The International Code Council (ICC) has approved the American Wood Council’s (AWC) proposed code change to expand the use of cross laminated timber (CLT) in nonresidential buildings. Source: Building-products.com
“Having worked closely with ICC code and fire officials, AWC was able to quickly answer questions raised about the proposal,” said Kenneth Bland, vice president for codes and regulations at AWC.
“The strong support for the proposal shown by ICC members is validation of the ICC process when all stakeholders work together to maintain state-of-the-art codes.”
The now-approved code will be published in late 2014 and will be available for jurisdictions to adopt in 2015.
Prior to the hearings, as part of a project to produce a US design manual for cross-laminated timber, AWC conducted a successful ASTM E119 fire endurance test on a CLT wall.
The wall, consisting of a five-ply CLT was covered on each side with a single layer of 5/8″ Type X gypsum wallboard. The wall was loaded to the maximum attainable by the test equipment, although it remained significantly below the full design strength of the CLT specimen.
It was then exposed to a standard fire that reaches more than 1800° in the first 90 minutes of exposure.
“While only seeking a two-hour rating, as required by the building code provisions, the test specimen lasted three hours, six minutes,” said Brad Douglas, vice president of engineering at AWC.
“This may also open up additional possibilities in a few specialized locations where a three-hour fire resistance rating might be required.”
