Visit the Forest Industry News website to read more.

International engineering interest in new Nelson timber building

Carl Devereux from Aurecon points out the sophisticated seismic features in the NMIT’s wooden three-storey building.

This week over 40 timber engineers and designers from all over the world attended the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction forum in Nelson hosted by Canterbury University.

The forum’s venue was changed to Nelson to incorporate a visit to the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology’s groundbreaking new Arts and Media building which is currently under construction.
See last month’s story here.

Wood Solutions Seminars

Last chance to register – register now
On Aug 31st – September 2nd, the Timber Design Society is holding three half day seminars in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in conjunction with NZ Wood. They will be presented by local practising designers and overseas experts at the forefront of timber design and construction.

The focus is on the capability of wood across a diverse spectrum of multi-storey, light commercial, industrial, community and multi-dwelling constructions. Emphasis will be on solutions to tricky problems in wood design, particulary in non-traditional wood applications.

Visit the NZ Wood Seminars page for more info and to register.

STIC Design Guidelines out soon

NZ Wood interviewed Robert Finch, CEO of the Structural Timber Innovation Company, about current research and development for structural timber.

The first set of design guidelines for the use of wooden structural products in single-storey complexes is due to be released at the end of this year. Read the full story…

Design Aids

The NZ Wood website has a focus on helping with the HOW.

In HOW WOOD, the section on Design Aids brings together a number of links to information and software that can help you to use the sustainable option of timber for structural design and other applications.

Please CONTACT US if you have any questions or comments.

The guidelines are for the use of Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) or Glue Laminated Timber (Glulam) long-span portal frames and roofs.

They are the first guidelines to come out of the work of the Structural Timber Innovation Company (STIC), which has developed new technology for the application of both the Glulam and LVL products.

The research organisation was set up about two years ago to develop and commercialise new technologies that will allow structural timber to compete better in the building and construction market.

“The release of the guidelines will be an exciting milestone for us,” says STIC CEO Robert Finch. “The guidelines should help promote engineered timber products in both the New Zealand and Australian markets so they can compete effectively with steel and concrete for the first time.”

Currently the New Zealand construction market is dominated by steel structures but he is confident that this will change once the guidelines are out. Long-span timber portal frames and roofs are suitable for use in warehouses, stadiums, swimming pools and other single-storey industrial buildings.

Once the guidelines are available, structural engineers will be able to design and specify structural timber alternatives to steel and concrete and this should lead to an uptake in the use of the wood products, he says.

Structural engineers are the key influencers in the choice of structural products in the commercial construction industry and “are keen to get design information that is clear and concise and allows them to do a preliminary design for structural timber products and quickly determine price competiveness compared to other materials”.

The guidelines are part of an extensive research project into single-storey timber structures underway at Auckland University, which has developed a new ‘quick-connect’ knee-joint for long-span engineered timber portal frame buildings. Using this system architects and structural engineers can easily design large timber portal frames. Other benefits of using the timber products are that they can be pre-fabricated off-site, then erected quickly and put together during the on-site construction phase.

STIC receives major funding from the Foundation for Research Science and Technology and Forest and Wood Products Australia.

www.stic.co.nz

EITG director and long-time forestry investor Richard Hayes says that there simply isn’t the confidence in the industry to encourage the necessary level of new planting, and nurseries are reluctant to carry the cost of bringing on enough trees. “We need millions of seedlings coming on, but the nurseries have already been burnt with one outfit saying they were going to plant a lot of carbon forests and then falling over, and don’t want to take the financial risk,” he told Carbon News.

Having the Government underwrite the risk of a massive increase in seedling production by promising to buy any unsold seedlings would give the nurseries the confidence they need to get the trees started, he says. The Government could then sell as new forests were planted, or grow them on for another year.

Forest Owners’ Association chief executive David Rhodes says the idea has merit. His organisation is also worried about the low level of planting, and has approached the Government with ideas to tackle the problem. “We have proposed two things, both of which were in the proposal for the Australian CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme),” he said.

The first is a system of averaging the carbon units forest owners would receive over the life of the forest to take away the risk of being caught without enough credits to cover liabilities at harvest time. The association also wants the Government to underwrite the risk of large tracts of forest being destroyed in a major disaster, leaving forest owners liable for millions of dollars of lost carbon storage. The scheme would work in a similar way to the Earthquake and War Damages Commission, with the Government building up a pool of carbon credits by collecting a small number from each forest owner each year, Rhodes said.

Visit the Forest Industry News website to read more.

Wood.  The enduring choice for homes!

One of Wellington City Council’s building consents managers has a passion for wood that was stoked by a previous career as a carpenter.

According to Robert Tierney, the council’s Manager of Major Projects and CBD Building Consents and Licensing Services and wood fan, “wood basically gets into your blood”.

“When you look at houses made out of good quality timber you can be confident that they, if well maintained, will last for centuries, whereas there are a large number of other products that require a lot of maintenance and may not last as long people think they are going to. Some alternative products are made to be ‘fit for a purpose’ and suit the modern throwaway culture”.

Read the full interview here which includes Robert’s top tips on how to get a building consent.

The New Building code

and the possible advantages for DIYers

Maurice Williamson, minister for Building and Housing, announced some of the upcoming changes to the building code looking to be introduced soon. The news is looking good for the home handy person!

“DIYers will get a pre-Christmas present, able to undertake more of their own minor work without red tape. And homeowners will have more certainty that bigger jobs will be completed satisfactorily, with builders forced to stand by their work”.

To read more about how the changes to the building code will affect you, visit the NZ Wood website here.

Green Fingers: Buying Sustainably Grown Timber

There has been recurring interest in the media recently about the serious implications of importing illegally logged timber from around the globe and having it in the New Zealand market. But how do you know that when at your local timber merchant, you are buying sustainably grown wood?

The best assurance you can get is by buying New Zealand grown, as Peter Berg from the NZ Forest Owners Association pointed out in his press release last week: “… the New Zealand forest industry is committed to sustainable forestry and “illegal logging is not sustainable”. It also unfairly sullies the reputation of wood and forest products from sustainably managed plantation forests .”

When buying timber, always ask for New Zealand-grown or ensure that the wood you are buying has the FSC certification or logo. If your timber merchant can’t supply this information, it isn’t sustainably grown!
Read the full press release here.

FAQs

As the DIY and homemaker projects get underway at home, the questions come flooding in, in regards to all sorts of things associated with timber.

One of the recent questions was asking about the availability of hardwood in New Zealand . Another came from a family who were using MDF and were checking to ensure that the dust from this wasn’t harmful. Follow the links to find out what our experts had to say.

Contact us if you have any questions or queries relating to timber. Have a great month and we will see you again in SPRING!