A smarter building

Marking a milestone, Whitefish-based

wood processing start-up Innovative Timber Systems (Smartwoods)

erected their first building last week using cutting-edge

prefabricated cross laminated wood products.

The 5,000 square foot, two-story

building on Spokane Avenue went up in a blistering five days. It

will be the new home of the Sawbuck Do Jang.

Part of the advantage to prefabricated

products is that most of the work is done on the front end of the

project in a factory. Time on the construction site, depending on

the building size, can be less than a week.

“It went up absolutely seamlessly,”

said Gina Burns, consultant in public relations and investor

relations for Smartwoods. “We were off the street by noon on

Friday.”

The massive prefabricated walls and

beams were placed with a crane and were bound using steel plates

and thousands of screws. The cross laminated panels can be as big

as 60 feet long and up to 11 inches thick. They are specifically

cut to meet the design of a project. The panels are used for

floors, walls, roofs and interior partitions.

“The real prize is it’s capacity to

replace concrete and steel and low and mid-rise commercial

buildings as well as deliver high performance residential buildings

faster and more sustainably,” company founder Pete Kobelt said.

There is almost no on-site waste

produced — no Dumptsers needed — with this technology since

everything is cut to specs before arriving.

The success of their first building

could be a boon for both their business and the local economy.

The panels and beams for this project

were shipped from Europe, but the company hopes to make the panels

locally in the future.

“We have architects and engineers

calling us every day from all over the U.S. and Canada asking us if

they can use (this technology) for specific projects, ” said

Kobelt.

The goal for Smartwoods is to fabricate

the panels using Montana wood products at an industrial site on the

north side of Columbia Falls where their shop is now off of Nucleus

Avenue. Kobelt also mentioned the possibility of the vacant Idaho

Timber site in Whitefish.

“The goal is to get a factory built,”

Kobelt said.

Kobelt, a dual U.S. / Swiss citizen,

has heavily studied the European wood-processing industry and the

cross laminated technology. The company could use small diameter

and low grade renewable resources from here, including the mountain

pine beetle killed timber, Kobelt notes.

The buzz from the Whitefish project has

sped up the timeline of possibly opening a factory here, Burns told

the Pilot.

“We want that to start as soon as

possible,” she said. “A lot is happening this week.”

Burns said the office’s phone has been

ringing off the hook since last week.

“Potential clients have all been

waiting to see if we could do what we said we could do,” Burns

said. “And we did it.”