TIMBER FRAMING

HELPING CONTRACTORS

BUILD ON OPPORTUNITY Jason Ruddle, Chief Operating Officer of Elecosoft, explores

how contractors can utilise timber framing and other offsite

construction approaches to meet Government aims to

accelerate new build home delivery;

The current business environment is delivering uncertainty

aplenty-yet it is balanced by opportunity in equal measure.

Not only is the Government supporting infrastructure investments,

housebuilding has been given a significant injection. With the

arrival of the Accelerated Construction Scheme last October, came a £5bn commitment to faster development, aiming to halve the time

it takes to deliver new homes. In 2017 it has announced further cash injections to encourage development of affordable and starter

homes, brownfield projects and 14 new garden towns and villages.

The ink is barely dry on the new Housing White Paper, yet it was clear

that acceleration remains a central theme.

This will be music to the ears of house-builders, particularly those who experienced the last recession. Although most sector trends now seem positive, they remain keenly aware of risk, with an appetite for,efficiency that is greater than ever -something that

both their clients and policymakers want too. In the new White

Paper, Government has given clear support for modern methods of

construction such as prefabrication and offsite manufacturing; these

may even be a condition of some funding applications.

Options for acceleration

Avoiding Delay and Disruption claims and contract time penalties are among the obvious routes to avoiding project time and cost overruns,

but organisations are looking for further efficiencies. They already

use sophisticated project planning software, such as our own Asta

Powerproject, to manage time and resources, find time-efficiencies through resequencing, and plan for different eventualities.

12 BUILDING ENGINEER March 2017

Many are now looking to gain BIM cost and efficiency benefits. Some

have little choice, if dependent on public sector contracts. Yet,

commercial clients are also starting to desire BIM benefits. Adapting

has not come easily to all, nor have all contractors yet even started down the path to BIM.

The third clear route to accelerated delivery is to utilise prefabrication to remove some of the most time-consuming and

labour-intensive activities from site, and unlock other business

benefits at the same time. Around 98% of builders are using or

considering alternative or modern methods of construction,

according to the latest NHBC research 1. As well as prefab sub­

assemblies and components such as doors, stairs and chimney

stacks, timber frame is now one of the most popular, now

represented in 15% of UK housing output.

Leaping the opportunity barriers

Skills shortages are a growing problem for construction. Several

key trades are becoming harder to find, while the as-yet unknown

labour implications of Brexit are concerning contractors. They are

increasingly seeking to lower labour supply risks.

Stepping neatly into this space are firms that deliver offsite construction and manufacturing of a vast range of supplies, sub­

assemblies, and prefabricated elements, modules and kits. These

not only reduce some labour dependencies but offer cost, time and

quality benefits. Timber frame manufacturers such as Pinewood

Structures are leading the way. Since 1981 it has grown into one of

the UK's largest manufacturers of engineered timber frame structural

solutions for constructing homes, supermarkets, hotels and student

accommodation. Its Quality Manager, Nick Warboys, has seen both

company and its market grow: 'Many customers are suffering with skills shortages - yet they still need to produce on schedule. Timber frame and other offsite manufacturers help them with that: we take

some of the trades and skills out into our factory, where we have a

more controlled environment and can give them a high quality and

completely consistent product, as everything is built in a controlled

environment. Today we deliver 2,000 metre runs of timber walls to the

market per week.',

Offsite construction of all kinds is growing fast. According to BESA2 it

accounts for 3-4% of UK construction, representing up to 80% of the construction cost for some projects. Some contractors are developing

offsite facilities to service contracts, and there are many established

independent firms ready to bid for supply contracts.

Timber framing has been popular for Scpttish builders for longer

than the rest of the UK- perhaps due to its extremes of weather.

Mactaggart and Mickel Group, based in Glasgow, has a thriving

Timber Systems division which has been supporting its Homes division and supplying external contractor clients with timber frame

panels and housing kits since 2007.

TIMBER FRAMING

Stuart Douglas, general manager for the Timber Systems business,

says: 'We now supply more than 500 timber housing kits each year, including 200 timber housing kits to our Homes business.

We supply all the frames, walls, floors, internal walls and roofing timbers, and erect many of them on site. It's all about the quality and control of the programme and speed of build, since a kit will

usually be constructed within a day, with the roof on, making it

wind and watertight.'

Strength of timber

Timber frame is a good example of how modern construction methods can support construction businesses, including: • Circumventing skills gaps - providing alternatives to brickwork

to mitigate a lack of bricklayers, as well as against the brick

shortages seen post-recession

• Achieving predictable project progress and timely completion even

on accelerated programmes. Offsite is the only way for contractors

to run multiple activity streams simultaneously in support of a

single project either in dedicated manufacturing divisions or asorders which are processed and delivered while groundworks aredone, enabling Just In Time delivery

• Using software, such as our own Framing application, to assure

quality and control of major structural elements involved in a

build. This enables precision saw-cutting directly from detailed

technical drawings, and is vital where consistency is key, such as

across housing estates or in residential high rise• Reducing costs significantly, in contrast to attempting production

on site, which would involve costs of tooling up, space, andspecialist skills

• A way to accelerate achievement of weathertight critical path

elements - something that everyone will benefit from

• Supporting BIM, which is growing in all areas and expected to

become more common in housebuilding as public funds are used

to deliver new-build social housing. Housebuilders who have neverbefore had to 'do BIM' will need to start. Offsite timber frames, designed in Framing, can deliver data modules in IF( format that

plug straight into a common federated BIM model.

Some offsite methods, like timber framing, can offer long-term

benefits for owners, occupiers and maintenance. Not only is timber

a sustainable material, timber frames can be pre-treated against

pests, while structural insulated panels (SIPs) offer excellent

thermal efficiencies. It is the flexibility of timber framing and

other alternative materials that may offer the greatest benefits:

the lightness of timber frames gives them significant advantages

as a choice for building in hidden or unused urban spaces, such as

extending buildings upwards, building above car parks and other

innovative places - and the trend for wooden-framed high-rise is

continuing apace.

Timber frame and BIM

The construction sector is undergoing significant transformation, affecting not only its choices of building methodology and materials,

but changing its cultures and ways of working. Foremost is the move

towards digital construction, in which BIM plays a driving role. It is

important, therefore, that offsite manufacturers align with BIM, and

stand ready to become part of the BIM collaborative team.

Although the BIM collaboration culture is gaining hold within major contractors, and in those who supply construction services to the public sector, maturity varies significantly. There is evidence that

some house-builders in the commercial space aren't yet talking

about BIM to any great degree. Timber frame experts we have spoken

with recently suggest that this is their experience. Nick Warboys of

Pinewood comments: 'In my opinion, with BIM you need to get all the

BUILDING ENGINEER March 2017 13

TIMBER FRAM�_N�

stakeholders in place before you start design. Yet we still get invited in after the buildings have been drawn, assuming different building techniques other than timber frame.'

Stuart Douglas of Mactaggart and Mickel Timber Systems agrees: 'BIM is still largely an unknown in the timber frame industry. We are actively working on a BIM model for domestic housing, in collaboration with another housebuilder, funded by the CITB and with Elecosoft's support. However, we are already ready in some respects: as a timber system business we are now BIM compliant and fully certified. We have the capability to output our timber designs into IFC models today.'

Nick Worboys echoed this sentiment: 'We've got the IFC file output ready when they need it but nobody's asking for it. We turn up at meetings and the house has been drawn with brickwork. One of the aims of BIM is eliminating waste, yet this approach wastes time, money, and causes errors.'

Final thoughts

Methodologies such as timber framing may not, individually, offer direct cost advantages versus other materials. In a changing marketplace, many raw material costs are already fluctuating, including timber and steel. But the cost efficiency advantage, versus traditional approaches, will stand firm. So numerous are the benefits of timber frame that it offers architects, developers and building engineers good reason to regard it as a real alternative to other approaches. Some advantages can be seen across the offsite manufacturing sector, and are applicable in commercial and public projects alike. Embracing sustainable, modern materials and alternative methods of construction on projects large or small can

help contractors overcome the uncertainties and challenges they are likely to face in the future.

Becoming adept at utilising offsite can deliver contractors competitive advantage, as well as the ability to deliver faster, meet corporate social responsibilities for sustainability, mitigate Britain's perennial weather challenges, and remain agile in an uncertain environment.

• For further information visit: www.elecosoft.com

Notes: 1 http://www.buildoffsite.com/content/uploads/2016/07 /NF70-

MMC-WEB.pdf2 An offsite guide for the building and engineering services sector,

BESA (formerly B&ES), 2015 http://www.buildoffsite.com/

content/uploads/2016/01/0ffsiteGuide.pdf