Mass timber construction is making headlines, especially in Toronto and Vancouver where high-profile projects are turning heads, but the “fast-growing” new industry still only makes up about one per cent of all construction in Canada.

Like many young industries, the sector faces hurdles to growth. One of those is the lack of product standardization.

Among manufacturers standardization increases production efficiencies, lowers costs and simplifies the building design process, allowing for fast, repetitive construction methods, says Adrian Mitchell, principal consultant, mass timber and off-site construction with Loam Saw Inc.

As it stands, most North American mass timber producers offer unique panels/products that give them “a competitive advantage,” Mitchell says.

But that is not good for the industry as a whole.

The Vancouver-based consultant recently gave a WoodWorks webinar on how to advance North American mass timber projects by harnessing local expertise.

He says while production capacity is projected to double in North America by 2029, it pales in comparison to activity in Europe where standardization is common.

Formerly of Simpson Strong-Tie and Rothoblaas, Mitchell says in many instances European builders can pick up standard-sized glulam or CLT billets from a local mass timber distributor for current projects. It drives up production efficiencies.

“They have a mature market where they see woodworkers and integration shops working alongside billet producers to service the market.

“It is not about whose panel size got designed by the engineer into a project from the start, giving that manufacturer an advantage because no one else produces that panel size, which is what is happening here,” he points out.

Mitchell says if a Canadian mass timber supplier wants to bid on a project that doesn’t have its panel or beam size “engineered into the design” it has to redesign that project otherwise it won’t be cost effective.

“It requires a huge team of engineers and estimators at these producers to constantly be redesigning projects and that just adds costs overall.”

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