More than 2,000 timber buildings are now under construction or in the pipeline across the United States. Now, Mercer Mass Timber — the Spokane Valley-based CLT and glulam manufacturer that runs roughly 30 per cent of North America’s structural CLT capacity — has released a new free design tool, BuildSpec, which it claims will accelerate feasibility work and reduce roadblocks on mid-rise projects.
BuildSpec lets architects, engineers, and developers prototype cross-laminated timber (CLT) and cold-formed steel (CFS) schemes in their browser, generating live cost, embodied carbon, and quantity takeoffs against concrete and steel equivalents. The aim, Mercer Mass Timber says, is to shift mass timber comparisons out of late-stage value engineering and into schematic design.
The tool enters a market where feasibility-stage material decisions still default to concrete and steel out of professional habit more than cost analysis: “BuildSpec reduces design uncertainty, helping project teams identify viable mass timber solutions sooner,” Mercer Mass Timber said.
Hybrid CLT and CFS construction has become a commercial signature for the business, which operates three plants in Washington, Arkansas, and British Columbia. The launch follows Mercer Mass Timber’s July 2025 digital integration with CLT Toolbox, a structural design platform that lets engineers specify CLT and glulam products directly from the software.
Mercer Mass Timber has flagged that BuildSpec’s engineering calculations are conceptually validated for early-stage feasibility only, with outputs intended to sit alongside the project’s Engineer of Record rather than replace stamped engineering. Wood Central understands that the US release is slated to hit the market in the Summer whhilst the Canadian software is already live.
