Construction firms EllisDon and DIALOG have received more than $550,000 from the Government of Canada to fund a study of hybridized mass timber materials, to be developed for achieving reduction in carbon emissions and expansion in building design possibilities.

The patent-pending project, called Hybrid Timber Floor System, will study a mixture of different materials such as concrete and steel combined with mass timber. As a composite of post-tensioned concrete, CLT and a structurally engaged topping, it also allows mass timber–based floor systems to be used in nonresidential long-span construction, which previously relied only on traditional building materials.

The EllisDon and DIALOG study is currently underway at EllisDon’s modular fabrication facility, located in Stoney Creek, Ontario. The facility is an industrial building of over 27,000 m² (290,626 sf), fully fit for prefabricated volumetric modules and panelized building components. The project will be completed later this year, with ongoing full-scale and long-term testing planned post-study.

“Replacing steel and concrete with wood—which has significantly less embodied carbon—means that tall buildings could be designed to be lower in embodied carbon. The Hybrid Timber Floor System (HTFS) provides greater spans that are ideal for open floorplates or mixed use. HTFS is a gamechanger over traditional hybrid wood construction. It allows for the possibility of using CLT in buildings of any type, height and size at a competitive cost,” said Craig Applegath from the partner organization DIALOG.

The project is funded through the Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) Program, a program that encourages the greater use of wood in construction and supports Canada’s transition to a low-carbon economy, and the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT), a program that supports its recipients in de-risking the implementation of innovation in the Canadian forest sector.