A wave of enhanced products and new colours is creating more choice in coatings and finishes that keep pace with demand for better performance, environmental credentials and cost constraints.
While ‘one-hit’ products of pigmented preservatives and single application coatings are finding favour in construction and internal timbers, producers of factory-finished timber and panels are stoking an expanding market.
Owatrol UK, which launched Owatrol Deco multi-surface primer and finish in one at the National Painting and Decorating Show last month, has been more focused on the industrial coatings market to offset declining housebuilding revenues. Its factory-applied coatings with water-based product for vacuum coating and inline sprayers were used for the National Velodrome in Manchester.
"Customers were pessimistic about it at the start, but now they are using it more and more. It’s penetrative and they find while the oilbased takes 24 hours before you can apply another coat, this is 20 minutes," said managing director Gary Coniam.
However, reducing the number of wet trades on site is not the only advantage of factory finishing for Balcas Mouldings. "It has become more and more popular with housebuilders because it is faster and saves money," said commercial director Steve Mascall. "It is also popular for refurb in nursing homes, schools, hotels and hospitals because you don’t have the odour from gloss or dust from sanding."
Trade Fabrication Systems (TFS) in Warrington is also trading on quality. While its output is 40% housing, the company has diversified into other products, from outdoor advertising to film studios. "We had a production line exclusively for mezzanine flooring so we had to decide what more uses we could find," said TFS managing director Howard Morris. "We have invested about £750,000 in the past four years and we will be doing more.
"Blue chip companies are selling an image and most corporate structures have a hoarding around them and the colours have to be the same in Warrington as they are anywhere else in the country. The days of two men turning up with some cheap plywood and banging six-inch nails through it are gone."
One of the big sells is environmentally friendly and sustainable products to blue chip end users where coatings are water-based and the panel recyclable. "Hoardings are a growing market; we coat the panel, it goes out onto the side of the supermarket, no nail holes, it is clamped in place, then eventually it comes back to us and we coat it again and out it goes. In the right hands the panel can be used 10-20 times," said Mr Morris.
Trade Coaters, a Wirral-based company that specialises in factory-finished cladding and fire retardant coatings, has recently doubled its production space at a new unit. The business was started 17 years go by Graeme Thomas to concentrate on priming and fencing, but in the past six months has doubled sales.
"In the last five years our product mix has gone from 10-15% finished products and the rest priming, to 10-15% priming and the rest finished products," said Mr Thomas. "The end user wants cost savings, but also the warranty from the coatings supplier and that is based on the original coating, as well as how it is looked after."
Warranty is also key for Lonza, which has picked up some prestigious projects for Drywood Woodstain, a water-based coating for use on timbers treated with Lonza’s Non-Com Exterior fire retardant. Drywood provides a colour finish to fire-treated timbers, such as cladding, and has been used at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Center Parcs.
"Drywood has been an important development for us and the industry," said Jacqui Hughes, fire retardants product manager at Lonza Wood Protection. "Everyone is focused on risk management and performance and high specification. Traditionally, if anything has gone wrong it has been in application, but it comes back to the merchant, who is our customer. Drywood retains the fire certification and that goes through to the contractor and the merchant."
Drywood, produced by Drywood Coatings NV, is factory applied by Dresser Mouldings in Rochdale which, with Lonza, Ms Hughes described as a "robust triangle".
"Non-Com Exterior with an approved coating and approved applicator has a fouryear warranty, is water-based and we can colour match with anything, so it ticks all the boxes and is gaining momentum, especially with timber-focused architects," she said.
Pigmented coatings
Osmose is no longer promoting the WoodGuard range to focus instead on preservative treatments that incorporate pigments. Guard Industry and Osmose Europe entered into an agreement last year for the latter to supply WoodGuard to the UK manufacturing sector.
"WoodGuard was a fantastic product, but it was expensive and it was never going to be a core product as it is a coating, not a preservative system," said Osmose business development manager Matthew Hempson.
A key product now is MicroShades, in which MicroPro pressure-treated wood products are treated in conjunction with a colour pigment system. MicroShades is the only pigmented wood colourant system that can be used ‘in solution’ as part of the wood impregnation process and gives an improved colour life, compared with traditional dyebased systems, the company said.
Osmose is also promoting a pigmented version of the Royale hot oil treatment, initially developed as a timber drying process in which moisture is replaced by a blend of oils in a vacuum and then allowed to dry.
"There are some real positives with Royale," said Mr Hempson. "It is a two-stage process in which you have timber treatment, taking away moisture and then replacing it with hot oils, which in this case is pigmented. Royale adds colour, but it also gives stability."
Silva Timber brought Canadian-made Sansin for exterior applications to the UK for the first time last year and recently introduced Sansin SDF. "Sansin is new to the UK, but fits with our climate because it’s a low build product," said company spokesperson Graham Avery.
One-pot hit
By atomising high quality pigments into nano-particles, Sansin combines pigments with protective oils and resins on a molecular level. SDF allows the wood to breathe so it can be applied to wood with a high moisture content.
"SDF is basically a one-pot hit, straight on to the bare timber," said Mr Avery. "We do ask the customer to sand the board to get a better uptake and better UV protection. It has been warmly received, especially by architects. They like it for the unique water-borne technology, the low VOCs and characteristics that aid adhesion."
Osmo said that while performance is key, interest is growing in products available in a range of trendy colours and a transparent external finish to not distract from the natural characteristics of the timber. Natural Oil Woodstain Effect, introduced this year, comes in four silver metallic tones, said Steve Grimwood, managing director of Osmo UK.
"The finish of the product and availability of colour are the main priorities," agreed Sikkens marketing manager Richard Bradley. "We have invested in improvements to our offering to enable them to make an informed decision that they can be confident with. Our new premium sample service provides specifiers with access to samples of Sikkens finishes on a selection of wood types.
Sikkens Cetol Novatech was used on 12 treehouse suites at Chewton Glen Hotel in the New Forest where the external ‘wrap’ was designed to reflect the bark of the surrounding trees. A translucent woodstain with a semigloss finish was specified for the cladding, with Sikkens Cetol BL Opaque for the canopy edges and link bridges to complement the marine grade plywood.
Kitchen benefits from Osmo treatment
A residential property in Buckinghamshire became a show house for the diversity of the Osmo range. Because of a lack of sunlight the owners decided to extend the kitchen over a pre-existing north-facing patio.
Osmo Oak UV-Protection-Oil was applied externally to the frame, door and windows of the property, allowing the surface to remain elastic.
Polyx-Oil was used internally on the oak frame and on the floor, and the new fitted kitchen work surfaces were treated with Osmo Top Oil to accentuate the natural colours and grains.
Interior doors were treated with Osmo Door Oil to create a durable microporous finish and Osmo Wood Wax Finish Creativ Snow was applied to interior skirtings.
