---
title: "Cross-Laminated Timber CLT Building | AVANORTH"
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description: "Cross-laminated timber guide: properties, Canadian projects, construction speed, carbon benefits, and building code requirements for CLT buildings."
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"og:title": "Cross-Laminated Timber CLT Building"
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AVANORTH Home
**Green Building**·May 20, 2026· 4 min read
# **Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT): Building Applications**
Cross-laminated timber is revolutionizing mid-rise construction. Made from layers of lumber bonded at right angles, CLT offers structural strength comparable to concrete with a fraction of the carbon footprint.
**AVANORTH Team**
AVANORTH Construction
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is an engineered wood product made by gluing layers of solid-sawn lumber together at right angles to each other, creating large, rigid panels that can be used as walls, floors, and roofs. First developed in Austria in the early 1990s, CLT has transformed the European building industry and is now gaining rapid adoption in North America. Canada, with the world's second-largest forest resource, is particularly well-positioned to lead in CLT construction.
---
## What Is CLT?
| Property | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Structure | 3, 5, or 7 layers of dimensional lumber (typically SPF) bonded at perpendicular angles |
| Panel sizes | Up to 3 m wide x 18 m long x 500 mm thick (varies by manufacturer) |
| Weight | Approximately 480 kg/m3 (1/5 the weight of concrete) |
| Fire rating | CLT chars at a predictable rate (approximately 0.65 mm/min). Thick panels maintain structural integrity for 1-2 hours in a fire, comparable to concrete. |
| Seismic performance | Excellent. CLT's high strength-to-weight ratio makes it ideal for seismic zones. Lighter buildings experience lower seismic forces. |
| Carbon storage | 1 m3 of CLT stores approximately 0.8 tonnes of CO2 |
> **Carbon Impact:** A typical 8-storey CLT residential building stores approximately 1,800 tonnes of CO2 in its structure. The equivalent concrete building would emit approximately 1,200 tonnes of CO2 during construction. The net carbon difference is approximately 3,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to taking 650 cars off the road for one year.
---
## Canadian CLT Projects
| Project | Location | Height | Notable Feature |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Brock Commons Tallwood House | UBC, Vancouver | 18 storeys (53 m) | Was world's tallest mass timber building (2017). Hybrid concrete core + CLT floors/columns. |
| Origine | Quebec City | 13 storeys | Tallest all-wood building in North America at completion (2017) |
| T3 Bayside | Toronto | 10 storeys | Largest mass timber office building in North America at completion (2022) |
| Arbora | Montreal | 8 storeys (3 buildings) | 450 residential units, one of the largest CLT residential projects in the world |
---
## Construction Advantages
### Speed
- **Prefabrication:** CLT panels are CNC-machined in a factory with all openings and connections pre-cut. On-site assembly is essentially a large-scale puzzle.
- **Installation rate:** A typical floor plate (1,000-2,000 m2) can be erected in 3-5 days with a small crew and a crane, compared to 2-3 weeks for cast-in-place concrete.
- **Brock Commons example:** The 18-storey timber structure was erected in just 70 days.
### Weight
- CLT structures weigh approximately 1/5 of equivalent concrete structures
- Lighter buildings require smaller foundations (significant cost savings, especially on poor soils)
- Reduced transportation loads (fewer and lighter truck deliveries)
### Environmental
1. **Renewable resource:** Wood is the only structural material that is grown, not mined or manufactured from fossil fuels
2. **Carbon storage:** Trees absorb CO2 as they grow. The carbon remains stored in the wood product for the life of the building.
3. **Low embodied energy:** Manufacturing CLT requires a fraction of the energy needed to produce steel or concrete
4. **Forest management:** Canadian forests are sustainably managed. For every tree harvested, more are planted or naturally regenerated.
---
## Building Code
The 2020 National Building Code of Canada permits mass timber buildings (encapsulated mass timber construction, EMTC) up to 12 storeys. Ontario adopted this in the 2024 edition of the Ontario Building Code. Key requirements:
- **Encapsulation:** Non-combustible cladding (gypsum board) on all exposed CLT surfaces in certain building types
- **Sprinklers:** Mandatory automatic fire sprinkler system throughout
- **Fire separations:** Same fire-resistance ratings as non-combustible construction
- **Connections:** Steel connections must be protected from fire exposure
> **AVANORTH Mass Timber:** We are actively pursuing mass timber construction for our multi-storey projects. The speed of CLT erection, the carbon benefits, and the warm aesthetic of exposed wood ceilings and columns are compelling advantages. We work with Canadian CLT manufacturers and structural engineers who specialize in mass timber design. As the Ontario Building Code evolves to support taller wood buildings, we see CLT becoming a standard option alongside concrete and steel.
#CLT #mass-timber #sustainable-construction
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