This is Forest to Frame, where we explore how restoring forests creates beautiful spaces. A podcast dedicated to conversations with industry leaders, shaping the future of the forest industry. And now, here's your host, Russ Vaagen

Russ Vaagen

Hey everybody, this is Russ Vaagen with the Forest to Frame podcast. Today I want to talk a little bit about mass timber, and what is it? Because I believe, and here at Vaagen Timbers, we believe that it's the best way to show the connection between forest management and the product in the marketplace. And so we think when we're talking about forest restoration and responsible, sustainable forestry, The best way to make that connection is through a product called mass timber. Well, what is it? For a long time, we have been cutting timber in the forest using a variety of harvest methods, some of which people may not like or may not be comfortable with, like clear cutting and things like that. But there's also other harvest methods too that are much more sustainable, like thinning, uneven age forest management, where you take some of the larger trees, some of the medium-sized trees, and some of the smaller trees, and you manage that every 15 years or so, instead of cutting and replanting. And there's a variety of other technical methods, but that's basically it. We either manage a forest as a forest and cut the timber as we go, or we manage the forest more like a crop. I prefer the manage as we go and doing it more alignment with the natural regimes. But the point is that we've been managing that way and producing all kinds of forest products, two by fours, two by six, two by eights, plywood, and then some more engineered wood products. IJoyce made with veneer that's turned into laminated veneer lumber and there's a few other things out there OSB which is oriented strand board so we've been taking these products and making primarily what amounts to commodity products that go to the building stores and. we've been creating a few different forest certifications to kind of attach a sign of good sustainability to the product so people can feel comfortable when they're buying it. Very similar to buying organic or free range at the grocery store. But those commodity products aren't usually being bought by the consumer. If you're doing some projects at home, maybe you are, but it's usually bought through a distribution chain that goes to a store, and then it's usually a contractor or builder that's buying those products. And they get covered up, and that's kind of the last we think about it. But mass timber is where we're kind of combining some of the things that we do in the field, framing, putting up drywall, insulation, all those different things, or it might be substituting steel and concrete and commercial applications, where we're taking like a two by six, and we are gluing it together in at least three layers. So we're taking that and putting one long layer down, we finger joint those in the case of Vaagen Timbers up to 60 feet, we then put a layer of adhesive down, we then cross it the other way, 180 degrees. And so we then put on in our case, four foot pieces down on top of that glued layer. And then we put another long layer on top of it. So it's kind of a sandwich. It's like plywood, but with lumber. So it's a lot thicker and it's a lot stronger. So you have three-ply and we call that cross-laminated timber, three-ply, five-ply, seven-ply, some even up to nine-ply. And then there's some custom variations, but it allows us to panelize the system. And then we take the product to a CNC machine and we cut it to exacting dimensions for the project. And so that piece goes and fits into that project. So that's the cross-laminated timber, but we also have glulam, which is where we, and you may have probably seen glulam, we can use those as posts or columns, and we can use them as beams. So you have this post and beam construction, and then we put the CLT on top of the deck, that's the most common. And then sometimes you put them as an upright wall on the side. So there's other ways to use it. There's some other products out there in mass timber as well. mass plywood panels, which is basically massive plywood. Instead of just three-eighths of an inch or half an inch, it's a thick piece that might be many inches thick, very similar to CLT, different look. Then there's dowel laminated timber and nail laminated timber. Those are more like the stack of a glue lamp, but they're on edge and they make into big panels. and they're like they talk about, the nail laminated, just nailed together. The dowel laminated is actually a hole drilled through and then a piece of wood that goes every so often with the side of the piece, so it holds the whole panel together. These are all mass timber products, and the unique part about it is most of the time in construction, it's exposed, so you get to see it, and it is striking. It's just beautiful. People love the look and feel of wood because it's a natural product. Mass timber, in my opinion, allows us to have that conversation about where the product was sourced at a different level than if you were just framing your house. You want to know that it's sustainable for your home, but then you put drywall on it and it goes away. In the case of mass timber, whether it's a residential construction, a small commercial building like a three-story bank like the one we did at North Cascades Bank in Chelan, Washington, or a larger commercial project, many stories. You might not have all of it exposed, but you're probably going to have the ceilings exposed with the beams and the CLT. You might have the columns exposed and it's just it's beautiful and that's the time we need to be talking about where it comes from and the beauty of wood and why it's important. And so the other part about mass timber is they're like large wooden Legos I tell people that. The building industry for the last 100 years has essentially been like a bucket of Legos, where you had to take the lumber and the plywood and the nails and all the stuff that shows up in bulk at the build site, and you had to follow a set of plans and put it together. But it takes a craftsman, somebody very, very knowledgeable about how those go together. One, so it's structurally sound, and so then it's finished in a way that people love. And it's labor intensive, and there's a lot of waste because not all the pieces are cut for the exacting standards. In the case of mass timber, we're using a 3D model. So one of the more popular ones today is Revit. And it allows us to build the structure in a 3D model. We work with architects and engineers to make sure all the things are right. We then team up with the, the solutions providers for the connection systems. The screws, the plates, all the things that are necessary to hold that structure together because it's a composite of the wood and the steel connection systems, and that ties into the concrete foundation and maybe there's other materials in there as well. But we go through that process in a 3D model. Then our clients send that to us, we dissect it, we develop it into a kit of parts for each particular spot in that building, and then we go about building it. We then have to source the lumber, we bring it over, we finger join it, we put it together into CLT and glulam, and then we take it to our CNC and we create shop drawings for each particular piece, and then that goes together. As I was talking about a bucket of Legos and putting it together with a craftsman, that's like having a bucket of Legos and trying to figure out how it goes together. Only the best and most knowledgeable know how. Today, you can go to the Lego store and you can pick up a kit and build just about anything that those Lego engineers have designed and you follow the bag and you follow the order and the way it goes and it's all sequenced. But we've developed a software they'll talk about in a future episode called Timber Sequence Pro. And shout out to Richard, our developer. He's done an awesome job with that. But we are able to take all those parts and pieces and put them together in sequence, in order, ship them to the job site with the truck. The nice thing there is when the load shows up, the first load on the top of the load is the first column to go into that project. So by doing that, it's much easier. The people that are on the job site, the foreman, the erectors, they're looking at their tablet, they see, okay, this truck is going to show up this time. And this part goes this direction, it's turned this way and put into place. And you follow that, repeat it, and you have yourself a building. And it's a beautiful building. At the same time, we don't have the waste. We don't have a the material going from the truck to the ground up into the building, so there's not a lot of extra handling. It's very efficient. Those that have really figured that out have realized this is a very efficient and effective way to do it. The building's also super solid because it's all wood. In many cases, it's very energy efficient because even though wood doesn't have a R-value like typically with insulation, it's solid and it's a thermal break. The heat or the cold, depending on which side you're on, doesn't travel through that wood very rapidly. That means if you warm up the space, it's not going to travel out through that wood. You're going to have the windows and other things that you can manage for, but it's a it's a pretty amazing process. And we're finding more and more people are gravitating towards mass timber. And I think in the future, what we're gonna see is more people combining some materials. So we're seeing more hybrid structures. So as much as we love wood, wood is not the perfect material for all things. So having this kind of hybrid approach to, to have the appropriate materials for the building is the way we're going to get to a more mainstream adoption of mass timber. And so today, that's what I thought I'd share with you is what mass timber is. If you have any questions, reach out to us, we'd be happy to answer. And by the way, you can use almost any species to make mass timber. We do Douglas fir, and that's primarily what we do. We do SPF stands for spruce fine fir. And we're also certified to do Southern Yellow Pine. And so there's a lot of opportunity out there to get the look and feel, and maybe even source it from close to where the project is, which a lot of people really appreciate. So with that, we'll close out this episode of Forest to Frame. Thank you very much.

Intro/Outro

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