Victoria Commons

[clasher]

Well it does certainly seem like the BC codes were changed mostly to create a new market for lumber after the trade softwood lumber tarrif problems with the US. BC probably doesn't have as big of a concrete industry as it does a lumber one. I dunno if there are even steel mills out west, though there is an aluminum smelter in Kitimat.

I'm not really entirely convinced that it's all that better than steel or concrete (and glass curtain wall) at least those things are recyleable despite their massive carbon footprint. Making lumber requires kilning wood for long periods of time and lots of fossil fuels to harvest the wood from the forests... and increasing lumber demand with glulam beams or whatever else is going to mean more deforestation. I don't know if they can make glulam beams out of the same kind of fast-growing trees that are used for paper production. We're still harvesting lumber faster than it can re-grow so it seems like a bad idea to speed that up. I also doubt that glulam beams are gonna be easy or even worthwhile to recycle, and once a glulam building catches fire the smoke will likely be very toxic stuff.

Here's one comparison though it's not about engineered wood so much. It's also not a peer-reviewed paper so I dunno much about who wrote (could be a steel industry guy, who knows)

If I ever get a chance to build my own house it's going to be mostly steel frame and stone walls.