Cladding a Mass Timber Build: The NIC Student Housing Commons

Two four-storey mass timber buildings. 217 student beds. 106,868 square feet. Courtenay. Our scope was the cladding and the architectural sheet metal, and on a building this size that means shop fabrication, crane logistics, and panel layout settled before anyone lifts a sheet. It is our flagship recent project, and it took Subcontractor of the Year at the 2026 VICA Awards.

Mass timber construction moves fast once the skeleton is up. The frame goes vertical and suddenly you are racing weather. That is where the envelope plan matters. We lifted material by crane, because there is no other way on a four-storey timber structure, and sequenced the panel work so the walls closed in without holding up the trades behind us. The two buildings needed different panel layouts depending on elevation and orientation, so the metal was not standard catalogue work. We fabricated it in our shop to exact site dimensions.

Why Cladding Mass Timber Demands Precision

Mass timber is engineered wood, cross-laminated timber and similar products, and it performs well under load. It also moves. Seasonal humidity changes cause subtle shifts, and the cladding has to take that up without opening a joint or distorting a panel face. Every transition matters: where a panel run meets a window, where the cladding turns a corner, where a mechanical enclosure lands. Those details have to flex with the wood behind them and still shed water.

On the NIC project, we fabricated and installed the custom metal panels and the mechanical enclosures. The metal is not cosmetic. It is the first defense against wind-driven rain, and it moves water off the face of the building and away from it. In a Courtenay winter, with months of steady rain and coastal wind, a poorly detailed joint becomes a slow leak.

Crane Lifts and Logistics

Crane logistics on a build this size mean planning every pallet load and every stack of metal trim weeks in advance. You cannot stop mid-job to source more material. You cannot improvise access. Crane time is a real cost, so we sequenced the work to put material on the building in the order it gets installed, kept the footprint small, and kept crews moving without pile-up or waste.

The mass timber frame itself created tight spots. Timber has beams, bearing points and variable heights, and in a lot of places the structure is the finish. Our crews built staging and worked around it without marking wood that students were going to see from below. On a student housing project the owner and the architect watch those details, because they affect how the building reads for the rest of its life.

Custom Metal for a Clean Architectural Result

NIC wanted the metalwork to read as part of the architecture rather than as bolt-on utility covers. We worked from the architect's drawings, fabricated the panels and enclosure sleeves in our shop, and installed them on site, finished to specification and fastened to handle Courtenay wind loads. That level of customization takes time and tooling. It is also what separates a designed building from one that looks like the equipment got covered up after the fact.

If you have a mass timber build coming up, the cladding and sheet metal deserve attention early in the design process. Call us at 250-336-8088 or request a free estimate. We will detail the scope, list the materials, and walk through what the envelope needs for the coast.