New Age Building Material: Cross-Laminated Timber.

Source: model.georgia.org

In this modern era, the industrial revolution led to new-age building material and mechanization of the construction process which indirectly expanded the scale and complexity of buildings. The root of the invention and innovation of new-age building materials is the advancement in science and technology.

Cross-Laminated Timber is one of the most famous and prominent new-age building materials when compared to traditional construction materials like bricks, glass, and so on. In this blog, we will be discussing cross-laminated timber in detail.

Cross-laminated timber is a wood panel product made from gluing together layers of solid-sawn lumber. Each layer of boards is usually oriented perpendicular to adjacent layers and glued on the wide faces of each board, usually in a symmetric way so that the outer layers have the same orientation

Cross-laminated timber is similar to plywood but with distinctive thicker laminations.

Cross-laminated timber usually referred to as CLT can be used for various purposes, like for interior walls, exterior walls, interior roofing as well as external roofs and flooring structures, etc. CLT can be made into any dimension which has been rare and impossible for a longer time.

Source: images.adsttc.com

Cross-laminated timber was developed and used in Germany and Austria in the early 1990s. These panels also provide a quick-dry weatherproof and also provide a good substrate for first- and second-fix items throughout, using simple screwing with self-tapping wood screws.

Quicker installation, reduced waste, improved thermal performance, design versatility, structural simplicity, strength, and cost-efficiency are some of the major advantages of using CLT.

Source: arch2o.com

Some of the notable disadvantages are costs of electrical, plumbing and other services can increase ( as no wall cavities ), code restrictions exist for timber building and transportation cost of the materials can also be high.

Though these disadvantages exist, CLT is highly used these days and also a much-preferred material by architects for modern construction.

"Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design".

- Stephen Gardiner