UC Berkeley’s mass timber research is impacting the decarbonization of California’s construction industry

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By UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. 

Excerpt: Drawing on research developed by Paul Mayencourt’s team at the UC Berkeley Wood Lab, Mad River Mass Timber has emerged as California’s first producer of dowel-laminated mass timber, which has the potential to improve forest health, mitigate wildfire risk, and accelerate the production of affordable housing — while also contributing toward the long-term goal of decarbonizing the environment. ...With guidance from Assistant Professor Paul Mayencourt and the UC Berkeley Wood Lab, Humboldt County’s Mad River Mass Timber is pioneering the commercial manufacture of dowel-laminated timber (DLT) in the state. The first vertically integrated producer of mass timber in California, MRMT transforms waste wood from our forests into construction-ready building panels. ...Weak or small-diameter trees that cannot otherwise be used for construction, such as red fir, hemlock, and Ponderosa pine, can be joined together to create strong DLT panels. DLT can also repurpose fire-damaged timber, which until now has not had a commercial use. ...DLT is a kind of mass timber, the industry term for engineered wooden panels prefabricated for construction. Mass timber, unlike steel and concrete, is a renewable resource that locks away carbon for the lifespan of a structure, sequestering it from the atmosphere. By relying on wooden dowels as connectors, DLT avoids chemical adhesives used in other mass timber products and is completely recyclable.... 

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