Edinburgh Napier University

  Although timber cladding has been used for centuries, the current design guidance for timber cladding has received very little research attention with regards to structural performance. Due to the growing demand in several countries for medium rise timber facades it is imperative to ensure that connection detailing is robust in order to reduce any risk of failure. Timber facade design and detailing has to take into account the environmental conditions and the corresponding affect this has on durability, weathering, dimensional change and corrosion. This paper reports the initial findings of an extensive research programme investigating the impact of environmental exposure and the use of a range of commercially available preservative treatments on the structural robustness of timber cladding details. The experimental programme consists of comparing the structural performance of timber facade connection details constructed and tested in controlled environment conditions relative to those which have been placed in a 12 month data-logged exposure trial. Reported in this paper are the initial controlled environment withdrawal test results considering UK standard cladding details.