Thursday, November 9, 2023
Three miles west of Lufkin, off of state Highway 94, sits a new 10,000 square foot building that appears starkly different from other offices — instead of steel or concrete, the structure is made entirely of wood. The construction in Hudson, an East Texas town of about 5,000 residents, is one of a growing number of commercial projects in Texas using mass timber, a category of engineered wood products that uses glue or nails to bind layers of lumber together, making it strong and stable enough for commercial construction.
The recent growth in mass timber comes as East Texas foresters face a glut of wood and limited markets to sell it. East Texas is home to 12 million acres of timberland, which accounts for more than half of the region’s land, and most is privately owned. Demand and prices for lumber have swung wildly over the years, with a huge drop in prices during the 2008 housing crisis that East Texas foresters never fully recovered from. Although wood prices rebounded during the pandemic, an oversupply of trees has meant that growers are still paid less than they have been before.
Now, foresters are looking to mass timber as a possible new market. The concept originally developed in Europe during the 1990s and is now taking off in the U.S. Globally, the number of mass timber construction projects is expected to reach more than 24,000 by 2034, according to the international mass timber report. Texas’ first mass timber project was completed in 2019 in San Antonio. Now, there are at least 134 mass timber projects in progress or completed, including in Sherman, Houston and Frisco. Projects range from university buildings to retail and office space.
“The fear is that if we don’t find new markets for the wood, forest landowners will change the use of their land,” said Rob Hughes executive director of the Texas Forestry Association.
And because wood stores carbon and is renewable, the material is inherently more environmentally sustainable than concrete or steel. A University of Washington study found that a cross laminated timber building would reduce global warming potential by 26.5 percent compared with a concrete building.
Hughes estimates that mass timber projects have about 30% lower construction costs than alternatives. Unlike light-frame wood construction used to build homes, mass timber products are built to sustain more weight. The wood is glued or nailed together in layers that are stacked together for added strength, comparable to the durability of steel or concrete.
Source: Texas Tribune
Tags: mass timber, project, wood construction, wood products
