Welcome to CodeCHEK, a tool for checking conformance to Canadian building codes.

CodeCHEK was developed under the Wood Works! Program by the Canadian Wood Council, with funding support from Forestry Innovation Investment, to assist designers to determine if and when lightweight wood-frame, heavy timber, mass timber and/or encapsulated mass timber construction can be used, and to determine what are the applicable construction requirements related to fire safety.

If the evaluation results show that lightweight wood-frame, heavy timber and/or encapsulated mass timber construction is permitted, the least restrictive requirements and applicable code reference(s) are displayed on the screen. Additional options with more restrictive requirements permitting lightweight wood-frame, heavy timber and/or encapsulated mass timber construction are accessible via the Code Articles button on the evaluation screen.

If the evaluation determines that lightweight wood-frame, heavy timber and/or encapsulated mass timber construction is not permitted under a particular building code’s acceptable solutions with the user’s input choices, information is provided regarding:

  • possible changes that can be made to the project characteristics that may permit the building to be of some form of wood construction;
  • references that may be of assistance in the development of an alternative solution; and,
  • the wood elements permitted in a building required to be of noncombustible construction.