Overview

Advanced wood construction is a modern building method that uses prefabricated parts, rather than traditional site-built 2x4 construction used in most homes.

These materials are assembled in factories to make a prefabricated kit. Kits are delivered to construction sites just in time for use, which:

  • speeds up the building process
  • reduces waste

Advanced wood building materials include:

  • cross laminated timber (CLT)
  • parallel strand lumber (PSL)
  • nail laminated timber (NLT)
  • laminated strand lumber (LSL)
  • glued laminated timber (glulam)

Advanced wood construction can be used to build:

  • larger structures such as offices, schools and multifamily residential buildings
  • infrastructure such as bridges, wind turbines and sound barriers

Benefits of building with advanced wood construction

Building with advanced wood construction:

  • lowers building costs by up to 20%
  • reduces on-site labour and construction time
  • reduces emissions from construction by using less energy-intensive materials
  • supports our sustainable forest management policies and provincial forestry sector
  • is an efficient and effective solution for our increasing housing needs

Advanced wood products

Mass timber

Mass timber is large wood panels and other larger-scale wood components such as beams, columns and braces. It is typically created by stacking and gluing or fastening together layers of lumber or lamella.

Different grades of lamella are used in mass timber to provide more strength where it is needed.

Unlike dimension lumber and engineered wood products, mass timber is typically:

  • larger in scale, forming massive building components
  • used in structural applications

Engineered wood products

Engineered wood products (EWPs) are manufactured wood materials typically composed of smaller components such as fibers, particles or strands that are bonded together using adhesives.

EWPs include products such as:

  • oriented strand board (OSB)
  • laminated strand lumber (LSL)

EWPs are engineered for strength and performance through the combination of wood fibers with adhesives. They can be made from:

  • lower value wood
  • underutilized tree species
  • mill by-products

Light-frame wood assemblies

Light-frame wood assemblies are typically made of:

  • dimension lumber (2x4 or 2x6)
  • engineered wood panels (OSB or plywood)

These materials are incorporated into prefabricated assemblies like wall panels, floor panels and roof trusses. These assemblies:

  • use dimension lumber and engineered wood panels as their building blocks
  • are manufactured and assembled offsite so they are ready to erect on the construction site

Bio-based materials

Bio-based materials come from renewable biological resources, such as forest bio-fibre and mill by-products.

Unlike mass timber and EWPs that are typically used in structural applications, bio-based construction materials include a diverse range of products such as:

  • insulation
  • membranes
  • additives

Advanced Wood Construction Action Plan

We developed Ontario’s Advanced Wood Construction Action Plan to achieve the wood construction goals in Sustainable Growth: Ontario’s Forest Sector Strategy. The plan aims to:

  • create demand for wood products
  • grow wood’s market share in the buildings sector
  • increase manufacturing of wood-based building components
  • reduce carbon footprint in construction

The action plan was developed using input from:

  • advanced wood construction stakeholders across the value chain
  • public comments received through posting a draft on the Environmental Registry of Ontario from July 30 to October 1, 2024

Download the final Ontario Advanced Wood Construction Action Plan.

Resources and tools

Ontario’s Tall Wood Building Reference

This resource provides background and references to help applicants, reviewers and designers as they consider using wood in buildings.

It provides guidance for meeting requirements under Alternative Solutions of the Ontario Building Code for developing wood buildings above 6 storeys.

The Tall Wood Building Reference aligns with our 2 primary objectives related to the Ontario Building Code:

  • help increase opportunities for designers and builders to create innovative, flexible and affordable new buildings
  • maintain our high fire safety standards for both the public and fire service personnel

Ontario’s Tall Wood Building Reference (PDF)

Accessibility

We are committed to providing accessible customer service. If you need accessible formats or communications supports, email NRISC@ontario.ca.

Greenhouse Gas Material Assessment Tool (GHGMAT) for buildings

GHGMAT is a free online tool you can use to estimate the carbon footprint of building structures. It lets you:

  • account for emissions associated with your choice of structural building material
  • create multiple building scenarios using common building materials such as wood and mass timber, reinforced concrete and structural steel
  • compare and refine these scenarios to optimize the use of lower-carbon building materials like wood

Using low greenhouse gas (GHGabbr>) intensity building materials can help reduce building sector emissions. [1]The building sector:

  • contributes to nearly 40% of global CO2 emissions
  • represents a huge opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and meet the world’s many climate change targets such as the Paris Agreement[2]

GHGMAT was developed:

  • in alignment with the ISO 14064-2 standard
  • in collaboration with the Government of Quebec and Natural Resources Canada

Investors toolkit

We developed the following resources to support investment in Ontario’s advanced wood manufacturing and construction sector.

They examine the value-chain, business case and the market for wood-based building materials we anticipate will provide favorable investment opportunities in Ontario.

To receive the full version of the resources listed above, send a request to masstimber@ontario.ca.

Accessibility

We are committed to providing accessible customer service. If you need accessible formats or communications supports, email NRISC@ontario.ca.

Mass timber demonstration fire tests program

We supported a program of fire testing research on mass timber building materials, along with our partners:

  • Canadian Wood Council
  • Government of Canada
  • other provincial governments

From June to September, 2022, 5 full scale mass timber structures underwent fire testing at National Research Council testing facilities in Ottawa.

Read the summary and final report.

Footnotes