Among the many materials used, wood is considered the anti-seismic par excellence and is used for permanent or emergency housing solutions.

Italy, as well as Japan and some areas of the United States of America, is a territory strongly predisposed to the occurrence of earthquakes. It is therefore essential that public and private buildings are built according to precise manufacturing standards.

Anti-seismic wood and its properties

Wood is one of the oldest building materials, together with clay and straw. Historically more expensive and labor intensive than the latter, wood has many qualities that make it preferable to other materials. In particular, if we consider the factor of resistance to earthquakes and other natural phenomena.

Let’s see together what its properties are.

Lightness

Unlike concrete (normal or reinforced concrete, i.e. with steel inserts), wood is a light material and, contrary to what one might think, this is a huge advantage. Earthquakes, in fact, have a much more damaging effect on heavy materials which tend to collapse more easily due to their own weight.

Flexibility

Wood is a very elastic material. This means that during seismic oscillations wooden structures, such as roofs and walls, tend to deform without breaking.

Dissipation

This is one of the properties that makes wood an anti-seismic material par excellence, especially in relation to its use in construction. Depending on the way in which panels, beams or floors are joined together (for example through joints or metal connectors such as bolts), the wood that composes them will tend to dissipate seismic energy.

The transmission of seismic energy to the whole structure causes a certain degree of friction to be generated between one component and another of the construction. The metal connectors that hold the various elements together, if well designed and manufactured, undergo one or more plastic deformations. It is these that allow the building to remain standing by dispersing the earthquake charge. It is therefore a mechanical property that affects the degree of elasticity of the wood. Once again, it will be more inclined to change its conformation rather than break and collapse.

This last quality makes it clear how important not only the material, but also and above all the way in which it is assembled, is for the construction of a truly anti-seismic building.

Parquet in anti-seismic buildings

Wood and its properties are valid as regards the structural aspect of the building in compliance with the most recent national and European regulations on structural and anti-seismic calculation. Both affect the ability of the entire building to absorb and resist the energy caused by the event.

In the case of a house designed and built according to particular criteria, the use of parquet is allowed and recommended, precisely because of its lightness, flexibility and ability to absorb vibrations. In other words, if parquet is not enough to make a house anti-seismic, its use inside a building built to be anti-seismic remains consistent with these design methods. This is also confirmed by the fact that in recent years there has been an increase in the demand for professional installation of parquet in anti-seismic homes and buildings.

In fact, inside a simple tablet, plank, plank or small parquet strip there is an articulated world that respects not only nature, the environment and man, but which also speaks to us of stability and protection from earthquakes.