This strong, aesthetically pleasing, low-carbon alternative to concrete and steel is growing by leaps and bounds, and not just in height.

Mass timber has many attractive qualities. It is strong and stable; fire resistant and holds up to seismic activity. It is lightweight, and structures can be built fast with less labor. It is all of those things, and it can also be beautiful to behold and draw upon the biophilic tendencies of humans to seek out connections with nature.

And with the dramatic growth in mass timber, woodworkers need to pay attention to potential opportunities.

Emanating from Europe, the mass timber construction movement is growing as a low-carbon alternative to energy-intensive materials such as steel and concrete. It can lower greenhouse gas emissions and sequester more carbon than it releases during its life cycle. (For a carbon calculator, visit bit.ly/446frfK.)

The products have inherent fire resistance that allows them to be left exposed and still achieve a fire-resistance rating that meets fire codes across North America. 

Mass timber is a category of structural systems that can be used to form walls, floors, staircases, and roofs. It comes in many forms such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), glue-laminated timber (Glulam), which are the most popular, and less-used products including nail laminated timber and dowel laminated timber. (For more on the forms of mass-timber, visit bit.ly/4aHjZvF.)

The move from concrete-based construction to wood-based construction as well as government initiatives to cut pollution are factors affecting the market. The Army Corps of Engineers, for example, is mandated to consider mass-timber in vertical projects.  

Tino Kalayil, P.E., structural engineer, and regional director for WoodWorks - Wood Products Council, a resource that offers free project assistance, said that as the material becomes better known, its use will grow.  For Kalayil, mass-timber use began early in his career while working on the Ascent, a mass-timber building in Milwaukee that is recognized as the world’s tallest mass-timber building. 

“The structure is primarily constructed with mass-timber components, and it was from there that my belief in mass timber began to grow,” said Kalayil. “At school, I worked on steel and concrete structures primarily, and then I had the opportunity to work on a project, and I fell in love.”

More and more high-profile projects are either being built, are under construction, or in the planning stages such as the Ascent, the recently announced Theodore Roosevelt library, and the aquatic center built for the Summer Olympics in Paris. (For more on high profile projects, visit bit.ly/49LeA5s.)

In the U.S., 2,115 multi-family, commercial, or institutional mass timber projects were in progress or built as of March 2024, according to WoodWorks. Since the 1990s, when mass-timber projects were barely a blip, WoodWorks has tracked these projects and updates them quarterly. (See chart, Mass Timbers Projects Constructed in the U.S., above, or visit bit.ly/3U1QYnj for an interactive graphic).

Recent studies on the mass-timber market project double-digit over the next decade or so. Research firm, Reports and Data, reported that the global Cross Laminated Timber market was valued at $786.71 Million in 2019 and is expected to reach $2.3 billion by the year 2027, at a CAGR of 12.51%. 

By volume, according to Reports and Data, the market is expected to reach 3,237.61 thousand cubic meters in 2027 from 1,411.55 thousand cubic meters in 2019. A CAGR of 11.23%.

There are a number of reasons for this growth, education is one of them.

For example, when plans for a mass-timber building in Chicago were announced, news headlines referred to the great Chicago fire. The problem with that idea, however, is that these components are highly fire resistant.

“One of the misconceptions with mass timber is the belief that it will just burn away in no time,” said Ricardo Brites, director of engineering for Mercer Mass Timber, a subsidiary of Mercer Inc. “Yeah, it’s combustible materials, but it’s also fire resistant.”

During a fire, exposed timbers char on the outside which forms an insulating layer that protects the interior wood from fire damage. 

According to WoodWorks, mass-timber projects often utilize exposed glulam columns and beams that require specific fire-resistant rated numbers. A beam can be exposed to fire for two hours and the damage can be minimal. (See image below. For more on fire resistance ratings, see bit.ly/3JqmiY0.)

Another reason for the growth of mass-timber building is its inclusion in the International Building Code, especially in 2021 and 2024, said Kalayil. (For a guide to codes and standards, visit bit.ly/4aE2EU9.)

Canadian codes, for example, now allow 18-story encapsulated mass-timber buildings, up from 12 stories. 
In 2022, new California building codes were enacted that would allow e mass-timber buildings up to 18 stories. 
Sustainability is another reason for the growth of mass-timber construction. “The biggest thing about mass timber and wood construction in general, is that it’s sustainable,” said Kalayil. “From a carbon emission standpoint, it’s beneficial for our environment and for our world.” 

According to an American University fact sheet, mass-timber construction can sequester carbon through carbon storage in the wood as well as in avoided emisions. For every ton of timber produced, 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere and stored in the wood where it is “locked up” for the life of the wood. 

It can also reduce the “embodied carbon,” in buildings by displacing emission-intensive steel and concrete.
Another factor is weight – mass timber construction equates to about 1/5th that of concrete according to a recent study, which makes building fast. 

However, the production of the mass timber components can take longer to produce than steel or concrete and so early pre-planning in the design stage is required. The growing capacity of mass-timber producers, however, is helping to reduce lead times for these products. 

New material availability
Over the last few years, the number of companies entering or growing capacity has been massive.
In fact, one company, Mercer Mass Timber, only recently planted its flag in the industry. In 2021, Canada-based Mercer International expanded into the U.S. with the $50 million acquisition of a CLT plant owned by Katerra. At the time, some reports said that it was the most massive such plant in North America. 

The plant which reportedly measured 270,000 square and had the capacity of approximately 13 million square feet of five-ply panels annually.

The company took another huge leap in 2023 when it completed an $81.1 million acquisition of the bankrupt Structurlam Master Timber Corp., a three-decade-old leader in the mass-timber industry. The acquisition included factories in Conway, Arkansas, and in Penticton, British Columbia.

According to Brites, the acquisition increased the company’s portfolio, capacity, and production capabilities. It materially increased capacity of CLT and added substantial glulam production. It also expanded the company’s geographic reach.
It wasn’t just the physical assets that made Structurlam that made the acquisition so attractive. It was the tribal knowledge gained from working on hundreds of projects. “The plants in British Columbia and in Arkansas are great, but the people and the knowledge they have after being in the market for 30-plus years is invaluable.”

Additional growth
It was not just Mercer that expanded its capabilities. In March 2024, Kalesnikoff, a mass timber products and lumber company, announced a new $34 million facility that is expected to open by the end of 2024. The new facility will be located between Kalesnikoff’s two existing operations in the Nelson-Castlegar corridor in the B.C. 

The new facility will offer new and expanded products and services, including modular construction, prefabricated mass timber, light frame components, custom installation-ready products, walls, flooring, full modular construction mass timber projects.

Also in March, Timberlab, a mass timber company based in Portland, Oregon, announced plans to build a new 250,000-square-foot CLT facility in the mid-Willamette region of Oregon. The facility will be the company’s first mass timber manufacturing plant.

Timberlab’s president, Chris Evans, has said that the company’s goal is to make timber structures more affordable and widely available in the U.S. construction market. The company has also added two CNC facilities in Portland, Oregon, and has a 75,000-square-foot mass timber CNC plant in Greenville, South Carolina that began operations in April 2023. 

Once completed, the facility is projected to produce an annual output of 100,000 cubic meters of finished CLT products and eliminate “pinch points” in the marketplace.

Another major capacity expansion was at Rosboro, the largest North American manufacturer of GLT products. 
The company recently announced a partnership with Homag Group members to improve mass timber production at Rosboro’s GLT Factory in Springfield, Oregon. The Homag Group members include System TM, Kallesoe Machinery, and Stiles Machinery.

Brian Wells, Senior Vice President of Strategic Development of Rosboro, said, “The distributors who carry Rosboro’s flagship X-Beam stock glulam and other Rosboro Engineered Wood Products are the premier EWP distributors in their markets.  They rely on us to supply a steady stream of high-quality, cost-effective framing solutions.  We are making this investment to ensure that our partners can continue to grow their successful X-Beam programs for many years to come.” 

The new GLT factory will utilize a highly efficient System TM Feeding System followed by a Finger-Jointing Line that is seamlessly integrated with two Kallesoe Radio-Frequency GLT Press Lines.  HOMAG Group is excited to partner with Rosboro on this project and working together to grow the North American Mass Timber industry. 

While this an impressive number of companies expanding their mass-timber offerings, it might just be a drop in the bucket. According to Kalayil, there are might be more factories out there that have grown or soon will be. It seems that with all of the construction in the pipeline, even more products will be needed. ✚