Building a future fit to live in ...

Timber Frame is the success story of the house building industry.

While the housing industry as a whole has struggled to meet demand over recent years, one sector has shown consistent growth – Timber Frame.

Far from being a novel way of building, in most parts of the developed world Timber Frame is the norm, an engineered and proven system.

Over 70% of the people of the developed world live in Timber Frame housing. In the USA and Canada it accounts for 90% of low-rise buildings, while in Scotland 55% of houses are built this way.

Timber Frame is not just suitable for low-rise domestic buildings; there is considerable growth in the construction of medium-rise buildings of up to at least six storeys for apartments and social housing, while it is also being used for schools and offices, hotels and student accommodation, sports and leisure centres and healthcare facilities.

The politics of the environment.

The pressure to adopt environmentally friendly measures is becoming more intense, with the Government demanding that all partners in the building industry contribute to reducing the impact of development on CO2 emissions.

Both the carrot and stick will be used. Planning and fiscal policy will favour ‘green’ development; more demanding thermal standards will be required.

Timber Frame’s environmental credentials and fast-track production technique can contribute towards achieving a sustainable community with a high Eco Homes/HQI rating.

There is no more environmentally friendly way to build:

• - Wood is renewable; European softwood plantations are currently in surplus production, with standing stocks of timber increasing annually by 252 million m3 – almost 30 times the UK’s annual consumption of wood
• - Wood is effectively a carbon-neutral material (even allowing for transport): growing trees absorb carbon and produce oxygen; the carbon is stored for the life of the tree and the building; at the end of its usable life the wood can be burned for energy as a substitute for fossil fuel
• - Wood has low embodied energy: strength for strength, concrete uses 5 times, and steel 6 times, more energy to produce than wood
• - This low embodied energy, plus excellent insulation properties, helps reduce CO2 emissions throughout the life of a building.