When it comes to the roofing batten sector, there are three key areas to consider in 2018 – supply, waste reduction and standards.
As a business, we understand that there are concerns throughout the trade regarding shortages of structural timber this year. This is because an extremely wet autumn and winter in Scandinavia and the Baltic region has seen the forest industries in Latvia, Finland and Sweden particularly affected. As a result of the excessive rain and higher than normal temperatures, many of the routes through the forest are now waterlogged and impassable, making it almost impossible to get logs out of the forest to the mills.
To further add to this disruption, the very strong US market is also taking high volumes of Swedish timber, which means the UK is falling behind the global price of softwood as an increased volume is being shipped to other countries. We, like other batten manufacturers, will be working closely with our customers to manage this challenge and ensure continuity of supply.
This supply tightness also means that waste reduction is more important than ever. Since Marley Eternit entered the timber market, our focus has not only been on incorporating the JB Red batten into our wider roof system offering, but also investing in our state-of-the-art Goldeneye grading system in order to create higher standards within the industry.
All of our JB Red roofing battens are passed through Goldeneye in intricate detail, by the millimetre, to deliver a high level of accuracy, consistency and, ultimately, quality assurance. In addition, Goldeneye is 30 times faster than the human eye meaning that our production is significantly improved. This consistency means that 100% of our battens meet BS 5534’s strict tolerances, cutting down on waste because there are no timber defects to be cut out or rejected.
While the issue of supply remains ongoing, it is important that merchants, contractors and specifiers are confident about how to check a batten is BS 5534 compliant, understanding the differences between grading processes and why this is important, ultimately helping reduce waste on site caused by non-compliant battens.
The increasing focus on the security of pitched roofing and more stringent standards is particularly significant for the roofing battens sector. It was one of the areas most impacted by the changes to BS 5534 three years ago and now only timber battens that comply with the requirements should be called roofing battens. However, when sourcing timber products, buyers should not assume that timber battens are safe to use on the roof. They shouldn’t go on colour alone and should check for BS 5534 compliance. To be used on a roof, each batten should be indelibly marked to show it is graded to BS 5534, as well as showing supplier, origin, graded BS 5534, size and type of preservative (if applicable).
Ultimately, we believe that only mechanical grading, using camera and laser scanning technology, such as Goldeneye, is able to produce consistently graded roofing battens. However, it is important that if timber buyers or customers have any doubts about the grade of any roofing battens, then they should check with the supplier.
