Modern Wooden Construction System Comparison

Abstract

Wood-based construction is a rapidly growing branch of construction in the world, it is slightly worse on the Polish field. In the era of care for the environment, it is important that newly constructed building objects, including buildings, not only use as little energy as possible, but are also made of materials received as ecological. Wood-based construction combines both of these aspects. There are, however, two other market aspects: price and availability of materials and technological solutions. Wooden buildings are more environmentally and human friendly than other material solutions, and with proper insulation, finishing and well-chosen installation systems, they can also be tempted to become a zero-energy building, i.e. one whose energy balance is zero per year. Among the architectural design offers today you can find a large number of residential or public building designs (low or large volume) with a wood-based structure, both in terms of bar solutions (generally seen through the prism of skeletal objects), as well as massive structures (today mainly seen through the prism plate objects). Each of them has different design assumptions, but in principle the goal is common. The right kind of construction, insulation and finishing materials should be chosen for each. For structural elements, various types of protection should be taken, e.g. in the field of fire safety or against technical wood pests, etc. In the field of insulation, analyses of thermal issues, waterproofing and wind protection are undertaken. The choice of finishing materials should also take into account solutions that are the least burdening the environment and minimize energy losses, among others by avoiding possible thermal bridges. This article attempts to present the topic in a synthetic way, outlining global trends and possibilities of the Polish wood-based construction market. The calculation example illustrates the heat balance and environmental loads of a single-family wooden building with thermal insulation selected so that the building envelope meets the current requirements given in the Technical Conditions.