Root-and-branch changes to make the structural timber standard BS 5268 part 2 more user friendly should be unveiled by the British Standards Institution by the year end.
The overhaul has been undertaken by a BSI committee, including representation from TRADA, for the past two years and is the first major revision since the standard’s launch.
The new version is going through final amendments and could be out in the autumn, although the year end is being quoted ‘to allow for slippage’.
According to industry sources, key changes to the document include the ending of the ‘closed’ listing whereby only European and North American panel products certification bodies are recognised. The new ‘open’ list sets down procedures for any certification body to be accredited if its testing regime meets acceptable standards.
It is said that the revamp will also end confusion between European and BS standards by enabling users simply to translate European working stresses for panel products and timber into BS 5268 part 2 stresses.
There are thought to be other major revisions to sections on panel products, joints and load-carrying capacities.
An industry source said the BSI standard committee had ‘bent over backwards to make BS 5268 more user friendly. Entire sections have been re-worded and they have come up with a much better way of converting Eurocode 5 stresses into British Standards’.
The revision is expected to be the last before BS 5268 is superceded by Eurocode 5, which is set to become compulsory by 2007.
