Mass timber company plans for future growth in Montana

Cross-laminated timber manufacturers, mass timber experts and lumber enthusiasts gathered in Columbia Falls last week for the 2017 Mass Timber Rising Tour and Workshop.

Put on by the Forest Business Network, the workshop included panels from experts and manufacturers in the industry as well as a tour of the local cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturer SmartLam.

To test the progress of CLT, SmartLam has partnered with Australia-based international property and infrastructure group Lend Lease, undergoing testing for bombs, wind, seismic events and ballistics.

In those tests, SmartLam received a two-hour fire rating and a four-hour fire exposure rating, said Casey Malmquist, president and general manager for SmartLam.

A renewable building material unlike concrete and steel, CLT can withstand heavy impact situations, said Jeff Morrow, program manager for Lend Lease.

While undergoing blast testing, CLT products absorbed the shock wave — sucking in by approximately 4 inches before going out about 5 inches and returning to a motionless state.

The ability of CLT products to undergo blasts of fire or projectiles is what landed Lend Lease a contract with the U.S. Army to build the first military hotel in the United States out of CLT, Morrow said.

CLT is a fourth the weight of concrete and can cut construction time to a fraction of typical projects that use materials such as steel, concrete or traditional lumber.

As many workers have left the labor industry since the global economic crisis, Morrow said CLT has answered the question of how to build with the constraints of fewer people, noting that CLT is 37 percent faster while also using 43 percent fewer workers.

Malmquist said that where an elevator shaft made from concrete might take a month to complete, an elevator shaft made out of CLT would take one or two days to install. And a project that would typically take 50 framers could now be replaced by 10 men and a crane, he said.

In addition to being a renewable building material, Malmquist said CLT also helps to combat pollution, adding that the building industry accounts for more than a third of all carbon dioxide emissions.

Materializing as the first CLT commercial manufacturer in the United States in 2012, SmartLam has since outgrown its space in Columbia Falls.

Though no longer the sole CLT company in the country, SmartLam is still one of only two manufacturers and a handful of other CLT businesses.

Malmquist had worked with wood most of his life as a contractor and developer when CLT first started gaining popularity throughout Europe before moving over to North America.

Malmquist, originally from Minnesota, moved to Whitefish in 1994. He first started with industrial matting, but after the oil market went down hill in 2015 it sparked his transition into CLT products.

He had always anticipated an eventual change to CLT, but not quite as fast as it did. Now, a few years later, he says the 24,000-cubic-meter capacity of the facility in Columbia Falls is no longer large enough. Even with a second facility for storage on U.S. 2, SmartLam is in need of a bigger home.

To keep up with the growth, Malmquist is in negotiations for a larger facility in Columbia Falls that would have a capacity of nearly four times the current location. Last year it was announced that the new facility was looking to move into a former industrial site in Columbia Falls, though Malmquist was unable to confirm the location he is now looking at due to a non-disclosure agreement.

“My goal has always been to put Montana on the map and as a capital for CLT,” Malmquist said.

The current SmartLam location has about 35 employees, with 12 to 14 who work on the floor in labor-based positions. The new facility will require only four laborers, however, the total number of employees will increase to roughly 75 to 100 people, adding positions in sales, design and other high-skill jobs.

Though CLT cuts down on building times, more manpower is needed in the research and development phase.

“I know after 30 years of building, I can sit and look at a set of plans and see the problems. It makes you feel proud to figure out the problems before they come up, but now we have to figure out what needs to be fixed in the design phase,” Malmquist said, noting that little room is left for error when building with CLT as the products are manufactured to the specifications of each project.

To keep up with demand, SmartLam has also added a new press to double production, and continues to take larger projects such as a new hotel in Missoula that will replace the site of the old Missoula Mercantile building.

“It’s pretty exciting, it’s growing tremendously, it hasn’t been easy to make it come to fruition but it’s great that it has,” Malmquist said. “... We’re taking a very old product and making it high-tech, and we want to be the leaders in this because it’s the future.

“My goal is always to make SmartLam synonymous with CLT and make Montana — an abundant source for wood products — lead the way.”

Reporter Alyssa Gray may be reached at 758-4433 or agray@dailyinterlake.com.