Engineering and Design

Can different technologies make a home more livable? Do specific technologies change a home's affordability, durability, quality, energy use, and disaster resistance?

The Forest Products Laboratory answers these questions with a resounding yes.

We know that a home is a complex system of components and that technology innovation can improve the performance of a homes individual components and integrated systems. Creating advanced technologies and alternative building methods can greatly enhance the value of wood in residential, nonresidential, and transportation structures.

The Forest Products Laboratory has been in the forefront of wood-frame housing research since 1910 and has long been recognized as a world leader in such housing-related areas as engineered wood products and structures, moisture control, material design and performance, coatings and finishes, adhesives, wood preservation, and composites.

Many of the materials and technologies currently used in wood-frame housing were developed through basic research at Forest Products Laboratory in cooperation with industry, academia, and government.

Wood has been used as a structural material for thousands of years. Despite the development of other materials, wood continues as a primary structural material and is widely used because of its excellent performance characteristics and affordability. Additionally, wood helps to mitigate climate change.

Using wood in building structures extends the carbon storage beyond the life of the tree throughout the life of the product, and later, through recycling. Life-cycle assessment studies have shown that wood frame buildings represent a significantly lower environmental burden than buildings made of materials such as steel, concrete, and bricks.

As we move into the future, lumber used for housing is likely to continue to come from plantation-grown trees and small-diameter secondary species (substitute woods). We need to further research and develop more efficient and durable structures that are adaptable to these sources from our changing forests.

How Does It Apply?

Evaluating Technology

Research at FPL evaluates technology needed for both new and existing housing and encompasses all types of residential structures in which wood or wood-based products are used as primary or secondary building components. Emphasis is on the improved use of traditional wood products, recycled and engineered wood composite materials, durability, moisture control, natural disaster resistance, and an improved living environment. The FPL research focuses primarily on housing structure and practical technologies that can be readily adopted by homebuilders, industry, and consumers. FPL also cooperates with partners in areas involving the latest theories and ideas in resource management, including water conservation.

To move new wood technologies into use, FPL has established strong links to industry and has played an active role in technology transfer and in the development of codes and standards. Our mission as a Federal research and development facility is to share skills, knowledge, technologies, methods of manufacturing, samples of manufacturing, and facilities among industries, universities, other government agencies, and institutions to ensure that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wide range of users. This process is known as technology transfer, and our partners can further develop the technology we research into new products, processes, applications, materials, or services.

FPL research recognizes that construction technologies are changing, and more than ever, America needs housing that is affordable, energy-efficient, durable, and safe. In the 20th century, the traditional regional prototype for single-family homes was built with a shell of forest products 'dimensional lumber framing and plywood' on strip foundations with wood, plywood, plaster and drywall, and stone or brick masonry finishes. This prototype emerged at a time when land, fuel, forest products, and labor were relatively cheap and the pool of skilled workers in the building trades was relatively large.

Meeting Today's Needs

To meet today's needs, FPL researches high-value homebuilding that can produce houses that are more livable, more responsive to universal and regional environments, and more frugal with available resources than those using current practices. The current housing prototype is an amalgam of mobile homes, modular construction, and a partially evolved version of the traditional type described previously.

Today's new houses incorporate more petroleum-based and other synthetic materials, more applied chemical compounds, more machine-fastened components, lighter weight materials, and greater across-the-board standardization of materials and methods. Material sources are more diverse than in the past. Because construction is a huge use of energy and creates considerable waste, FPL is researching the environmental effects and energy use of wood-based structures and the processes of updating and remodeling them.

Advanced structures research and development at FPL is focused on developing next generation residential and non-residential structures that are aesthetic, affordable, functional, durable, low maintenance, energy efficient, and disaster resistant (earthquake, high wind, hurricane, tornado, wildfire, and flood). FPL advanced structures research will improve the performance of structures during natural disasters while providing an outlet to use building materials produced from small-diameter timber. Research results will be made available to home builders, the forest products industry, and consumers.

As an evolution of our research and partnerships, academic and industry leaders, together with the FPL, formed the Coalition for Advanced Wood Structures (CAWS). The Coalition is but one example of the ways in which FPL works with partners to bring new technology and research into the structures that we use every day.

Tornado Shelter

The United States experiences more tornado activity than any other country in the world, with more than 1,000 tornadoes recorded each year. These storms cause billions of dollars in damage and on average claim the lives of 60 people and injure 1,500 more annually.

Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) researchers have developed a residential tornado shelter that meets industry safety standards and can be built into an existing home using readily available materials and tools. The 8-ft by 8-ft room can be built by a local contractor, or even assembled by a handy homeowner, which can result in substantial cost savings.

Materials include an overview of the shelter and introduction to the project; technical construction drawings; and a detailed guide that provides all you need to know about where to locate your shelter, the materials required, and sequenced instructions including the tools and materials used for each step. Six how-to videos also illustrate the step-by-step construction process.