Objective:

The value of North American-produced engineered wood composites (EWC) is currently around US$1.8 billion per annum and growth in their demand has averaged about 10% per annum in recent years. Maintaining this growth is a challenge and requires the development of new products that can compete more effectively with steel I-beams in non-residential building construction, such as sports stadiums and bridges, where some exposure of the wood to weather occurs. Untreated glulam exposed outdoors fails due to checking, delamination and ultimately decay, hence there is reluctance to specify EWCs for non-residential building construction. Increasing the confidence of specifiers that EWCs can perform outdoors and above-ground without these problems could increase their use in non-residential building construction with significant returns to industry.

• add value by enhancing the performance of structural engineered wood composites (EWC) to meet end-user expectations for durable and low maintenance exterior wood products.

For a summary of this research follow the link:

• Integrated Protection of Structural Composites for Exterior Exposure

Key Project Findings :

• Integrated Protection of Structural Composites for Exterior Exposure (2006-05-25)

Reports:

• Integrated protection of structural composites for exterior exposure

For more information on this project, please contact: