Treated \(/ood in Building Construction

By Frank D. Chase President, Frank D. Chase, Inc., Engineers and Architects

Treated Wood, as this Association knows it, deserves a larger place in building. A start, a very good start, but only a start has been made to develop a real marldet fot treated woods in buildings.

An opportunity exists at this time, such as has never existed before, to develop the us,e of wood for buildings, an opportunity such as will never, I believe, come again.

We are at the very beginning of a new era of building design and construction which will be revolutionary.

The lumberman and wood preserver should be awake to this opportunity.

I am going to repeat this statement several times, to give it emphasis, and I shall attempt to prove, at least explain or justify my reasons, although in the limited time rvhich I have at my disposal I must of necessity draw a very sketchy picture of the situation. I shall I'eave it to your imagination as well as your technical knowledge, to fill out and complete the picture.

If wood is not used as much as it rvas formerly in building construction, there must, of course, be reasons-and ther'e are. The status of treated rvood in building construction is not only interesting but, more than that, ofl vital importance to a great industry.

The uses of untreated wood need not be mentionedwe pass that subject, but there arb definite and obvious reasons for the decreasing use of untreated wood.

This paper refers only to buildings and in general is not applicable to other structures. Until twenty years ago we used wood freely in almost all types of buildings.

I cannot remember the construction of the first "alleged" steel skyscrapers, although I do remember them when they were the leading buildings of this city. The two first, perhaps the several first, were built as you know in Chicago.

I remember very well the first concrete building of several stories in height-and the technical discussions which it started and which have never stopped.

These buildings, first developid rvithin the memory of most of us, were the forerunners of the present-day giant, multi-story structures in which rvood has been almost entirely eliminated.

The development of these multi-story commercial buildings of steel and/or concrete and the requirements of heavy construction in industrial buildings, due to heavier machinery and longer spans' are responsible for the decrease in use of wood for structural purposes' in these types of buildings, which, of course, comprise a considerable percentage of our total .building activities. This is a factor beyond the control of anyone, but the substitution of wood did not stop with the building frame. For twenty years it has been a case against the field, and wood has never in the running.

Increasing size and height of buildings made fire resistant construction imperative and the manufacturers of everything that goes into a building, except wood, recognized the opportunity to create new products and develop old ones.

To even enumerate the products which have helped to make our modern buildings possible is superfluous. I would like, however, to mention two: of in a race of wood These two principal materials in the modern building, that time been steel and cement (or ,concrete, if you please), are still, to all intents and purposes, where they were twenty years ago (of corr'rse I admit improvements in many respects), and still they have served the purposes of the 20th Century building.

First: STEEL. We still use, largely, low strength carbon steel-Alloys have only recently come into the building field-ten or fifteen years after their value had been recognized in other industries.

The structural steel industry has been nearly as sound asleep as the lumber industry-for which I am glad, for we have progressed rapidly enough in the art of building design. Within another generation the building of today will be obsolete in both architectural and structural design.

The Greek Temple or the Gothic Church are no longer the basis for good design for utilitarian or commercial buildings, although we, even now, occasionally see one being erected, to the discredit, I think, of the architectural profession.

Alloy steel used for walls and floors, as well as for frame work, together with proper insulating materials, will entirely change our building types.

Exit carbon steel, brick and mortar and concrete-more of this later.

Second: CONCRETE. Concrete has, as we know, replaced wood for heavy construction and even for carrying light loads.

The extensive use of concrete is due to the need of a fire retarding, economical construction, and because when the need arose-there was no one to develop any other material.

Concrete is used extensively today, not because it is an ideal material, but for want of a better material and because it has been "Sold" to the engineering and architectural professions.

Prof. Swain of M. I. T. is quoted by this Association as saying as late as 1926, "that present-day knowledge of concrete is still quite m,Eagre d< i< *." I agree with this and have never accepted, without mental reservation, the theories and practices of the use of concrete in buildings.

The Grace of God, evidenced by sane and conservative minds, has provided necessary factors of safety which have made concrete construction safe in spite of itself. Cement and concrete are better products every year and we learn a little each year, I hope, about their use.

Other materials have been developed to make new uses. There are a hundred floor coverings to take the place of wood-and studs, lath, framing, sash, trim, carpenter work, mill work, all are norv of materials which are substitutes for r,vood.

Wood always has been and ahvays lvill be a reliable material. The merchandising methods may have been wrong', and we all know about the struggles with grades, brands, etc., covering the past twenty years or more, but even well graded lumber did not find a place in the modern building structure.

Now there comes an opportunity for the use of wood which is a greater opportunity, I believe, than has existed in any past generation.

The opportunity exisls today, let me again repeat, to create a greater, wider use of wood in building structures, than has ever existed before in this country.

I refer, of course, to treated wood-briefly, wood treated to resist fungi, termites and fire.

This audience needs no enlightening on the action of these three agencies on wood, nor shall I suggest specifications for wood to meet these requirements.

Some wood preservative processes combine these three requirements in some degree. Wood must, to develop its maximum use in the modern building, and for most of the uses Iwill mention, poss€ss all three. Is there .a single treatment in use today which meets these requirements? Chemical research is still in order in the wood preserving field.

The Arts, including Architecture, are merely expressions of the thinking and living of the civilization which produces them. There are leaders, of course, who think and work in advance of the mass, who must lead the masses. The intellectual progress of the leaders, however, does not outstrip but merely goes on in advance. The world is seeing a nrew era of mental activity in every phase of human endeavor.

Architecture is no exception and, as in the other Arts, the development of our national life, on this Continent, has at last found expression in a new Architecture which reflects the life of this Nation today. We are finding ourselves in all our national thinking. This is not accepted by the many, of course, and among the many are a majority of the Architects, although one has only to read the Architectural magazines to realize that this majority is rapidly dwindling and that recognition of the new Architecture will soon be universal.

Not all of the results of Architectural endeavor are entirely pleasing. E. T. Russell of St. Louis, president of the A. I. A., refers to "Mental aberrations in the form of ultramod6rnistic buildings." There are many "brain storms" in stone today rvhich are painful. That is the price we pay for Architectural progress.

But, if the Architects themselves cannot arvake to a realization of this new era, can we expect the layman to do so? One famous art critic says, however, that there is more fine modern art in industry than anywhere else, as evidenced by motor cars, furniture, fabrics; in fact, in nearly every- thing that is manufactured today. So there must be appreciation by the layman.

I have discussed this subject to impress upon you that the new Architecture is not a passing vogue or fancy, but a national expression of living and thinking, which is not only tremendous but permanent in its effects on us all.

This paper on the uses of treated wood is not, at least should not be, merely a listing of specification items fbr wood.

I am trying to make you realize that in this great change in Architecture there is going to be a great change in the types and styles of buildings, a change in the application and uses of materials, and in the materials themselves, and that wood, when properly treated, can be used in a thousand ways, some new and some old, if the industry realizes the situation as I have tried to describe it, realizes its opportunities and makes the most of them.

This paper is written with knowledge gained from a newspaper, of the formation of the American Forest Products Industries, Inc., for the purposes of solving the industries' problems of distribution and merchandising and to assist in financing homes. What it proposes to do in research, I do not knor'v, but the problems of treated wood still have to be solved by the wood'preservers thems'elves with the backing of the lumber industry.

I want to describe the modern building and the building of the future, as the Engin,eer and Architect are beginning to visualize it, and to outline the uses of treated wood in them. Perhaps yott 'ivill see the future of wood as I do.

In the building of the future, reductions in cost, increases in height and size and improvement in living conditions, in better light and ventilation are to be secured by nerv and improved materials of which treated wood is one. Intelligent building design will properly utilize these materials..

The first consideration in the modern building will be a reduction of the dead load or weight of the structure, due to these new methods of architectural and structural design.

The structural steel frame will be of an alloy steel which rvill have four or five or six times the strength of our present old-fashioned, out-of-date carbon steel. Estimate the production in weight of the building frame alone obtained by the use of such steel-then figure that same steel used in girders and beams throughout the floor systems, and replacing a concrete slab 6 or 8 or 10 inches thick with a sheet steel plate covered, if you please, with a treated wood floor laid on a thin layer of insulation-sound proofed by the suspended plastered ceiling beneath. Omit the 13 inches of brick, stone or terra cotta used for the walls and, between the floor beams at the walls run steel or treated wood studs, to r,vhich is fastened for a wall-an outside wall, understand, one or two layers of treated wood-insulated with treated rvood fiber-wood outside protected by durable paint or, better still, without paint, plaster inside, insulation between-total thickness three or four inches. Metal will be used if you cannot "sell" wood. I was sold thirty years ago on cypress for siding. Is it possible that a lvood cannot be treated to last indefinitely on an exterior

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