Skip to main content

Update on the First Complete Cross Laminated Timber Building in NY State

Enclosure, mechanicals, and moving in. What’s the latest with our CLT build?

We began raising the first complete Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) building in New York State on our main campus in Farmington, NY in late January 2017. A combination of mass timber, heavy timber, and CLTs, the 21,000 sq ft building will house our fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks, and offer a bit of storage/shipping for our sister company, Pioneer Millworks. Progress since May has included:

Wood fiber installation, another product which is new to the US. Also referred to as “out-sulation” since it is installed on the outside of projects, the Wood Fiber panels offer 3.5R per inch, are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, and are a carbon sink – for each 1 m3 used, up to 1 tonne of CO2 is bound within the product. Made by Steico, we found this product installed with a fair amount of ease and is performing well.

 

d

 

d

 

The custom CNC cut corner tree received a coat of stain and is now sheltered behind glass.

 

d

 

f

 

Siding, including shiplap Shou Sugi Ban Color Char by Pioneer Millworks.

 

d

 

Shou Sugi Ban is an ancient Japanese technique of burning wood as a preservative treatment for exterior siding. The process gives Pioneer Millworks Larch a dark, slightly iridescent look. We anticipate that in this exterior use it may change over time, depending on its exposure to the elements.
Shou Sugi Ban is an ancient Japanese technique of burning wood as a preservative treatment for exterior siding. The process gives Pioneer Millworks Larch a dark, slightly iridescent look. We anticipate that in this exterior use it may change over time, depending on its exposure to the elements.

 

Lights! All LED lighting combined with the natural light from the clerestory make this a very bright space. Our fine woodworkers are clamoring to move in for the lighting alone!

 

d

 

Concrete – what a BIG pour! Lots of man power and man hours. Concrete was flowed over radiant heat throughout the shop.

 

KB Masonry’s team handled this big pour.
KB Masonry’s team handled this big pour.

 

s

 

Concrete complete and set! Sprinkler lines run…lights to come. Photo by Scott Hemenway.
Concrete complete and set! Sprinkler lines run…lights to come. Photo by Scott Hemenway.

 

Mechanicals, such a sprinklers, and duct work. Steve and Ed our maintenance duo have been hard at work installing duct work/dust collection alongside a few of our trusted partners who handled the sprinklers and other mechanicals.

 

Ed and Steve talk connections for the dust collection ducts.
Ed and Steve talk connections for the dust collection ducts.

 

Ed is a bit camera shy and did well on the man lift hiding behind the pipes.
Ed is a bit camera shy and did well on the man lift hiding behind the pipes.

 

Mechanicals room.
Mechanicals room.

 

Amenities including the break room and bathrooms are underway.

 

d

 

Plumbing and electric are in. Next: doors.
Plumbing and electric are in. Next: doors.

 

In use: Pioneer Millworks has begun using their storage and shipping space at the back of the building. What once seemed to be a cavernous 8,000 sq ft is filling up quickly with custom orders that are ready to ship and other weather sensitive products.

 

d

 

We’re on schedule to move all of our fine woodworking shop to their new space in mid-August. Check back for information on our ribbon cutting this Fall. And visit our previous blog post for more images, videos, and details of this project.

About CLTs:
CLT construction is an economically and environmentally conscious alternative to steel and concrete construction, a material that is new to the U.S. building industry.

A quick description might be ‘giant plywood’. More specifically, CLTs are large wooden panels, typically consisting of 3, 5, or 7 layers of dimensional lumber, oriented at right angles, glued together. The panels for our project averaged 8 feet tall and 38 feet long at 3 ¼ and 3 ¾ inch thickness. Using a crane and lulls, the panels were lifted into place and fitted by hand to the supporting timber frame. Each CLT panel has a shiplap edge that nests the panels together and is secured with metal fasteners.