Wood or CMU

Wood construction offers affordability, design flexibility, and energy efficiency, while CMU (concrete masonry unit) construction excels in durability, sound insulation, thermal mass, and security. Wood's strength, lightweight, and ease of use make it ideal for creating the underlying structure of buildings. Wood's natural resistance to heat, electrical conduction, and sound absorption characteristics make it a safe and comfortable material for building homes.

CMU homes are exceptionally durable, heavy, and last a long time. CMU is resistant to fires. CMU is said to have a better noise cancellation in comparison to wood construction homes. Very simply, termites or wood boring beetles cannot eat CMU. However, just because your home is CMU does not mean you do not have any wood that is susceptible to termites. Wood is often eaten at the trusses, baseboards, and interior framing members of a CMU home. You should still have a pest control plan.

Wood framed homes have better insulation capabilities than standalone CMU. However, this can be highly dependent on the other types of insulation materials your home has.

CMU has a high environmental impact since the concrete must be made under high pressure and temperature conditions. Also, the materials require many resources and high transport costs.

CMU is simply more expensive than wood homes to build. Wood Framed Homes can be more economical.

Wood framed homes are easy to build with labor and the resources themselves in comparison to CMU. Termites and wood boring beetles can definitely eat wood. Wood framed homes have a harder time blocking out noise from the outside.

Myth: While alone wood can be more susceptible to wind from hurricanes than CMU, wood houses are not just going to blow away any more often than CMU. Wood construction homes have strong hardware and good engineering practices to protect themselves from wind damage.

So, which is better, wood construction or CMU? In my professional opinion, more often than not, a combination of wood and CMU is the best of both worlds. Your decision should be based on your specific needs, budget, local building regulations, and personal design preferences.

Stay tuned, there's a lot more to come,

Dik Muller

CMU and Wood Combination