Greenville County’s Timberlab Fuels Building Surge with Precision and Scale
In an unassuming industrial edifice in southern Greenville County, a little-known company named Timberlab is making significant contributions to the modern day surge in construction. Primarily, Timberlab leverages the age-old element of wood, innovating with its precision mass timber fabrication techniques. This approach caters to a construction industry that’s increasingly leaning towards materials alternative to concrete and steel in order to minimize carbon footprint.
The Rediscovery of Wood
Despite wood has been utilized for ages as a versatile material for everything ranging from tools to edifices, novel developments in glued laminate timber have initiated a fresh renaissance for the material. These innovations are propelling the use of wood as core structural elements in large-scale buildings. Timberlab’s contribution in this regard is its dexterity in precision fabrication. Its expansive 75,000-square-foot facility located on Old Grove Road is home to two high-precision computer numerical control (CNC) machines. These machines can craft accurate cuts within 1/16-inch tolerances.
As the President of Timberlab highlighted during a recent facility tour, this precision enables beams and columns to fit together like Legos at the building site. And because wood is renewable, mass timber construction has the potential to considerably shrink a project’s carbon footprint, by at least 50%. The company has raised the fact that over the last five years, the number of mass timber building projects in the nation have doubled every couple years; and this is a trend the company foresees to continue over the next decade-and-a-half.
Pioneer Projects
Timberlab, in association with its commercial general contractor affiliate, supplied materials for two recent mass timber projects in North Carolina: Live Oak Bank Campus – a four-story commercial structure sprawling over 67,000 square feet and designed to house 200 employees; and The Joinery’s Phase 2 – a luxurious residential community spreading to 350,000 square feet and consisting of two seven-story buildings.
Launched in 2021 by its affiliate, Timberlab’s Greenville County facility, since its inception in early 2023, has churned out 3,300 components. These components have been used in projects representing approximately 500,000 square feet of sustainable development to the east of Mississippi River.
Focused on Durability and Aesthetics
With roots shared with general contractor Swinerton, Timberlab appreciates every phase of the construction process. The closely-knit team of 30 Greenville employees is aware how the products manufactured by them fit into the larger picture. However, the fabrication manager emphasizes that the precision treatment at Timberlab is the last step before the materials are transported to the building site. He further points out that every beam and truss is labeled according to their installation site. This added touch enhances the efficiency and speed during erection and is a significant advantage of mass timber construction.
The expertise of Timberlab shines through the ten pioneering projects all featuring products manufactured at the facility. Each project offers valuable lessons, contributing to the evolution of the industry, which is essentially nascent in the U.S. The hope is that as Timberlab continues to innovate and lead the way, this ancient material of wood will find renewed prominence in future architectural marvels.
