Home | Academic | Construction
An Architect’s Question “How will the Timber Frame be supported until the brickwork is up?” Almost unbelievably this question recently came from a professional practitioner in a firm of Architects and Engineers. Despite ‘knowing’ that the project, then already on site, was an engineered timber structure for a block of flats, the embedded mindset that structures have to be masonry, is clearly evident. Perceptions of Timber It says a lot about how timber is currently perceived and the task that still remains to correct this. Go back a couple of hundred years and this would definitely not have been the case. Students today are intrigued, not to say amazed, when the history of timber as an essential engineering material is explained to them. Commodified in relatively recent years as a cheap material, timber has been ignored by engineers and educators in favour of steel and re-enforced concrete to the extent that, today, very little is taught to students of architecture, building and engineering about the wonderful qualities of the only renewable construction material available on our planet. Penny Drops for Timber Suppliers Fortunately this is changing. Having painted themselves into a ‘commodity corner’, major international timber suppliers are wising up to engineered timber components in attempts to create and secure improved margins. Hopefully those that can regain reasonable profits will take care not to loose them again, as some who have entered the timber frame sector by cutting prices have already done. The essential need for good profits As the growth of timber frame accelerates and, lured by the hope of high returns for ‘simple’ inputs, more entrants are attracted, the need to maintain – if not increase – margins is important. Unfortunately the fact that much of the construction sector orders against ‘lowest price’ bids, militates against this. Fortunately, Latham and Egan’s call for greater long term ‘partnering’ in construction is also gaining ground. And if Dr. Spok’s ‘Live long and prosper’ greeting is to have meaning for both existing and new entrants to the timber frame sector they must understand construction. The ‘Dead Hand’ of Commoditisation Building contracting has been commodified to death. In part this has led to the death of most apprenticeships and the stream of skilled craftsmen working their way through to supervision, site management and, for the more dynamic and possibly educationally inclined, construction management. It is not just the site skills that are in short supply, it is also craft experienced supervision at all levels. Paper qualifications are a poor substitute for practical construction know-how, and there is a real danger in allowing the sub-contractor’s tail wagging the house-builders dog when it comes to timber frame erection. Regrettably, and all too often, this is the case, with sub contract timber frame erectors who, without proper instruction in the structural requirements of buildings and having learned their limited job as ‘improvers’, are now telling site managers whether their work is acceptable or not. Miserly Margins Scary stuff! But with contracting margins of 1.5% - 2% the builders have no room to train either tradesmen or management properly. Nor do they have anything to plough back into R&D, or training, for example. And unless it guards – and improves - its margins very carefully, the timber frame sector could suffer the same fate. Technical Skills Shortage There are numerous CAD type packages available to help design timber structures quickly and easily. However, none of them are much use unless there are both people well versed in using them and, arguably more important, with sufficient construction knowledge to know what they are doing. But there aren’t! Nor, as indicated above, are there sufficient properly trained and adequately skilled erectors around to be able to put up anything but the most basic of structures. So, Is Timber Frame All that Easy? So all of those new entrants who think Timber-Frame is an easy target might want to think again. Sure, they can get into the cottage industry side of the business at relatively low cost. Or they can go for an automated volume production plant for a million or so, not counting premises. But if they want to deliver what clients wants, when they want it, then they have to have to address the technical skills issue. And whether they do this by ‘poaching’ from established firms (reprehensible, but should be criminal), or by training their own people (laudable, if the right recruits can be found), they will need to make sure that profits are sufficient to cover this. Product Development The same holds true for product development. Without skilled designers, manufacturers and erectors, there is little hope that new products will be researched and developed to satisfy government and societal demands for more advanced, environmentally sustainable, ‘future-proofed’ products or components. Not forgetting the money needed to bring them forward themselves. There’s a lot going on out there at the moment. Timber floors with the ‘feel’ of concrete; insulation alternatives from sheep’s wool to hemp; lightweight claddings to replace brick skins; and ‘massive wood’ walls, floors and roofs, to name but a few. But these are but the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the future holds. The Next 5 – 10 years Undoubtedly climate change and environmental sustainability issues will be major change drivers in the near to medium term future. But so too will Health & Safety, Lean Construction, Lean Manufacture, and the introduction of Euro-codes. Overarching these will be the Construction Design & Management (CDM) regulations, which will charge anyone who may be said to have a design function with responsibility for safety at all stages of production, construction, use, maintenance, decommissioning, demolition and clearance. So, expect to see some fairly major changes in the timber frame sector. Composites, in particular, are likely to play a much greater role. Light gauge steel and timber based board joist frames able to span greater widths at lower costs, are one example. Another might be pultruded timber fibre/glass sections for external frames. Likewise the sector may face competition from new lightweight products that might substitute for, or compliment, ‘massive wood’ components. The later raises the issue of connection details and fixings to lock in the inherent stability of timber frame while avoiding Ronan Point style blowouts’ presaging disproportionate collapse. A combined preservative and fire protection treatment is also likely to be on the cards. While decidedly not an issue for those that know, this would go a long way toward changing public perception of timber as a ‘safe’ structural material. A changing role for merchants This all spells change for timber merchants too. Expect to see greater specialisation in types of product sold, like modified timber products, e.g. aceticised and thermo-wood that change the cell structure of the fibre. Perhaps more importantly, expect to see the survivors enter into ‘partnering’ agreements with specialist timber frame manufacturers. As off-site, i.e. factory built, plants improve their processes and refine their designs, logistics will become increasingly important, with ‘Just-In-Time’ deliveries, possibly of pre-prepared timbers, to assembly lines becoming the order of the day. A far cry from the lackadaisical ‘you’ll get it when it turns up’ approach still adopted by many merchants today. The Role for Home Grown Home grown timber will definitely have a role to play in this, but possibly more via composites and the adoption of new technologies to utilise small section, short length timbers, which is what the UK’s forests mainly offer. Starved of investment in Silviculture for a hundred years or so, they cannot match European, Scandinavian, Russian or North American timbers for structural performance. Selection & Education But to respond to these emerging needs, merchants will need to select well educated recruits, put them through rigorous training and give them a good management education to ensure the firm can fulfil the manufacturers demands. On all fronts then, the future of the UK timber trade, including its latest child, the timber frame sector, is confronted by the need for more and better Education. And that costs money! About the author Dr. Benfield is visiting Professor of Civil & Construction Engineering Research with the University of Wales Newport and is a leading UK authority on timber frame construction. The Benfield ATT Group, which he heads, design, manufacture and build leading edge bespoke timber frame.
Provided by ArticleGOLD: Articles Directory - Article Directory
About the Article Author
The Benfield ATT Group
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
