Summary

  • Environmental issues are helping the specification of engineered wood.
  • Walling applications for I-joists are predicted to grow.
  • International Timber has launched an engineered component range for the joinery trade.
  • Engineered roof solutions are on the increase.

The ever-increasing importance of the green agenda is hard to escape.

You only had to be at Eco Build, where every other company had prefixed the word “sustainable” to its products, to realise this.

And while there is a bandwagon element about this, for the timber products industry it is a godsend.

Housing minister Yvette Cooper’s recent statements supporting off-site construction and sustainable development are a source of optimism for the engineered wood products market, according to Kevin Riley, head of building solutions at Finnforest UK.

“Engineered wood products will benefit from the government’s change of stance,” he said. Increased emphasis on off-site manufacture, lower U-values and air-tightness, Mr Riley added, would aid specification of I-joists in a variety of applications, including walling.

“We see use of I-joists in wall applications increasing, while the I-joist floor sector will only grow organically now. As the housing market needs to achieve the government’s ambitions, such as level 5 and 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, there will be a great interest in different walling methods.”

Meanwhile, Finnforest has noticed use of Kerto LVL progressing from high profile examplar projects into more practical everyday and industrial structures which normally would have used steel.

“Large clients like the Tescos of this world have made statements to operate in a more environmental manner and are clearly demonstrating this through recent eco-store developments using timber structures,” added Mr Riley.

Two Tesco stores have been built using significant quantities of glulam and Kerto LVL, while an Asda branch is set to follow. And an IKEA store being constructed in Finland is seen as an example of how LVL roof panels could take off in large store construction.

Malcolm Vaughton, director of Lilleheden UK, which manufactured the glulam beams for brewer Adnams’ eye-catching distribution centre in Southwold, said industrial development using glulam seems to be increasing, helped by environmental concerns of specifiers.

But he admitted recent timber price rises had not helped glulam’s cause against steel. And many specifiers are still happy to design in steel and view timber connector detailing and the large section size of glulam negatively.

Glulam specialist Constructional Timber Ltd, which worked on the Wood Awards-winning Norwich Cathedral Visitors’ Centre, said more specifiers were switching on to glulam.

“There is a lot of work out there. We’re finding that the work we have got on at the moment is going to be a big step forward in turnover.”

“They’re [architects and engineers] now realising the capabilities of engineered timber. They’re using it rather than the traditional steel and concrete.”

Constructional Timber recently used 38m-span cranked beams, delivered on low loaders from Austria, for the Picton Pool project in Bristol. Some 560m3 of glulam was used.

Laminated Wood Ltd managing director John Mallinckrodt also reported a busy market with use of glulam in construction growing.

Joinery sector
Meanwhile, increasing supply of engineered components into the joinery trade seems to show no sign of slowing.

International Timber has just introduced a new engineered component range for window, stair and door manufacture, available in Forest Stewardship Council certified European oak and sourced through the company’s dedicated office in China.

The company believes its Chinese connection gives it an advantage in terms of quality control and supply chain management. European redwood and sapele window and door components are also available.

Steve Rogers, International Timber product and market director, said the company had been supplying laminated components for the past two years but the range was designed to meet customer requirements in terms of “colour matching and consistent product quality”.

“As the market develops, the smaller end user will increasingly accept an engineered solution and the opportunity top sell through the merchant sector will also expand, offering a just-in-time service with added value.”

Sussex-based Westgate Joinery expects a high proportion of its wood to be engineered timber in a “very short space of time”.

Westgate managing director David Pattenden said by early next year he could see the company’s lower-value painted exterior joinery [in sapele and idigbo] changing to Accoya modified wood.

“With the way many of the African Hardwoods are going from a price point of view, by the end of the year we will be paying a similar price per cubic metre for Accoya and sapele.”

He said Accoya could be supplied in 6m-long finger-jointed sections, reducing waste in the workshop.

Mr Pattenden also expects laminated and finger-jointed sweet chestnut to catch on, especially as a plentiful supply was available and oak prices were increasing.

“You only had to be at Ligna to see engineered timber is the norm in Europe. That will happen here, particularly as timber prices continue to increase.”

Another firm believer in engineered timber is Hove-based Finewood Marketing (UK) Ltd, which has spent years developing bespoke engineered components with its Far East suppliers for use in the joinery trade.

“One of our customers has doubled their production over the last couple of years, by developing with us components ready for assembly and therefore saving time and money by avoiding all the front end work previously associated with their products,” said Finewood technical director Nigel Haigh.

On the I-joist front, manufacturers are busy seeking to find new applications for their products now the national housebuilder market has reached saturation level, but there are also opportunities of tapping the small- and medium-size builder sector.

Palgrave Brown is seeing growth in off-site construction and timber roofing solutions. Spandrel panels, it says, are becoming more popular for health and safety reasons and also as a cost-effective way to partition attic spaces and remove the need for skilled brick layers.

It reports a “sea change” as developers see the flexibility of timber roof solutions for the commercial market. “It’s a confidence issue and confidence is growing,” said Mike Fleming, Palgrave’s sales and marketing director.

Wolf Systems, which jointly developed prefabricated roof system smartroof said the system has more than 150 installations to date, with orders from major national companies for “significantly more”. It reported a growing realisation among housebuilders of the potential of smartroof.

Wolf will launch a new management software package, WMS, at Interbuild to give timber engineering businesses the ability to run all aspects of their business including design, CRM functions and production control, for roof, wall and floor components.

Timber connector manufacturer Simpson Strong-Tie has noticed a change in the dynamics of the engineered wood floor market with a significant growth of metalweb joists. “When sales are small it’s easy to double turnover, but the last two to three years has seen this market continue to double in size year-on-year and we are now looking at substantial volume,” said a spokesman.

Simpson has reacted by creating a dedicated engineered timber division and claims to be the first connector manufacturer to provide all CE marked products for the engineered timber industry.