Merchants and roofing contractors are being warned by third-party accreditation companies to check roofing batten supplies carefully due to an increase in falsely marked battens following the NHBC’s decision to accept only accept BS 5534 graded battens on its sites.

The NHBC’s decision last autumn was introduced with immediate effect, creating a scramble to secure graded batten supplies, but Jim Coulson of TFT Woodexperts said that not only was the BS mark being illegally marked on ungraded battens, but third-party quality accreditation scheme marks were also being faked.

Mr Coulson said he had been informed that TFT’s Diamond Mark quality scheme mark had been forged on a batten consignment awaiting export in Latvia.

“People are pulling the wool over suppliers’ eyes by forging quality system marks and marking ungraded battens,” said Mr Coulson.

“I think this is probably the beginning of a potential flood because there has been a large amount of activity since the start of 2012 from the trade trying to source graded and marked battens.”

Mr Coulson urged importers, merchants and roofing contractors to check third-party accreditation claims on battens to ensure they are genuine.

There has also been a growing demand for third-party quality assured and graded battens, with several additional European mills expected to come on board soon.

But Mr Coulson questioned whether graded batten production capacity was sufficient to meet the increased demand. Roofers can still grade on site but NHBC requires the product to be fully marked for use.

He estimated the UK graded batten market was about 10-20% of all battens before the NHBC’s decision, with John Brash’s JB-RED and SR Timber’s Premium Gold being the main products on the market.

“It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the industry follows the NHBC lead in adopting this into their regulations,” said John Brash chairman Christian Brash.

NHBC building sites make up about two-thirds of the new homes market, though a significant volume of battens is also supplied to the renovation sector.