We’re excited to announce that we’re building the first complete Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) building in New York State on our campus in Farmington, New York. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) construction is an economically and environmentally conscious alternative to steel and concrete construction. The new building will house or fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks, and offer storage/shipping space for our sister company Pioneer Millworks.
“We’re extremely excited to bring this alternative building method to New York State. We see CLTs as the wave of the future and are investing in our Western New York campus to better position the region and our industry to ride the wave,” states Jonathan, our Founder and President. “The opportunities with CLTs are abundant for businesses and housing and offer dramatic environmental benefits. Wood is a naturally occurring and renewable resource which stores carbon. It has proved time and again to preform as well, and at times better than, carbon heavy steel and concrete.”
CLTs are large wooden panels, typically consisting of 3, 5, or 7 layers of dimensional lumber, oriented at right angles, glued together. This results in exceptional strength, dimensional stability, and rigidity. The pre-fabricated wall, floor, and roof panels can be installed quickly with little job-site waste. European countries have been utilizing the panels for multi-story buildings with great structural, financial, and environmental success.
Combining the strength of timbers and CLT panels, the building will utilize a timber frame wrapped by CLT walls and topped by CLT roof panels. The panels will be pre-cut for windows and doors and will arrive by cargo shipment to Farmington NY in early January 2017. Both the timber frame and the panels will be raised in January 2017.
“The CLT panels are pre-designed, highly engineered, of superior quality with precise tolerances – all specific processes and requirements that are fundamental to our timber framing craft. This fits perfectly with our traditional work and parallels the SIPs integration that we’ve spearheaded for years,” explains Jonathan.
In February of 2015, our fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks located in Shortsville, NY, suffered a catastrophic event as half of the roof collapsed over their 70-year-old building (no one was injured). The CLT project will be a 21,000 sq ft, single level building, to house both NEWwoodworks and provide storage/shipping for Pioneer Millworks reclaimed wood products.
NEWwoodworks’ manufacturing equipment and craftsmen will be entrusted with 13,000 sq ft while Pioneer Millworks will utilize 8,000 sq ft for reclaimed wood storage and shipping. We broke ground for the foundation on November 15, 2016 behind our timber frame shop.
2017 will start off with the timber frame raising followed by raising of the CLT panels (walls and roof). We’re also examining a wood fiber insulation which is more environmentally friendly than the majority of alternative options. We’ll share more as progress continues. Contact us with any questions or for a schedule of events: events@newenergyworks .com
