This week the Advancing Mass Timber Construction Conference will be held in Boston and feature Mighty Fire Breaker (MFB) President Steve Conboy who will speak on a variety of fire prevention and elimination topics including adding coating science to lower risk premiums, increased worker safety and to create a potential carbon trade.

The Mass Timber Movement is a growing, worldwide effort to build tall structures out of wood rather than steel and concrete for environmental reasons, and for a more balanced build, as well. The Mass Timber movement primarily uses solid wood glued together to create long spans of up to 60 feet. This type of construction eliminates the need for any I joist, Trusses, OSB or Plywood, all of which are known for job-site fire issues, mold, and moisture-related problems.

The Mass Timber components are all factory built. This makes the vertical, on-site construction much faster, which is of significance given the current labor shortage. Steve Conboy is a former Truss Joist Technical Representative, and he sees this as the next evolution in building with wood. Since every Mass Timber component is built in weather-proof buildings with dry lumber, this makes adding moisture and fire defense an easy step.

Today’s Mass Timber wood structures are supported by accredited engineering values that support ground movement and high wind loads. These structures are also supported by E119 fire science assembly testing, which proves that the wood will out-perform concrete and steel in structural fire failure.

As good as the Mass Timber movement is, the Build with Strength (BWS) concrete and steel unions and voices are not willing to lose market share without a fight: The current BWS messaging campaign seeks to convince developers and insurance underwriters that if they survive the build without a major fire loss, the downside of year-after-year claims and maintenance of wood outweigh the upside of faster construction with wood. This is all very believable until additional, accredited science coatings are added to the raw wood, mass timber components. MFB knows first-hand that one of the largest developers in the U.S. had multiple Mass Timber, tall structures in their pipeline and they changed their plans. This particular developer switched to concrete and steel because the risk insurance premiums using wood were more expensive than using concrete and steel.

MFB is not new to developing value-add risk reduction to lower risk premiums and combat negative messaging from BWS. The BWS people attacked Avalon Bay Communities after their three fires in New Jersey, and they tried hard to change the New Jersey building codes after those fires. They also play hard with the labor unions, seeking to convince them that raw lumber buildings under construction are not safe for workers. This link is to a March, 2022 Daily Commercial News by Construction Connect article that is emblematic of the impact of the BWS negative messaging about Mass Timber: https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/resource/2022/03/climate-and-construction-insurers-flag-the-risks-of-mass-timber-construction

The BWS lost after MFB’s program of adding sprayed-on, Class A fire protection was implemented by Avalon Bay (AVB), and it was accepted by their insurance provider along with a huge premium reduction. With MFB’s help, AVB went on to win the International Risk Management Institute, the IRMI Award, for their Early Fire Elimination Program.

MFB has consulted in the past on risk reduction on Mass Timber structures. During the Advancing Mass Timber Construction Conference, Conboy will address the risk reduction benefits of adding more science to raw mass timber and E119, and introduce MFB’s patent-pending, risk reduction, safe chemistry value-add.

The MFB-31-CitroTech fire inhibitor, factory-applied spray could make each component non- combustible. This chemistry was recently listed in the U.S. EPA’s Safer Choice Program, making it the safest, most environmentally-friendly fire chemistry in the world. Additionally, this fire inhibitor has also gone through UL GreenGuard Gold and ASTM E-84 testing and accreditation.

The MFB-34-MM-Gator Skin Coating defends against lightweight, fungi spores that float around in the air and land on the surfaces of raw wood during construction. We can defend Mass Timber from such lumber enemies that have driven risk premiums north with construction defect claims.

Wood has the natural quality that it absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. The CO2 is bound and stored in the wood and that is why wood is considered a sustainable material, especially when compared to concrete, bricks, and steel, all of which take lots of energy to create. When we use applied fire science to defend the carbon stored in wood, it makes building with mass timber worthy of a carbon trade.

MFB supports the Mass Timber Movement with greater risk reduction by defending wood against fire, thereby keeping CO2 stored in the wood, rather than being released back into the atmosphere.

The Mighty Fire Breaker® mission is to bring best practice, documented, proactive wildfire defense systems and program supported by safe, environmentally friendly chemistry to home hardening to help lower the risk of property loss from wildfire better than any other products used by firefighters. By using Mighty Fire Breaker® CitroTech fire inhibitor products in your home, at work, and within your community, you are joining us to promote a healthier, sustainable world. Learn more at http://www.mightyfirebreaker.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. To watch a demonstration of the Mighty Fire Breaker® Wildfire Home and Community Defense Network, https://youtu.be/q7P3OM7Ti1U.

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