Water-borne treatments could be the next big thing in mid-rise and high-rise construction, with more developers and engineers looking to use cross-laminated timber and glulam in external applications.
Speaking to Wood Central last month, Bo Hammond—the Global Director of Wood Preservation for Kop-Coat—said that there had been a big push to better understand the role that treatments can play in protecting and extending the durability of timbers.
“Wood is good, but it can be made better. We can take an amazing resource and make it just a bit better by improving durability,” Hammond said. “Mass timber is a pretty big press, and whilst it is a relatively young industry…and as more cross-laminated timber and mass timber gets out there in building and construction projects, people are starting to realise that it is wood and there are things that come along with that.”
Pittsburgh-based Hammond said that the last few International Mass Timber Conferences have had education sessions centres around treatment and non-treatment: “And I’m not saying they are convinced, but we are starting to see people starting to have those conversations.”
Hammond said many new products are constantly coming out, which may require treatments: “Like wall panels made from engineered wood, which weren’t the historical application for wood.”
“You have an environment where you have engineered wall panelling which is coming out as opposed to 2×4 inch trusses and studs…these are all advancements where people need to figure out – what does that change, where does that put us to the external proximity of the building and thereby the moisture. Do I need protection?”
Wood Central was recently given exclusive access to Kop-Coat’s state-of-the-art facilities in Greensboro, North Carolina. There, chemists and scientists are developing new treatments for engineered wood and solid lumber – including Tru-Core – the Australian and New Zealand-born invention that drives the chemicals into the core of the wood: “It all started in Australia when building codes regulated that everything that went into building needed to be treated.”
- For more information about Wood Central’s interview with Bo Hammond – recently in Australia and New Zealand, where he and Scott Porter, Kop-Coat’s Asia-Pacific Business Manager, met with Tru-Core license holders, click here to read the full article.
