6 ms·

> Imo.. what is missing are clear advantages, a reason to bother. There are quite a few actual advantages. Speed of construction is one. The ability to prefabr

> Imo.. what is missing are clear advantages, a reason to bother. There are quite a few actual advantages. Speed of construction is one. The ability to prefabricate large elements (like entire walls) off site is another. In some areas of the world there's a lot of cheap excess timber after some kind of pest (I'm thinking a beetle?) killed entire forests. It insulates really well out of the box, especially when it comes to noise insulation. Wooden buildings are more earthquake resistant than stone/concrete. There's also quite a number of disadvantages with concrete. Lack of sand. Implication climate change. Requires rebar reinforcements which ups the price and turns the whole thing into a giant radiator. CLT is a pretty awesome building material, really.

escape_goat 8y ago
> In some areas of the world there's a lot of cheap excess timber after some kind of pest (I'm thinking a beetle?) killed entire forests. Dead wood isn't even useful as firewood. You can't just pick dead trees up off the forest floor and saw them up into lumber. Even if you could, no government would let you transport that timber out of the immediate vicinity in which it was found, due to the aforementioned pest. Perhaps there is a surplus of cheap excess timber in some areas of the world, but there isn't much chance of that having anything to do with any kind of pest.
- hutzlibu 8y ago
  "Dead wood isn't even useful as firewood" Sure it is. You mean degraded, rotten dead wood .. but "fresh" dead wood is firewood.
  - escape_goat 8y ago
    That's a fair distinction to make. When a tree is killed by a pest such as the emerald ash borer, it dies because the boreholes allow fungus and bacteria into the core of the tree. By the time the tree is visibly dead, very little of the wood is 'fresh'. It cannot be used as lumber, or even firewood.
- Tharkun 8y ago
  CLT is being made from mountain pine-beetle infested wood in the US. So not quite as useless as you seem to be implying ...
  - escape_goat 8y ago
    It looks like you're correct about the mountain pine beetle infestations, which I wasn't familiar with. Not that you can pick trees up off the forest floor, but in some drier areas the pines apparently remain standing and commercially usable for a few years.
- black6 8y ago
  Snags (dead and fallen trees held up by their neighbors) make excellent firewood and in some cases useful lumber, as it has already been cured!
- Balero 8y ago
  I think this could also relate to the wood from the trees surrounding an infected tree. These can often also be cut down as a kind of quarantine, and are likely to have good quality wood.
Yaggo 8y ago
> There's also quite a number of disadvantages with concrete. Lack of sand. This is good point. One would think that sand is unlimited supply, but that's actually not the case: https://www.businessinsider.com/world-running-out-sand-resources-concrete-2018-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/world-running-out-sand-resou...
- perl4ever 8y ago
  I find it interesting that the article you linked to doesn't mention one usage of sand that I'd expect it to - namely proppant for fracking.[1] It seems like just yesterday the harmful effects of fracking were the topic of countless articles, and now even an article where it would naturally fit in overlooks them. I wonder why? [1]https://info.drillinginfo.com/proppant-the-greatest-oilfield-innovation/ https://info.drillinginfo.com/proppant-the-greatest-oilfield...
  - perl4ever 8y ago
    To elaborate, from the link: "The first experiments in the 1940s used around 150 pounds of sand, but now it’s around 5 million pounds per well." "the proppant industry is definitely up and to the right – 57 billion lbs in 2012"
toast0 8y ago
> The ability to prefabricate large elements (like entire walls) off site is another. You can do that with concrete as well [1], it's often called precast concrete. concrete wall sections are heavier than wood wall sections, so you do need larger equipment, and tend to have smaller pieces. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precast_concrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precast_concrete
- Tharkun 8y ago
  That's a good point. I guess trucking lighter wood around makes more sense than heavier concrete, but still. I've also noticed prefab sections of brick facades being trucked around.

escape_goat 8y ago

> In some areas of the world there's a lot of cheap excess timber after some kind of pest (I'm thinking a beetle?) killed entire forests. Dead wood isn't even useful as firewood. You can't just pick dead trees up off the forest floor and saw them up into lumber. Even if you could, no government would let you transport that timber out of the immediate vicinity in which it was found, due to the aforementioned pest. Perhaps there is a surplus of cheap excess timber in some areas of the world, but there isn't much chance of that having anything to do with any kind of pest.

hutzlibu 8y ago
"Dead wood isn't even useful as firewood" Sure it is. You mean degraded, rotten dead wood .. but "fresh" dead wood is firewood.
- escape_goat 8y ago
  That's a fair distinction to make. When a tree is killed by a pest such as the emerald ash borer, it dies because the boreholes allow fungus and bacteria into the core of the tree. By the time the tree is visibly dead, very little of the wood is 'fresh'. It cannot be used as lumber, or even firewood.
Tharkun 8y ago
CLT is being made from mountain pine-beetle infested wood in the US. So not quite as useless as you seem to be implying ...
- escape_goat 8y ago
  It looks like you're correct about the mountain pine beetle infestations, which I wasn't familiar with. Not that you can pick trees up off the forest floor, but in some drier areas the pines apparently remain standing and commercially usable for a few years.
black6 8y ago
Snags (dead and fallen trees held up by their neighbors) make excellent firewood and in some cases useful lumber, as it has already been cured!
Balero 8y ago
I think this could also relate to the wood from the trees surrounding an infected tree. These can often also be cut down as a kind of quarantine, and are likely to have good quality wood.

Yaggo 8y ago

> There's also quite a number of disadvantages with concrete. Lack of sand. This is good point. One would think that sand is unlimited supply, but that's actually not the case: https://www.businessinsider.com/world-running-out-sand-resources-concrete-2018-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/world-running-out-sand-resou...

perl4ever 8y ago
I find it interesting that the article you linked to doesn't mention one usage of sand that I'd expect it to - namely proppant for fracking.[1] It seems like just yesterday the harmful effects of fracking were the topic of countless articles, and now even an article where it would naturally fit in overlooks them. I wonder why? [1]https://info.drillinginfo.com/proppant-the-greatest-oilfield-innovation/ https://info.drillinginfo.com/proppant-the-greatest-oilfield...
- perl4ever 8y ago
  To elaborate, from the link: "The first experiments in the 1940s used around 150 pounds of sand, but now it’s around 5 million pounds per well." "the proppant industry is definitely up and to the right – 57 billion lbs in 2012"

toast0 8y ago

> The ability to prefabricate large elements (like entire walls) off site is another. You can do that with concrete as well [1], it's often called precast concrete. concrete wall sections are heavier than wood wall sections, so you do need larger equipment, and tend to have smaller pieces. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precast_concrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precast_concrete

Tharkun 8y ago
That's a good point. I guess trucking lighter wood around makes more sense than heavier concrete, but still. I've also noticed prefab sections of brick facades being trucked around.