08.05.2024

Wood burns better!

Unfortunately, there are some prejudices against wood as a building material. One of them is that wood burns better! This is actually true - in a positive sense, because ‘better’ in this case means more predictable. In fact, it offers a decisive advantage: timber building structures burn in a more controlled manner and have a predictable load-bearing capacity in the event of a fire.

The almost linear burning rate and the constant load-bearing capacity are advantages over traditional building materials. This is because wood does not suffer a sudden loss of strength. Solid wood burns very slowly at a rate of approx. 0.7 mm per minute. This makes it possible to dimension the insulating carbon layer that forms during a fire according to the required burning time. Wood therefore remains predictable and load-bearing in the event of a fire.

Want to know more about wood?
» You can find information on our timber engineering page.