Moisture damage in newly built houses and buildings in wood, building parts in organic and wood-based materials and, not least, material encounters between wood and cement-based materials in hybrid constructions risk slowing down the construction industry's transition to building with a lower climate footprint. The situation becomes particularly serious as construction in wood increases and new, inexperienced players want to establish themselves in the market. The lack of guidelines and guidance on how to do this risks creating a situation with an increased number of moisture damage and large costs as a result.
"Buildings that contain mostly concrete also contain wood-based materials, and buildings that contain mostly wood also contain concrete. These hybrid solutions are becoming increasingly common and complex material encounters between cement and wood-based materials need to be handled in a moisture-proof manner. We see this research project as a good opportunity for industry collaboration with a focus on resource-efficient and moisture-proof construction," says Anders Rönneblad, Head of Standardization and Certification at Cementa's R&D department.
The project intends to consider both details and input data for moisture calculations and specify relevant elements and activities in a moisture safety design. For building parts, details and material meetings, qualitative "hands-on" functional requirements are given with examples of design to reduce the risk of moisture and mould-related damage.
"As one of the country's largest real estate companies with ambitious goals of climate neutrality, we want to contribute to the development of concrete tools for moisture-proof wood construction that cover the entire construction process, from design to management. The result of the project will give both us and the construction industry in general increased opportunities for more sustainable construction," says Per Hilmersson, Head of Building Technology at Akademiska Hus.
The more theoretical parts are intended to produce and specify the necessary input data to use in your own moisture calculations. Since both input data as activities and details are normally equivalent regardless of the size of a building, the instructions will be able to be used on virtually all types of buildings regardless of size, geometry or purpose.
" The project is a step in increasing quality and reducing the risk of moisture-related damage in the construction sector, but also one of many important steps in the industry's work to take greater responsibility when building regulations are revised," says Anders Rosenkilde. head of technical development at the Swedish Wood and Furniture Companies.
The project started in the second quarter of 2022 and is expected to last for about four and a half years. Reporting takes place continuously during the implementation of the project, which is mainly divided into nine sub-projects. In addition to the main financiers, NCC, OBOS, Lindbäcks and Derome also support and participate in the project through their own time and contributions.
Per Hilmersson
Byggteknikchef