A new research project led by BE-ST and the University of Edinburgh has provided one of the clearest pictures yet of how stakeholders view fire safety in mass timber buildings and what needs to happen next to unlock wider adoption.
Funded by Built by Nature, the project was launched in response to the UK Government’s 2023 Timber in Construction Roadmap, which called for greater understanding of how timber can be safely used in modern construction. The research brought together industry, academia, insurers, government representatives and fire specialists to examine the current rate of adoption of mass timber in the UK, with a particular focus on fire performance, regulation and stakeholder confidence.
The resulting report reveals a nuanced picture where there is broad recognition of timber’s environmental benefits and growing technical confidence among specialists, but significant barriers to mainstream adoption remain.
Client confidence remains the defining factor
One of the report’s strongest conclusions is that client motivation and ‘buy-in’ are the single most important influences on whether a building is ultimately delivered using mass timber. Across the industry there is growing technical confidence in engineered timber systems such as cross laminated timber (CLT) and glulam. However, many projects still fail to progress because at each stage of the process, risk of the unknown is priced into a project plan making it appear more expensive than other forms of construction. It takes a brave (or committed) client to progress the project anyway.
The findings suggest that reducing project risk may be the most important next step for the sector. The report highlights that many engineers and technical specialists working directly with mass timber already believe the core fire engineering challenges have been adequately addressed. Instead, stakeholders reported that successful projects depend on involving suitably experienced professionals and ensuring robust design, detailing, and verification processes from the outset.
A lack of publicly available data
Despite this technical confidence, the research identified a shortage of publicly available fire testing data relating to mass timber construction details and systems as a major obstacle, particularly about how specific timber assemblies perform in fire resistance tests and real-world fire scenarios. This often results in project delays, increased costs, and uncertainty during approvals and insurance negotiations.
Currently, much of the industry relies on proprietary testing and specialist consultancy expertise to verify designs. While stakeholders acknowledged the value of this expertise, many also expressed concern that the wider industry has become overly dependent on a limited pool of specialists and privately held information.
To address this, the report recommends creating a large, publicly accessible database of independent fire testing data covering a wide range of timber products, systems, and construction details. Stakeholders argued that such a resource would improve transparency, accelerate design processes, and help create a more level playing field across the industry. Importantly, participants stressed that any future dataset must be perceived as impartial and independent from commercial interests if it is to gain widespread trust.
Read the full article here
