Two of the major topics of interest to those designing taller and larger wood buildings are the susceptibility to differential movement and the likelihood of mass timber components drying too slowly after they become wet during construction. The Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, British Columbia provides a unique opportunity for non-destructive testing and monitoring to measure the ‘As Built’ performance of a relatively tall mass timber building. Field measurements also provide performance data to support regulatory and market acceptance of wood-based systems in tall and large buildings. This report covers vertical movement and roof moisture performance measured from this building for about three and a half years, with sensors installed during the construction.
The report first describes instrumentation. The locations selected for installing displacement sensors for measuring vertical movement comprised of the following: glued-laminated timber (glulam) columns together with cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors on three lower floors; a glulam column together with a parallel strand lumber (PSL) transfer beam on the first floor; and a CLT shear wall of the core structure on each floor from the second up to the top floor. Sensors were also installed to measure environmental conditions (temperature and relative humidity) in the immediate vicinity of the components being monitored. In addition, six locations in the timber roof were selected and instrumented for measuring moisture changes in the wood as well as the local environmental conditions. Most sensors went into operation in the middle of March 2014, after the roof sheathing was installed.