Building control officers have caught builders attempting to use beached timber for loft conversions and house extensions.
Thanet District Council officers made the discovery in the wake of hundreds of tonnes of sawn wood washing onto beaches near Margate and Ramsgate, which followed the shedding of 1,500 tonnes of Swedish timber from the vessel Sinegorsk.
Area building control officer Paul Morgan told TTJ that the presence of seaweed and sand on timber on several building sites showed the wood had come from the beach.
“The builders were intending to use it in an extension and loft conversion,” said Mr Mason. “They were literally taking it off the beach, putting it on the back of a lorry, then running it up scaffolding to use on the job.”
The builder was warned to remove the wood from site as it was untreated, ungraded and had been in the sea for several days so was not suitable for structural purposes.
Mr Mason said the builders encountered by officers were “a man with a van” operation rather than a builder contractor.
He said in one case, some beach timber was already being fixed into position in an extension. Its removal was ordered.
Both the homeowner and builder were warned about the wood, said Mr Mason, and “the penny began to drop” with the homeowner hopefully beginning to question the competency of the builder.
“If they’re prepared to do that, what else are they prepared to do?”
Mr Mason said there was also concern about the impact of the timber’s salt content on metal fixings.
“We have had numerous reports that lorry loads of timber were disappearing from the beaches, so it may keep turning up for a couple of months.”
Thanet building control officers are keeping an eye out for the wood on local construction sites and are revisiting sites to verify removal.
The timber was originally sawn by Rörvik Timber and had been bound for Egypt when it was shed into the English Channel during bad weather.
