Structural Resistance

Cross Laminated Timber is an engineered wood product created by adhering together pieces of timber panels, layered on top of each other, in opposite directions. The results are large (up to 10 feet long by 40 feet wide by 1 foot thick), solid wood panels that maximize the inherent tensile strength of wood. Sheets of hardwood CLT are exceptionally strong, dimensionally stable and rigid, making them also perfect for tall building construction.

CLT (or Xlam) is a technology designed to substitute cement and concrete in the construction of any type of buildings up to ten floors. Hybrid structures, perhaps with timber panels built around a concrete core, could reach thirty stories.

Developed in Europe in the late 1990s, Cross Laminated Timber is among the latest in a long line of engineered wood products that are strong and rigid enough to replace steel and concrete as structural elements in bigger buildings. In fact, one of the most important characteristic of CLT is its strength-to-weight ratio. Having less gravity loads makes CLT a far superior material over all other competing materials.

Cross Laminated Timber can also substitute the frame system used for building single private houses or gated communities. A house or small building made with Cross Laminated Timber is stronger than a conventional wood-frame structure, in which two-by-fours and other relatively small components are tied together by materials like plywood and plasterboard. 

Cross-laminated panels are exceptionally strong compared to the conventional two-by-fours frame system. They retain their static strength and shape, and allow transfer of loads on all sides.

Already popular in Europe, CLT is only beginning to catch on in North America, where buildings made with CLT panels could be a stronger, cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative to structures made with those other materials.

Panels are made by placing layers of parallel beams atop one another perpendicularly, then gluing them together to create a material with steel-like strength. The mixed structure GLUE LAM / CLT has high resistance to horizontal loads due to the stiffening created with the inner wall and therefore the external walls have massive resistance to impact.

CLT is resistant to high wind and hurricanes. Regardless of which type of wood we are talking about – spruce, pine or larch – having a similar load-bearing capacity as steel, glued laminated timber scores with considerably lower weight and therefore allow constructions with large span widths but free of thermal bridges. Apart from being an extremely durable material, it is also highly resistant to fire and to seismic impacts. Laminated timber components in the common timber strength classes pursuant to Eurocode 5-1-1 are fabricated in-house in accordance with individual project requirements.

For extreme conditions like hurricanes and tornados, the lightness of a structure reduces the lateral loads, and wood buildings consequently have more flexibility than concrete or masonry structures which are more prone to collapse. Numerous joints and connections in CLT, as well as the attachment of sheathing, provides countless load paths in the event of lateral forces. If one connection is overloaded, its share of the load can be picked up by adjacent connections, creating a surprisingly strong structure.