Moisture Safety of Wooden Buildings – Design, Construction and Operation

Abstract

During the last decade, building in wood has increased, mainly due to environmental awareness andtargets to decrease the carbon footprint originated from the production of building materials. Newtechnologies such as CLT (cross laminated timber) have accelerated the construction of multi-storywooden buildings. The CLT structure has been used both for housing and offices. Due to the extensivesize of the buildings and relatively fast assembly of the buildings, weather protection has not alwaysbeen used. It is commonly known that building materials sensitive to moisture need to be protectedagainst high moisture conditions and water during construction. If this is not done, there is an increasedrisk of microbial growth which can result in health problems for future users of the building, extensivecosts for the remediation and exchange of materials, but also lack of trust in the construction industry.There are disagreements between the building industry and researchers how sensitive wooden buildingsare to exposure to high moisture levels and water during storage at sites and construction. Based onresults from several research projects studying moisture conditions both in the laboratory and in thefield, recommendations for procurement, storage and handling of wood during construction to assuremoisture safety are suggested in this paper.