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You wouldn't build timber high rises. You would only build buildings ~4 stories tall.
by swlkr 4y ago
You wouldn't build timber high rises. You would only build buildings ~4 stories tall.
- voisin 4y agoThere are 10+ storey timber high rises in Canada now. The building and fire codes are being updated all across the country. Turns out heavy timber is actually pretty decent for fire - it chars before it fails whereas steel loses its strength at high temps.
- swlkr 4y agoHard agree here, buildings anywhere between 4-12 stories are fine. I don't consider buildings < 13 stories high rises, I consider those mid rises.
- galangalalgol 4y agoIt also expands. Sometimes pushing walls apart letting floors fall. I asked a neighbor who is a firefighter what his nightmares are made of. He said steel girder floors silently expanding and pancaking him and his best friends.
- jeffbee 4y agoWell, they do build tall timber buildings. The thing is they are virtually solid wood, with corresponding fire resistance ratings. I'd much rather be in a mass timber high-rise than a stud-and-cavity mid-rise building in a fire.
- User23 4y agoThey’re called 1+5s.
- coryrc 4y agoTimber is type 4, not type 5.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago(Am I missing a joke?) He's talking about 5-over-1 or one-plus-five buildings. They're 6 story midrise buildings that have 5 stories made of wood on-top of one made of concrete. They're extremely common in North America, and they aren't firetraps because they have sprinkler systems, redundant emergency staircases, building wide fire alarms.
- bombcar 4y agoThey ARE firetraps when being built of course. But once finished they’re pretty normal. A concrete building doesn’t protect you from fire as much as people might think.
- ars 4y agoWhy is the bottom one made of concrete? (i.e. and not just the foundation)
- coryrc 4y agoResidential requires a higher level of fire safety than commercial and additional separation between uses for occupant comfort (f.ex. sound). Additionally, there is usually parking and that also requires a lot of separation.
- tremon 4y agoSo it's not just different building materials, it's also mixed-use zoning? 1 level of commercial space + N levels of living space above it?
- coryrc 4y agoNo, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-over-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-over-1 "5" and "1" are not the number of floors, they are the construction type, 5 being (primarily) built of dimensional lumber and drywall, 1 being reinforced concrete. The type for heavy timber is "4". This, a building with CLT would never be 5-over-1. It might be 4-over-1, but I bet it's sufficiently inherently fire-resistant that most designs will be solely type 4.