaces, light connector materials and vibration damping washers and membranes are your key to connecting your exterior cladding to the structure.

3) Absorb – insulating materials in this group are soft and compressible.  They receive the incoming sound vibrations and break them up into smaller waves that bounce repeatedly in a maze of tiny spaces within the material.  Mineral wool and wood fibre insulation are highly effective examples of this type of material.

4) Mass – heavy, solid base materials like a CLT (cross-laminated timber) wall are hard to vibrate, even at low frequencies, and make a good “base layer” in a wall assembly. Sound waves weakened by a journey through the first three barriers have little energy left to shake a dense CLT wall panel.

About CLT’s: They came onto the building scene in North America in 2010 and gained quick acceptance in multi-storey residential construction. They’re precise, strong, go up fast, and make an excellent base for noise deadening walls. And an extra bonus: a CLT wall provides you with nail base everywhere!

Cornerstone Timberframes specializes in sustainable wood products. Our first CLT project was the Eagle’s Nest cottage, built in 2017.  

Ask us about Nordic Structures CLT wall panels, for your next project!

1 Passchier-Vermeer, 2000, “Noise exposure and public health”
2 Babisch W. 2002.  “The Noise Stress Concept”, in Noise Health 5 (18) 1-11

Wood is the Way Forward

Posted on by Stacey

Wood is the Way Forward

Wood is part of a virtuous, circular bio-economy and Canadian forests can play a significant role in our response to climate change.

  • As forests grow, they absorb and store carbon dioxide (CO2).  Together with our oceans, they have been our planet’s thermostatic control for eons.

  • When a mature tree is harvested, it makes space for new trees to grow which will capture more carbon.  No carbon capture system humans can devise is as beautiful, simple, or as efficient as a tree.
  • The math: A tree is about 50 percent carbon, by dry weight.  One cubic meter (m3) of softwood weighs 500kg on average, so it will hold 250kg of carbon.  When carbon (atomic weight 12) is oxidized, it picks up two oxygen atoms (atomic weight 16) to become CO2, so every kg of carbon will generate 3.67kg of CO2.  Therefore, a m3 of wood holds nearly a tonne of CO2, 917.5 kg to be exact. (Credit: Arno Frühwald, Univ. of Hamburg)

     

  • Products made with wood extend the storage of carbon for decades and centuries.  Many aesthetically pleasing wood products, like mass timber, will have “after-life” uses in other buildings, furniture, and as feedstock for new engineered wood products.

  • When wood is used in place of concrete, brick, steel or plastic, carbon emissions are significantly reduced.

  • Wood provides a path to a sustainable future. It is the responsible way to build.
Mass timber makes for visually delightful spaces with large carbon storage benefits.

“Must See” Timber Connections

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“Must See” Timber Connections

Two joinery details that change how modern timber frames are made.

Whenever two pieces of timber meet in timber framing, they need to be connected. Carpenters call this connection ‘joinery,’ which involves cutting specific details into two pieces to keep them together. These joinery details are usually hidden from view once the timber frame is assembled. 

In this article, we will discuss two joinery details that have made a significant contribution to the visual and strength values of modern timber frames. These details are part of a ‘quiet revolution’ in timber framing, which has been made possible by technology.

Dovetails – the old dovetail connection has been around for centuries.  It’s a V-shaped tenon on the end of a timber that slots vertically into a matching pocket in another timber.  It’s often used in floor joists, connecting them to larger floor beams.  They can also be used for purlins, corbels and wherever a small timber intersects a larger one.

Tapered dovetail mortise in receiving beam
Improved tenon with double taper.

The new type of dovetail features a double taper that pulls timbers together as it settles into place.  The new shape provides more contact surface and ensures that the joined pieces stay tight as they adjust to indoor humidity levels.  Strength and beauty are given a helping hand, thanks to this smart dovetail design.

Housed Mortise – this is a joinery detail that “fortifies” the typical mortise and tenon connection.  Essentially, it’s a step or recess that borders the mortise on all sides, allowing the tenon and the whole connecting timber to be set into the receiving beam or column.  In the pre-modern period, a housing was a considerable amount of additional work for a carpenter to create and was therefore used sparingly.  Where a timber needed to resist larger rotational or lateral forces (think old mills and larger civic or church buildings) a housed mortise was an effective and worthwhile detail.

The Housed Mortise allows the incoming timber to be set fully into the receiving column.

With the advent of CNC timber cutting, the effort and time needed to create a housed mortise has been significantly reduced.  And while most timber frame projects don’t need the structural benefits of a housed joint, these connections have one additional trait: they’re aesthetically pleasing.  The gap that typically can be seen where two timbers meet, disappears, as it happens out of sight, thanks to the recessed housing.

If you’re thinking of a timber frame for your next project, be in touch!  You can reach us by phone: 204.377.5000 or by email: info@cstf.ca.

US – Canada Free Trade Turns 35

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US – Canada Free Trade Turns 35

Free trade between the US and Canada will celebrate its 35th anniversary on New Year’s Day, 2024. 

In 1982 the US unemployment rate reached 10.8%, the highest level in the entire post-war period.  Over 12 million job-seeking Americans were idled. In Canada unemployment reached 13%. There was sharp disagreement about the best course of action to address the underlying economic stagnation. Unions and employment advocates called for higher tariffs and stronger trade barriers as the only effective way to protect jobs.

Predictions of massive job losses, a deterioration of worker rights and a loss of sovereignty were major concerns raised by those opposing free trade.

US President, Ronald Reagan argued that the best medicine for the unemployment crisis and an under-performing economy was not protectionist measures, but free trade. Many on both sides of the political divide called his ideas naïve and reductionist.  Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney also faced push-back, with opponents saying a trade deal would simply make Canada the 51st US state.

The Reagans hosting the Mulroney’s at a White House state dinner in 1988.

Trade negotiations took five years and yielded the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) in 1987, which came into full effect on January 1st, 1989.  Mexico was not included in this initial agreement and lobbied hard to have the agreement expanded to include the whole continent.  Once again, labour leaders and politicians predicted economic disaster if a low-wage economy like Mexico would be added to the deal.  It would take until 1994 before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law and all three countries began to remove tariffs on each others’ goods and services.

Celebrating the 1994 NAFTA signing.  Salinas, Bush, and Mulroney.

As with so many things, the tally of wins and losses can be difficult to distill from the wide array of other changes happening in the global economy at the time. Technological change in the early 1990’s was dramatic, China was growing as an export powerhouse, the Cold War ended, and the European Union was also liberalizing trade.  In these years, the economies of all three countries saw dramatic growth and economists attribute the largest impacts to NAFTA.

  • US trade with its neighbours more than tripled following the deal.
  • It’s estimated that 14 million US jobs are directly tied to open trade with Mexico and Canada.
  • Consumer prices declined, especially for agricultural products and energy.

Cornerstone Timberframes has been exporting timber structures to the US for more than 21 years.  While free trade has felt positive it doesn’t show up as a factor for the builders and homeowners who choose us.  Our clients tell us their purchases are driven primarily by three considerations:

  • The attentive and friendly service that Cornerstone is famous for.
  • Feeling heard and understood by our design team, which results in beautiful, personalized designs.
  • The sweet realization that a US dollar is worth 35% more in Canada.

If you’re looking to build and want to realize the benefits of free trade, talk to a friendly Cornerstone Timberframes representative today!

Creating Your Backyard Oasis

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Creating Your Backyard Oasis

with a pergola or Gazebo

One of the joys of summer is being outdoors, surrounded with pleasant views, unharried by the cares of the world.  If you are looking for outdoor happiness, a well-designed and properly sited timber frame structure, like a pergola, gazebo or outdoor bar can transform a pleasing backyard into an oasis of wellbeing and delight.

The Checklist:

To make the work of planning your get-away a little easier, here are the top 10 things you’ll want to know before you spend a dollar on designs or materials. Good design starts with a location, examines how a space will be used and then creates a shape and features for that space that help you maximize your comfort and enjoyment.

First, let’s narrow down the best spot for your oasis:

  1. Review your yard’s exposure to all the things that will have a bearing on your enjoyment. Think about the times of day when you’re most likely to use your gazebo or pergola – what’s happening at those times with sun, shade, neighbours, street noise and the like?  Do you have a wind-sheltered spot?
  2. Next, where are your favourite views? Move around your yard and note the views you like, as well as any that you’d rather not see. Plantings and privacy screens can often help with the latter, so don’t count out a location if it scores well in #1 but has a view to the neighbour’s tool shed – the solution can be beautiful.
  3. For your top locations, think about the path your family and guests will use to reach your gazebo or pergola.  Look for any issues that might affect ease of access.  Remember that distance matters: the closer it is to your home, especially your kitchen, the more you’ll use it and enjoy it.  Being close also reduces electrical runs, path materials and makes every transit between home and oasis easier.

How do you want to use your outdoor space?

  1. Consider how many people you’ll routinely have and the largest number at any one time.  A properly sized space will range between 1-1/2 and 2 times your “everyday” group size.  For larger gatherings, having a patio area as part of your oasis is an easy way to provide room for those additional guests.
  2. Is food preparation and outdoor dining on your menu?  Outdoor kitchens can be compact and simple, and they can also be large and lavish.  Think about the kinds of meals and cooking style you prefer and list the essential elements you’ll need to achieve a hassle-free food prep experience. 
  3. Other Outdoor Features to consider: Think fireplaces, water features, hot tubs, TVs, special lighting, pizza ovens, swings, hammocks and whatever completes your definition of relaxation and refreshment.  Some of these are large and need careful consideration in your design while others can play a part in creating privacy and hiding a less desirable view. 
  4. Do you hate being bugged?  No surprise: mosquitoes, wasps, and flies can make it a challenge to fully relax outside. Thankfully, window and screen materials for gazebos have seen big improvements in variety, functionality, and toughness.  Your gazebo designer can recommend a solution and make sure that window openings make best use of your preferred anti-bug defense.

The shape, style, and material used to make your backyard oasis will enhance your use and enjoyment:

  1. Shape alone, could easily be its own blog topic. Simply stated, square and rectangular pergolas and gazebos are the go-to solution if you’re after the most efficient and affordable space.  Hexagon and octagon shapes involve more material and joinery ($$) but have more wow factor, especially when you step inside a gazebo and look up at how the roof timbers converge.
    Single slope roofs, also known as shed roofs, are simpler to build and can provide a more contemporary feel.  Ask your designer to show you the different roof types or visit our “Look Book” to see the many ways you can configure the shape of your get-away.
  2. Sidewall height needs to allow for at least a 6’-8” (2m) clearance under the eave beam, with 7’ to 9’ heights being most common.  Roof slopes from shallow to steep are a personal choice.  You may want to match an existing building on your yard or let your oasis be its own thing.  Overhangs of 12”-24” are typical, but again, your preference rules.  If you matched the roof pitch of another building, matching the overhang also makes good sense.
  1. If you’re a person who loves wood, this one can be a difficult consideration, but here’s some help:  Cedar is the gold-standard material for handling weather.  It comes in a variety of species with “western red” and “northern white” being the most common.  Both are highly rot-resistant and can be allowed to go silver or helped along with a moisture repelling finish like Sansin’s Wood Sealer. Douglas fir and white pine need to keep dry feet and we recommend using a post stand-off to keep columns clear of puddles.  A good three-coat stain finish is essential.

For more contemporary designs glue-laminated posts and beams can do wonders, allowing longer spans and high-capacity connections, while keeping a sleek, minimalist look.  

Ask your designer to see examples of available wood types.

 

Pavilion – a roofed structure, free-standing or attached to a larger building.  Is typically open-sided but may also be enclosed by walls.
Gazebo – an open-sided, free-standing, roofed building usually located in a natural area like a garden or park.
Pergola – an open roof structure that provides shade and can also support climbing vines that provide additional shade and privacy.

Why Wood is Good

Posted on by Stacey

Why Wood is Good

9 Reasons to Design and Build with Mass Timber

1. Ease of Use

No other construction material is as versatile or easy to use as wood. It can be cut, shaped, and fastened with basic tools.  With experienced supervision, installation is quick and can be undertaken by a small crew with only basic carpentry knowledge. Repairs and modifications are easy and do not require heating or other special measures in cold weather.

2. Fire Resistance

Mass timber is inherently hard to ignite, and when exposed to flame it develops a char layer that resists further combustion.  Full scale fire testing shows that mass timber can meet and exceed required fire ratings, acting like non-combustible construction.  See firetests.cwc.ca for details.

3. Seismic Resilience

Timber can resist seismic forces that cause rigid masonry to crack   and crumble.  Wood fiber’s elasticity allows it to bend and twist without breaking.  Good connection design is critical.

The classic example of seismic performance is the Ying Pagoda in Shanxi, China, built in 1056.  It is 67m / 220’ tall and has withstood a dozen major earthquakes over the past millennium. In 1556 (its 500th anniversary) it survived the Jiajing Great Earthquake, the deadliest quake event in recorded history. While built of wood, its exceptional resistance can also be attributed to its design.  The Ying Pagoda uses a locking joinery that keeps radial beams in place between the inner core and columns at the outer wall.  When things shake and sway these critical connections are designed to move and not break – a flexible, brilliant solution.

4. Acoustic Properties

The International Building Code (IBC) sets out a 50dB sound reduction standard for walls and floors. Concrete, with its high density can achieve this with 15cm / 6” of section. Solid wood is 1/5 the density of concrete, an advantage in almost every aspect of construction, except for resisting sound transmission.  Low amplitude sound waves in the 50-100 Hz range are of special concern in floor assembly design with footfalls and furniture movement being the most noted complaint examples in older wood-framed buildings.

Unlike traditional wood frame construction, the draw of mass timber is being able to see the wood.  Exposed wood ceilings are especially desirable, and this requires sound insulation to be placed on top of the floor as opposed to it being added into a ceiling void. 

A 5-ply CLT floor of 175mm thickness (6 7/8”) by itself has an STC rating of 41. To increase this to a 60 dB rating a multi-layer assembly is required. The top strategies for improving floor sound deadening are:

  1. Decoupling – use of an acoustical mat that creates a low-density zone that inhibits lower Hz sound waves.
  2. Use of a sound absorbing layer – loose-fill limestone or mineral wool board can act as diffusion layer that breaks up and scatters sound waves.
  3. Increase mass – using light concrete toppings (gypcrete) of 25-50mm (1-2”) helps the assembly resist sound vibration.
  4. Flooring material – a variety of floor coverings can provide significant reductions in impact sound transmission.

An updated inventory of STC and ICC ratings with tested assemblies can be found at Woodworks, a US not-for-profit that conducts research on mass timber construction: http://bit.ly/mass-timber-assemblies 

Mass timber is an innovative space where new ideas are constantly improving outcomes.

5. Thermal Comfort

Mass timber’s thermal properties are perfectly suited to human use.  Mass timber components are slow to transfer heat and cold and help moderate the temperature of indoor spaces even when outdoor temperatures move into extremes.

CLT walls by design and construction are “thermally tight”.  In stick framed walls, a common failing is poor draft sealing – air leakage at seams, and at hundreds of nail, staple, and screw punctures, significantly reduces their performance. The CLT’s solid, multi-layer core makes it essentially wind impervious. CLT panels are machined to fit precisely, and simple sealing details ensures a higher fit and finish.

Tests at Oakridge National Laboratory’s Large Scale Climate Simulator showed that CLT walls outperformed stick frame wall assemblies, reducing peak heating and cooling demand by 30%-50% and improving thermal comfort by up to 46%.*

*“Impact of Mass Wood Walls on Building Energy Use, Peak Demand, and Thermal Comfort”, M Salonvaara, 2022.

6. Sustainability

Sunlight, soil, and water – that’s the basic recipe for producing wood.  Nature excels at making use of available resources, bringing things into balance, while building forest communities whose only “waste products” are oxygen, clean water, and a surplus of beauty.

The production of wood and mass timber stand in stark contrast to the energy intensive industrial processes for making concrete and steel.  One way to understand and compare these building materials is to examine their contribution to our world’s existential challenge of climate change.  Consider the graph below:

This graph compares wood, concrete, and steel, by looking at the CO2 emissions generated in the production of a single beam, designed to span a 7.3m (22’ 3”) distance while supporting a 14.4 kN/m unfactored load. All three materials are optimized to the span and load but achieve it with much different carbon emissions.

The wood beam is a glue-laminated timber made up of responsibly harvested trees.  The trees once grew and collected carbon from the atmosphere and now as a wood beam will hold the CO2 for as long as the building exists.  

While the decades pass, new trees are growing where the original trees were harvested.  With better informed forest practices, the circle of carbon collection and storage can be sustained indefinitely.  

7. Speed of Installation

Mass timber structures are fabricated entirely off-site, and deliveries are coordinated to match on-site schedules.  Mass timber components assemble quickly and will typically reduce installation schedules by 20-30% over alternative materials.  

8. Cost Savings

As mass timber becomes better understood and accepted by architects, engineers, and builders, it is also becoming more cost competitive.  In the last two years, studies are showing that an effectively designed mass-timber building is within +/-5% of steel and concrete.  With lighter foundation requirements and fast installation, the cost advantage of mass timber will continue to gain market share.

9. Human Health

In Canada and the US, like most of the developed world, the greatest part of our lives is spent indoors.  Study after study is showing that the spaces we inhabit play an important role in our physical and emotional wellbeing.  Spaces that are enriched by the presence of natural objects and materials are associated with lower levels of stress, feelings of wellbeing, and overall improvements in mental focus and mood.

Wood’s ability to buffer humidity by absorbing and releasing moisture makes for more comfortable homes and offices. Mass timber is chemically inert and uses polyurethane adhesives that do not release VOC’s or other irritants.  Studies of mass timber buildings find the use of wood supports better air quality, thermal comfort, visual and acoustic qualities than equivalent structures built with steel or concrete.

 

The U.S. Advantage

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The U.S. Advantage

The US Dollar Advantage 

Let’s talk about foreign currency exchange…sorry, excuse me while I yawn and reach for my mug of coffee…

‘Forex’ as insiders call it, is not a topic most people care about or want to spend much time contemplating.  And yet, there are times, like now, when a bit of mental tenacity can really pay off.

Did you know that today, one US dollar is worth 1.37 Canadian dollars?  What that means is that a person with US dollars can buy a $1,000 item in Canada for just $730 USD.  It’s like a 30% off everything in the store event that has been going on for the past year or more and is likely to continue well into the future. 

Honest & Fair – What Everyone Deserves

Cornerstone Timberframes has been supplying our US customers with high quality timber structures for over 20 years.  Over these years our company has maintained a policy of providing US clients with clear pricing based on the current exchange rate.  Transparency and fairness are what all clients expect and what we deliver.  We are glad to quote in both USD and CAD and clients are free to choose either currency for payment.

Banks that facilitate USD to CAD exchanges, typically take a fee for their service, often around 2% for amounts below $5,000 USD and diminishing as the transaction amount increases.  As an added benefit to our US clients, we absorb these fees, so that customers realize the full gain on the exchange rate at the time of their purchase. It’s one more way that we can show our thanks for the trust you place in us.

A Time of Opportunity

A strong US dollar creates ideal conditions for US travelers and shoppers. With affordable international travel and advantageous pricing from reliable, nearby suppliers, now is an excellent time to explore and make major purchases.

Cornerstone Timberframes is a family-run company that prioritizes person to person connections, integrity, hard work, and high quality.  Our customers tell us they love the way we support them, respond promptly to questions, and keep them informed at every step of the process.

While the cost of a timber frame is always a consideration it should never be the sole factor in deciding where to buy.  Look for top quality, great service, and a fair price – when these are found in one product, you’ve found enduring value.  This is our recipe.

If you’re interested in learning more about working with Cornerstone Timberframes, give us a call, or drop us a line.  We’re looking forward to serving you!

Quality Construction and Cornerstone Timberframes in Wisconsin Lake Country.

Wisconsin_Getaway



Big Wood Wall – A New Way to Build

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Big Wood Wall – A New Way to Build

Recap of the Challenge 

In our last blog, we looked at energy efficiency using a concept widely used in commercial construction: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).  We then reviewed a few approaches to building efficient spaces but ran up against three core challenges in the construction and building product spheres.  Super-insulated homes often have complex assemblies that are difficult for builders to consistently achieve, many insulations have negative health and environmental consequences, and timelines for planning and building an energy-efficient home are often too long.

Simplicity & Accuracy

One of the enduring benefits of travel is that you get to see how different communities and people deal with the same problems as you but end up with different and, occasionally, better solutions.  In May, I had the privilege to visit Germany to see how builders use local wood resources to construct homes that achieve passive house standards.  The mind-expanding aspect of their approach is its simplicity – boards nailed together to form a solid wall of 5-15 layers, each layer running crossways to its neighbours.

       

Like me, you’re possibly wondering how this can be a high-performance wall. We’ll address that shortly.  But first, let’s look at how these “big wood walls” are made.

I visited a production facility owned by a carpentry company that specializes in multi-family residential construction.  Kiln-dried boards in random widths are purchased from nearby sawmills.  The boards are planed to the exact thickness and receive a grooved pattern on one face.

The grooves help to reduce sound transmission and improve the insulative quality of the wall.  Boards are fed into a CNC assembler that places and nails each board in place, creating a wall billet of up to 4.8m x 6.1m (16’ x 20’).  

This CNC unit places and nails boards to suit the wall’s role in the overall structure.

Once nailing is complete the billets are moved to a CNC cutter that translates an architect’s 3D model into a series of machining steps that create window and door openings, gable cuts, electrical and mechanical chases, and a variety of panel-to-panel connection details.  A cutting accuracy of +/- 1mm ensures that panels go together precisely on site, providing air tightness and excellent structural rigidity.Gantry-type CNC begins to work on a wall billet.

Wall units are labelled, receive a rain cap, and lift straps, and are loaded onto flatbed trucks in an upright position.

In Germany, the use of site cranes is the norm, and every established builder has at least one.  The lead carpenter operates the crane via a wireless control set that allows them to always be in the best location to safely lift the panels from the truck, swing them and set them into place.  A crew of 4-5 carpenters will install the walls, floors, and roof of a 170 m2 (1800 sq. ft.) home in just three or four days.

The speed and simplicity of the work are astonishing, especially for anyone familiar with typical site-built processes and timelines in Canada.  And it’s quiet, with minimal use of saws or other power tools.

Speed of construction is supported by three conditions inherent to the Big Wood Wall: 1) precisely dimensioned and detailed panels, 2) zero site modification, and 3) designs modelled in 3D which include optimized shipping and assembly sequences.

Insulation

So how does a wood wall reach Net Zero or even Passive House levels?  

Wood, especially pine, spruce, and other softwood, is intrinsically a “warm” material with a cell structure that is slow to transmit heat or cold.  The grooves further slow conductive transfer, by reducing the contact surface area board to board.  The whole assembly is solid, dramatically reducing air infiltration even before any wind barrier layer is added.

The walls provide backing for externally applied, uninterrupted insulation.  A typical exterior wall of 13 layers and 140mm (5.5”) of wood fibre insulation will approach R50.  For extremely cold climates the insulation layer can be increased up to 240mm (9.5”).

A solid wood wall has significant thermal mass, which means that changes in temperature on one surface takes a long time to be telegraphed through to the opposite surface.  The number of hours for a change in outdoor temp to be noticed at the interior is called “phase shift” and for most conventionally framed homes will be in the order of 5-7 hours.  For the wall in the photo above, its phase shift is 22 hours.  Longer phase shifts mean a more comfortable interior with proportionately smaller variations in temperature.

Health & Air Quality

In Germany, and the EU in general, there’s a heightened perception that chemical exposures are connected to negative health consequences.  Poor indoor air quality and the incidence of asthma, especially in children, have been linked to chemicals like formaldehyde that off-gas from a variety of manufactured sheet goods and insulations.  Consequently, builders and home buyers in Germany have created a strong market for natural and chemical-free building materials. 

The Big Wood Wall fits well into the trend toward natural materials, using untreated wood that is nailed together, with no need for chemical-based adhesives.  Additionally, wood is hygroscopic which means that it can easily absorb and release moisture, allowing it to act as a humidity regulator.  This attribute is particularly beneficial in climates with humid summers and dry winters.

Wood is increasingly understood as being biophilic, a term describing materials and objects that support human feelings of well-being and that confer physical and mental health benefits.  It’s why we gravitate toward urban parks and why researchers see a measurable drop in blood pressure and anxiety as people are exposed to flowers, trees, and natural materials where they live and work.

Affordability and the Long View

Early financial analysis suggests that a big wood wall, compared to its closest analog, a CLT wall panel, will be approximately 30% more cost-effective. But, as we’ve previously discussed, a purchase price can never stand in isolation from a host of other life cycle costs like energy use, serviceability, and maintenance.   Occupant health and environmental impacts should be valued, though rarely are, at least in the North American context.

In Germany, the Big Wood Wall is widely used in multi-family construction, of up to five storeys in height.  Many of these projects, like the apartments shown below, are entering the market as affordable rental units.  In some European jurisdictions, homebuyers and developers also receive added financial incentives if their project achieves a high level of energy efficiency.  All barriers to building well and attaining the lowest “total cost of ownership” have been removed by these innovative and farsighted authorities.

Mikado Apartments in Baden-Württemberg: achieving net zero takes the sting out of monthly bills.

If you are intrigued by the idea of the Big Wood Wall, I would be delighted to hear from you. Introducing this concept to North America will require a significant pioneering effort. In Europe, the Big Wood Wall has been gaining popularity since 2011, and as per the latest reports, over thirty plants are producing these panels, and more than 7,000 projects have been completed.

Next month we will look at noise transmission in buildings. And yes, that was another significant “light bulb” moment in my travels. People’s perception of noise and their response to it appears to be different from place to place. Join me for a fascinating look at the scientific, historical, and societal aspects of noise in the places where we live.