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Burnaby Fear Mongering About Building With Wood Message All Wrong

By 250 News

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 03:58 AM

Prince George, B.C. - While the Province has put in place a new building code that allows for six storey buildings built of wood, the City of Burnaby has plenty  of concerns about that change.
 
Councilor Dave Wilbur says the letter is “fear mongering, and needs to be backed off”. Wilbur is concerned the message about building with wood is all wrong,.   His council colleagues have   approved passing the matter to the resolutions committee. 
 
The City of Burnaby’s list of concerns incudes:
 
  • Lack of research on seismic design, that even though there are some engineering tests being done, the results of that research would not be ready by the time the new building code comes into effect.
 
  • The input from Fire Chiefs was not incorporated in the building code change, so there are concerns about fire suppression, escape routes and how rapidly a fire in a wood structure of this height might spread,
  •  there are worries the addition of two floors of wood frame construction combined with heavy rain in the lower mainland would increase the risk of building envelope failure, ie…leaky condo syndrome. And
  • there is nothing in the Code to deal with the issue of product shrinkage, which is possible with wood .
 
With those concerns in mind, the City of Burnaby has  passed three recommendations:
1.       hold off on rezoning for six storey wood structures until the concerns have been addressed,
2.       include building specialists in the design and field review of the construction of these complex buildings
3.       that their report on the issues be sent to Rich Coleman, Minister of Housing  requesting the issues be addressed for inclusion in the building code.

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Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 03:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Comment Posted by: gus on April 28 2009 7:55 AM
"Councilor Dave Wilbur says the letter is “fear mongering, and needs to be backed off”. "

I thought he was a lawyer not an Architect or Engineer. Do Councillors all of the sudden get all this sort of special knowledge?

Burnaby is bang on. Wood might be good, but there are limitations and for people to not understand that is very dangerous.

Comment Posted by: IAM on April 28 2009 8:07 AM
Yes Gus, as I am sure you are aware, people in positions of power claim "special knowledge" to push their agenda.
Thanks for speaking up!
Comment Posted by: thereasonableman on April 28 2009 12:26 PM
Steel stud framing is the most appropriate for multi-level buildings, it is unnecessary and expensive for residential construction.

Building high rises out of lumber is not going to make any difference whatsoever in the market price of 1000 BF.

All for show.
Comment Posted by: gus on April 28 2009 1:03 PM
Maybe Councillor Wilbur needs to do a bit of homework before he speaks and throws the due diligence Burnaby has taken out the window.

This is the government's own site and discussion about the topic of higher light framed wood buildings.

http://www.housing.gov.bc.ca/building/wood_frame/scoping_review.htm

The fact that the material might be environmentally more friendly is not important in this matter. It deals with life safety and building integrity to ensure that it will be economical over time, rather than causing more maintenance than more structurally appropriate materials for this use.

From the site:
" ..... the technical challenges such as fire safety, structural and building envelope integrity and sound transmission must be carefully examined and appropriate mitigation requirements developed. Anticipated cost and sustainability benefits compared to concrete or steel frame buildings must also be substantiated through further research and analysis."
Comment Posted by: gus on April 28 2009 1:04 PM
Oops ... forgot to tell the good Councillor to make sure that he includes the BC Government's own building "experts" that they are fear mongering as well.
Comment Posted by: Palopu on April 29 2009 9:04 PM
I agree with Gus. Disagree with Wilbur.