How timber project early coordination prevents redesign, delays, and site fixes
One of the biggest cost drivers in heavy timber and mass timber construction isn’t the wood — it’s timber project early coordination. We often see projects where the structure has already been modelled, detailed, and coordinated, and only then the timber contractor gets involved. At that point, changing connection geometry, beam depths, or panel sizing becomes expensive or sometimes impossible without redesign.
Heavy and Mass timber don’t behave like steel or concrete. Panel spans, lifting constraints, truck shipping limits, crane reach, and CNC machining all affect what is efficient to build.
A beam that works structurally may still be inefficient to fabricate. A panel layout that works in CAD may require twice the install time on site.
Early coordination lets us:
• optimize panel sizes for transport
• reduce steel hardware
• simplify connections
• speed up erection
• lower cost without changing the architecture
The best timber projects aren’t value-engineered at the end — they’re designed around how the material wants to work. The earlier the timber team is involved, the fewer surprises show up on site.
Good timber projects look simple. They’re not — they’re coordinated early.
Have a project in early design? We’re happy to review models and provide preliminary input before detailing begins.
