Abstract
Timber frame walls are increasingly applied nowadays due to the stringent energy performance requirements of buildings. The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental impact of this type of construction. Therefore, a cradle to gate analysis was used. The study consists of three consecutive steps. First the impact of the constituting materials was studied. The results show e.g. that the environmental impact of LVL studs is significantly larger than that of SLS studs or I-joists. Based on these results on material level, in the second stage three timber frame walls were designed and evaluated. All walls had the same thermal performance. When comparing the results, it was noted that the environmental impact of the wall with the highest impact is three times larger than that of the wall with the lowest impact. Finally, the study also looked at the additional impact of tapes for guaranteeing the air tightness of timber frame constructions and at the impact of fasteners. It could be concluded that the impact of tapes is negligible when looking at the total impact of the wall (less than 1%). The fasteners on the other hand, lead to an increase in environmental impact with almost 20%.
Highlights
Buildings have a large impact on our environment: 25% of the total primary energy use is related to the use of buildings while 40% of the CO2-emissions are generated by fossil fuels used in buildings
Conclusions and future work This paper discusses the environmental impact of timber frame walls
The results showed that the impact of timber frame walls can differ largely by the choice of constituting materials
Summary
Buildings have a large impact on our environment: 25% of the total primary energy use is related to the use of buildings while 40% of the CO2-emissions are generated by fossil fuels used in buildings. A large amount of energy is embodied in the building materials. Studies show that in a typical Belgian dwelling 10 to 30% of the total environmental impact is caused by the building materials [1]. It is important to gain insight in the environmental impact of construction elements. As the energy regulations move the construction sector towards thicker insulation layers, timber frame construction elements become in favour. Figures show that in the past years timber frame is used more frequently. In 2011, in 5,9% of the new Belgian dwellings timber frame construction was used. It is expected that this number will further increase to 15 to 20% in 2020 [2]
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