Building for the future

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Geoff Arnold, chairman of the UK Timber Frame Association and managing director of Pinewood Structures, discusses the association's work.

Question: What is timber frame construction?

Geoff Arnold: Timber frame construction is the most popular method of building in the developed world. It's where the weight-bearing structure of a building is made of heavy wood panels instead of steel or concrete breeze blocks. Ironically, given its strength, timber frame construction is often referred to as 'lightweight construction'.

The timber frame panels are manufactured off-site, usually in a factory in a quality controlled environment, then loaded on a truck, delivered to site and built within a matter of days. The structural members of the panel are solid timber and the outside of the frame is sheathed in OSB (orientated strand board), usually made from Scottish timber. This gives the panel enormous strength and durability.

Timber frame construction is a very fast way of building, which also makes it safer, less wasteful and very cost-effective.

Question: What specifically does the UK Timber Frame Association do?

Geoff Arnold: The UKTFA has three roles. First, to ensure that the products made by our members conform to regulatory standards. Second, to ensure those standards continue to develop in a way that meets the UK's needs for the future and achieves our targets in terms of quality, sustainability, skills and safety. And third, we promote the benefits of timber frame.

Although timber frame is hugely popular in Scotland and many countries around the world, it's not that well known among parts of the building industry in England and Wales, for example. So we need to spread the word on how to use timber frame wisely.

Question: How does timber frame construction fare in terms of sustainability?

Geoff Arnold: That's one of its huge strengths and the thing most people associate with timber frame. In terms of environmental sustainability, timber frame is the only mainstream building material that actually helps to store carbon and reduce greenhouses gases. For every cubic meter of wood used instead of other building materials, 0.8 tonne of carbon dioxide is saved from the atmosphere. In contrast, a house made from concrete products is not sustainable. Concrete is known as producing 5 per cent of the world's carbon emissions and steel is similar.

I ought to add that the timber frame industry does not contribute to deforestation: we do not cut down rainforests to produce timber frame buildings; it is all softwood, which has been farmed and harvested for hundreds of years. We also insist on properly regulated sustainable procurement methods involving chain of custody certification.

As an industry, we have a very good sustainability record, but we are not complacent – there is always room for further improvement. A large number of manufacturers are now achieving Carbon Trust certification, ISO 14000 standards and other measures of sustainability to gain independent verification.

Question: How does timber frame help with carbon savings and energy reduction, so critical to current and future government policy?

Geoff Arnold: The wood used in timber frame products acts as an important carbon store, and the new trees we grow also help to strip carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up. The total carbon sequestered in Europe's forests is estimated to be over 9.5 million tonnes.

Even individual buildings constructed with modern timber frame help to save carbon. Timber frame allows for very thick insulation in walls (without impacting on the size of rooms) and it also helps to make the building more airtight – both these things dramatically improve energy efficiency. Once you get that balance between insulation and ventilation right, you can achieve a thermally efficient building which is lower carbon, very comfortable and healthy to live in and very cheap to run.

In fact, there is increasing recognition that this is how all our new buildings should be – it's all about thinking 'fabric first', rather than bolting on micro-wind turbines or installing renewable energy technologies onto leaky, high embedded carbon buildings.

Question: What are the economic benefits of using timber frame?

Geoff Arnold: To the country as a whole, timber frame construction makes good social and economic sense because of the reduction in defects and accidents you can achieve through this form of off-site construction. Also the speed of construction makes timber frame very responsive to market demands.

For builders, successful timber frame construction involves a more efficient building process with greater supply chain integration and less waste, and that can save many thousands of pounds on build costs.

And for homeowners, the economic benefits come from the reduced fuel bills of living in a more energy efficient home. For example, timber frame homes built to the low-energy Passivhaus standard in Austria are costing about £300 a year to heat the whole house. My Victorian home's fuel bills are much, much higher than that!

Question: How popular is timber frame construction? What market position does it hold?

Geoff Arnold: Ten years ago it was 10.1 per cent, this year it is 24.9 per cent. One in four homes are now built using timber frame in the UK.

These statistics hide some other interesting facts though. In 2008, in England, 15.4 per cent of new homes were built using timber frame, whereas in Scotland it was 76 per cent. That it is a disproportionate range in percentage between England and Scotland. Scotland is more advanced in the way it looks at housing, and the builders there are much more efficient.

Question: You would, presumably, like to transfer Scotland's attitude to timber frame across the country?

Geoff Arnold: That it what we are working towards. In other places like Scandinavia and the USA, timber frame is at similar levels to Scotland. It is definitely achievable.

Question: How has the timber frame industry fared in the economic downturn?

Geoff Arnold: Overall, pretty well in comparison to other building material producers. The reason is that it is a not capital intensive industry. Most of our members have been hit to varying degrees, some quite significantly, building 60 per cent less houses than last year. But because of that lack of capital intensive process, people have been able to scale their businesses back accordingly.

Very few businesses have gone to the wall as a result of the recession. What companies have tried to do, including my own, is to retain people so that the business can respond once the market returns.

Question: How do you think the recession has shaped your industry for the future?

Geoff Arnold: There's no doubt that the recession in the UK construction and property industries has been brutal. No one expects full recovery until at least 2011 or even later, and short term I expect to see output fall further. But looking at the long term, the picture is much more interesting.

With a national shortage of housing already a serious problem, plus the recession's effective strangulation of the property market and many building projects, what will we see once confidence does return and the brakes are released? The one thing I can say with any certainty is that we will not go back to the market as it was.

We are preparing now for a housebuilding industry in 2010 and beyond that is profitable primarily thanks to ruthless efficiency. We will see a ‘new market' driven by customers who demand higher quality, better designed homes with lower running costs.

All these factors will be in timber frame's favour. We are able to provide the fastest market response while ticking all the sustainability boxes and reducing our clients' working capital requirements.

Question: Do you see any forthcoming legislation that could impact on the timber frame industry? How would the industry be affected?

Geoff Arnold: At the moment, most of the proposed changes in legislation affecting our industry are linked to housebuilding and the government's drive for more sustainable homes. This is true of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly Government also. Timber is considered the most sustainable building material, so any changes in legislation can only be to the benefit of the industry.

The industry is also very interested in the government's funding of affordable homes and the emergence of council housing once again. For example, we have welcomed the announcement of £1.5bn to be spent on delivering additional new housing, but we have also warned that this money must not be misdirected.

Given the scarcity of resources available to help any industry in crisis right now, this money must be spent wisely and not wastefully. It must go to councils, housing associations and developers that can respond quickly and efficiently, and that have the capacity to build good quality new homes to the highest standards of energy efficiency.