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Andy joined Carpenter Oak & Woodland in 2005, to help the company provide a greater focus on customer service, marketing and sales. Andy’s background is varied indeed – helping him to bring a wide range of skills to the team. An avid lover of carpentry, Andy has also spent time in furniture restoration and conservation – something he still enjoys as a hobby.
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I see that Martin Clarke, CE of British Precast is calling for a moratorium on the use of timber frame in multi-storey construction. Anyone would think he had a vested interest!
He was responding to the recent fire at a multi-storey site in Hatfield built using small section softwood now commonly used in the mass construction market. It’s at times like this I wish people could readily differentiate between our industry and the high volume, softwood framing market and industry leaders would show more foresight with regard to the use of sustainable materials in construction.
It is confusing that timber framing is used to describe two very different construction methods. The first, as in the Hatfield fire, uses small section (typically 50mm x 100mm) softwood for the mass production of panel systems that can be quickly erected on site. This approach has been used on the continent for years but only relatively recently adopted in the UK in any numbers. It has a number of advantages for the mass development market and of course uses a sustainable material. By comparison our industry uses large section (typically 200mm x 200mm) green timber, often hardwood, to manufacture unique timber frames for the primary building structure. As an aside these frames actually perform well in fire conditions because once the outer layer has charred it takes prolonged exposure to fire to have any further effect.
On the second point I find frustrating that in this day and age when we have to look at every possible way of reducing our impact on the environment, the likes of Martin Clark grab at opportunities like this to nurture bad press for the industry in general. Whilst the incident itself needs to be treated very seriously we have to quickly learn from other parts of the world where they have more experience than us and not call for a halt in its use.
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