Mass Timber

Mass Timber

Mass timber construction is a method of construction adopted to decarbonize construction, increase the speed of build, and reduce waste – all whilst providing architecturally beautiful buildings. The structural and architectural design of mass timber must be balanced against the inherent limitations it has in mass, and the acoustic design must consider the aesthetic, fire and load requirements. This balance of disciplines is unique to mass timber, and only achieved through good communication between design teams, contractors and suppliers. Our approach to support timber construction is holistic and considers all engineering disciplines, providing robust solutions that deliver performance.

Mass timber is a collective term for large and solid wood structural panels used in construction. The most common types of mass timber include cross-laminated timber (CLT), dowel-laminated timber (DLT), nail-laminated timber (NLT), and glue-laminated timber (glulam). Given the significant growth of CLT, this page and the solutions presented will focus on and illustrate constructions using this technique. However, this does not mean they cannot also be applied to the other techniques mentioned.

CDM Stravitec provides a range of solutions for acoustically isolating timber constructions, including CLT and its various construction techniques such as post-and-beam, panel construction, and modular construction. These solutions include resilient ceiling hangers, wall strips, floating floor systems, and brackets for connecting walls, floors, or different CLT 3D prefabricated modules.

 

Acoustic Solutions for CLT:

Multiple Solutions Timber Construction
Stravifloor Page
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Stravilink
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Straviwood
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Isolated Floating Floors

Stravifloor, a range of isolated acoustical floating floors, offers superior sound insulation, for both, airborne sound and impact noise, with dry and wet solutions. These solutions can be designed using discrete bearings with various thicknesses and/ or different void depths – Stravifloor Channel – or resilient mats and strips – Stravifloor Mat – placed between the CLT slab and the concrete, screed or gypsum concrete floating slab or the different board layers (e.g., plywood, particle and cementitious boards), with or without the use of constrained layer damping technique (Damping Layer). 

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Isolated Ceilings

Stravilink, a range of wall & ceiling elastic decoupling, offers elastomer and spring acoustic suspension hangers designed to support and acoustically isolate suspended ceilings using a broad range of channel types.

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Isolated Walls

Stravilink, a range of wall and ceiling elastic decoupling, offers isolated wall systems used to increase the vertical and horizontal flanking performance of internal partition walls, such system is Stravilink WallFix. Within the same range, Stravilink RHD can be found, a resilient head detail isolating the head connection of a wall from the construction above whilst also providing lateral restraint, to improve vertical and horizontal flanking performance between adjacencies.

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Wall-floor Decoupling

Straviwood, a range of engineered connectors to acoustically decouple timber structural elements, offers solutions designed to minimize flanking transmissions as Straviwood WallBreak (available as strips (-S) or pads (-P)) or angle brackets for structural joints as Straviwood WallBracket. 

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Other Acoustical Solutions

For 3D Prefabricated Modules

Straviwood, a range of engineered connectors to acoustically decouple timber structural elements, offers solutions for 3D prefabricated modules such as resilient acoustic isolation bracket for structural joints - Straviwood ModuLink, or resilient pads specially designed to acoustically decouple stacked building modules Straviwood ModuBreak, which provides significant reduction in flanking sound transmission.

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Case Studies

  • BGO-Waalwijk

    BGO Waalwijk

    On the Valkenvoortweg in Waalwijk, on the former site of café “het Snoekske”, a campus for 270 expats is currently under construction.

  • Zwart Janstraat Rotterdam (exterior)

    Zwart Janstraat Rotterdam

    Straviwood WallBreak-S and Straviwood WallBracket isolators were used to acoustically decouple the different rooms at the townhouses on Zwart Janstraat.

  • Pontenage Gemert

    Pontenage Gemert

    Various Straviwood vibration isolation solutions were used to acoustically decouple the walls and ceilings at the 'Pontenage', a residential-care facility.

  • Koelmalaan (exterior)

    Koelmalaan

    In Alkmaar on Koelmalaan stands one of the largest wooden residential buildings in the Netherlands using Straviwood ModuLink and Modubreak acoustic solutions.

  • Multifamily Home (exterior)

    Multifamily Home

    Stravilink WallStrip elastomeric bearings decouple the walls of this wooden multifamily home in Antwerp, preventing the transmission of noise and vibrations.

  • Campus Vesalius (exterior)

    Campus Vesalius

    The outer shells of the two auditoriums are equipped with Stravifloor Batten and Stravilink WallBatten to obtain high airborne and impact sound isolation.

Stravifloor Deck on CLT

The Unexpected Match

The performance dimensions of a floating floor often extend beyond acoustics, as the flooring also serves functions related to structural protection or achieving the right balance between thermal inertia and responsiveness in a potential floor heating system. 

To evaluate a floating floor that can accommodate all needs, CDM Stravitec evaluated a specific solution - Stravifloor Deck. The system was tested with several configurations to better understand its performance under various scenarios, including finishing layers, void heights, electric box openings, and fiber-cement board integration.

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Mass timber can provide an opportunity to decarbonise construction and is used worldwide for speed and ease of construction. For this material to be used more frequently, we must design buildings with sustainability and material availability in mind. As a result, CDM Stravitec’s R&D test campaign has focused on solutions offering a more sustainable alternative to traditional options like screed, showcased in our online test database, Stravi-dB.

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