Advice
General bracing advice, from the installer to the general contractor: At a minimum, shore the midspans.
Focus in
Advice
General bracing advice, from the installer to the general contractor: At a minimum, shore the midspans.
Advice
Avoid having a shim plate between the top of the beam and the CLT.
Advice
A bracing plan is important, and has a large effect on installation. Establish a bracing plan early and integrate it into the connection details. A good bracing plan allows the connections to assist with temporary stability and requires over-designing, but saves time, money, headaches, and patching.
Advice
Plan sequencing for fast placements. Connections often don’t work as a result of placement sequence. For example, more expensive connections can be used (eg Megant-style) where the assembly order doesn’t matter, but if cost is saved on the connections, time is wasted on site with necessary last minute adjustments.
Advice
Installers do not like tight-fit pins (but engineers do).
Advice
In-beds should be in the concrete scope, with blanks in-bed for knife plates to be welded on later.
Advice
Installers can offer creative solutions, ideally at the design stage. Projects will proceed more smoothly if advice from experienced installers is not ignored.
Advice
Connection details dictate whether a CLT/mass timber project will actually go up quickly.
Advice
Understand all aspects of the process, starting with the design, detailed design, and the fabrication model, all the way through to installation. If there are any parts not fully understood or covered by you or your team, hire expertise to fill the gaps as early as possible.
Advice
The challenge in getting people on the project team early is figuring out WHO to get in early.
Advice
Contractors and owners need to understand lead times.
Advice
Have detailed conversations with concrete subcontractors to stress how important tolerance is. This is the most efficient method of achieving tighter tolerances, as concrete can't share models like steel can, for instance. An as-built survey helps, but adds time.
Advice
Suppliers want to sell you the best option but you need to know what you want first. Bring suppliers in early, but only make decisions once you know what you want.
Advice
Develop and share a water protection plan together with the general contractor. Work with the GC: they care because they have to install. Suppliers may or may not care, and also may not have the necessary facilities (eg. membrane applying station)