ForestValue JC2021 – WoodLCC – Enhanced Life-Cycle-Costing in wood construction by novel methods for service life planning

Under the 2014 EU procurement directive, a contract must be awarded based on the most economically advantageous tender. Currently, Life Cycle Cost (LCC) user software is employing simplified default service life estimates, especially for wood products in exterior applications, which in turn can lead to wrong decisions and negative economic and environmental impacts. We hypothesise that: (1) improved service life input data will enable more precise and robust LCC for wood-based products, resulting in more precise quantification economic and environmental impact, (2) LCC finds common acceptance only if reliable input data are available and complemented with knowledge about user expectations. Therefore, a holistic approach will be used to integrate service life data in LCC analysis instruments. The main objective of WoodLCC, is robust and precise Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC) based on input from models for detailed service life performance for wooden components and buildings. WoodLCC has brought together a strong interdisciplinary and international consortium comprising experts from across Europe in LCC, social science, engineering science, building physics, wood material science, service life modelling, mycology, and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Under previous national and European funding instruments surveys, databases and models related to this topic have emerged. The time is now ready to bring this together to create pan-European impact and provide an approach to support the deployment of more robust and precise LCC analyses, i.e., the WoodLCC data platform. WoodLCC will therefore utilise, but not repeat, results from previous ForestValue, EU and national projects, e.g., CLICKdesign (ForestValue), PerformWOOD (EU FP7) and ClimateLife (RCN). NTI has successfully developed the data structure for Life Cycle Cost (LCC) calculation and facilitated its integration into the final work package for software development. The Excel-based LCC calculation model has undergone multiple rounds of discussion and testing among partners. This iterative process has resulted in continuous refinement, enhancing user-friendliness and the practical guidance provided to end-users. NIBIO has together with German and Swedish partners conducted a European survey, with the results currently being prepared for publication as scientific articles. NIBIO has also completed the flowchart for choosing cladding and threshold values for maintenance according to the project plan. Furthermore, all deliverables within the relevant work packages have been completed on schedule. Scientific articles have already been written, and Norwegian delegates played a prominent role in the FWBB 2024 conference, which included a special session dedicated to the WoodLCC project.

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The primary progress beyond the state-of-the-art in WoodLCC is enabling input data for more robust and precise LCC analyses for wooden components and buildings. This will be achieved by the input from novel models for detailed service life prediction data, experimental studies, user preference survey, best practices related to correct design, maintenance action and inspections frequency. The main outcomes from the novel WoodLCC data platform (Figure 5) will contain not only reference service life estimates as direct input to LCC but also realistic maintenance intervals, user preference categorisation incl. the respective limit states, estimated service life of modern building materials, tailor-made risk assessment for moisture and demo plugin for the BIM software. This will result as a pioneer in the timber construction paradigm of Realistic Service Life Scenario (RSLS). This will be achieved by three implementation schemes: (1) Evaluation of the reliability of available service life data and research-driven filling of existing gaps (e.g., effect of design imperfections and modern building solutions) by more appropriate reference values (2) Customization of previous innovative performance specification models for determination of the estimated service life as well as maintenance scheduling based on user preferences (3) Integration of the innovative WoodLCC data platform with a BIM demo software solution combined with other numerical modelling