One of my favourite parts of Christmas is watching people’s expressions when they open their presents, especially when they feign joy over the gift they didn’t want.
We’ve just moved house and like most people in that situation, spent far more than we’d planned to on all those ‘little incidentals’, like carpets and curtains. Added to this, we’ve inherited an interesting bunch of chickens, which will be a severe shock to anyone who knows me and my complete lack of knowledge on anything to do with livestock! So, Christmas saw me open up my present of a trowel for cleaning out their house, while Jenny tried to look pleased at getting a book called Bloke Jokes, Volume 2.
But what on earth., I hear you ask, has all this got to do with the timber trade? Well, back in June 2003 I wrote about EN13986 and the likely impact it would have on merchants, who are the interface between the trade and the construction industry.
If you recall, from April 1, any timber based panel products supplied for permanent use in any construction, must be tested and must conform to this standard.
Inevitably, a huge percentage of imported panel suppliers and, alas, some associations, do not seem to be acknowledging this forthcoming problem – if you consider existing stock on the ground, on the water and being manufactured, we’ve probably got many months of stock ahead of us before any certificated materials come through.
Which leaves the merchants in an interesting position. How do they cope with this, when so little appears to have been done, by so many (sorry Winston)?
Thankfully, there are always ‘the few’ who have dealt with this and unwrapping their materials on April Fool’s day will be a great delight. Quite what the facial expressions will be for the rest is another matter; what’s more, how do you phrase the thank you letters?
