Scott Fotheringham

Scott is our Timber Engineering Manger. He joined Carpenter Oak & Woodland in 2004 primarily because of his love of working with wood, and having managed both our framing yards, he took up the challenge of developing our rapidly growing Timber Engineering business in 2006. Scott, (being much older than he actualy looks!) has many years experience in the construction industry as a Quantity Surveyor and Contracts Manager, and brings us a great depth of knowledge from having managed a number of different construction businesses.

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Previous posts

• Revised Part L
• Engineered timber
• Past project revisited
• Directory of Oak Frame Architects
• Whisky brings warmth to timber framed homes

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By Scott Fotheringham

In my blog about the In Touch with Timber conference recently, I touched on the building of large timber framed supermarkets. I assumed that retail giants like Tesco and Sainsbury were motivated by profit and nothing else in a very competitive market, so it pricked my interest that timber space frames are now more financially attractive than steel to the commercial sector, as is so often the case in continental Europe. Could this be the kick start for a major expansion of the timber engineering industry in the UK?

First and foremost it appears, getting people into the supermarket is the primary objective of the retail sector. Once people are in they spend. Everything the supermarkets do is customer led. Environmental or “green” issues are very fashionable. People feel good about helping the environment and want to be green, and look favourably on companies that are also trying to be green. So the supermarkets are now competing with each other to be greenest. Tesco announced plans to spend £100m on research into wind, solar and geothermal power, twice as much as Gordon Brown promised in the last budget. Interesting that Mark Soutar, Head of Environmental Construction for Tesco said that they got more publicity by sticking two little wind turbines on the roof of one of their stores which only powered the signage than any of their other environmental measures.

Anyway back to the engineered timber building. Apparently, with the massive rise in steel prices closing the gap, it is still more expensive to build in timber. So why is timber more attractive to large retailers? The timber trade says: 

• It is good to have a viable, renewable alternative to steel should steel become unavailable or unaffordable in the future. Recycling of steel uses huge amounts of increasingly more expensive energy. With timber you turn the building into pellets to fuel the biomass boilers, and make new glulam with fast grown trees planted specifically for the purpose.
• The price of steel has risen dramatically with the rise in energy costs making timber much more competitive, something that can only continue.
• Customers appreciate the positive contribution that visible timber construction elements make in terms of a warmer and more relaxed environment.
• Timber has a vastly reduced impact on the environment, due to its carbon content (the carbon storage effect) and the lower energy required producing, processing and transporting the material.
• Better performance in fire.

All of which are true of course, but the supermarkets say:

• Supermarkets are built around services, and fixing services is far easier, quicker and cheaper in a timber building.
• Green initiatives attract customers, customers spend and we profit.

I say:

• For whatever reason the research has been done, the template stores have been built, and with all this private investment and hard work they have kick started the large clear span commercial timber building market.
• Good for the timber trade, and most importantly good for the environment. I’ve never quite understood the logic in the green claims about recycling steel, when you consider the massive amounts of energy required. Thank you to the retailers for taking the initiative.