After the highly publicised fires of timber frame homes during construction in recent months, timber has taken a bit of a battering in terms of its credentials as a building material, particularly from its masonry counterparts.
As an association we have a responsibility to bring you the facts.
We currently represent over 230 companies and around 80% of the timber frame industry’s output. We have an obligation to ensure that we do everything within our power to address the risk of fire on timber frame construction sites and protect the reputation and adoption of timber frame as the most sustainable mainstream construction method in the UK.
Recent Coverage
As many of you will be aware, the UKTFA has spent a great deal of time engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Building Magazine following its publication of a derogatory article about insurers threatening to pull cover for timber frame buildings.
This article gave the wrong impression that six people died in a timber frame building as a result of a fire in a housing block in Peckham in November. Geoff adds, “This is incorrect and as a result I wrote to the publication to stress how extremely disappointed I was that a fact as serious as this should be left open for misinterpretation. The strongly worded letter went on to indicate that insurers could pull cover for completed timber-frame buildings which was completely alarmist and clearly led by speculation.”
It is encouraging however that Aviva has also written to Building Magazine, with a letter published on 26th March quoting “Aviva looks at each risk on an individual basis and has never said that we would withdraw cover for timber-framed buildings at any time . . . we recognise and appreciate the part that modern methods of construction have to play in providing better homes and meeting sustainability agendas, as well as the environmental and cost efficiencies.”
Read a recent article published on Architect’s Datafile Magazine Website which addresses the associations feeling surrounding these sensitive issues. Click Here.
Timber burns – surely that must mean it’s a risky building material?
Of course timber burns. But all building materials are vulnerable to fire:
Every building material has its weaknesses if you want to test them in this way. Equally, each mainstream method of construction in the UK, including timber frame construction, has its specific strengths and benefits.
The fire safety of a timber frame structure is determined by tests carried out to British Standards by a UKAS approved fire test laboratory. The fire safety of a building is far more complicated than whether the materials are combustible or not – the characteristics of the entire system must be taken into account.
The UK construction industry, in particular the house building industry, is increasingly familiar with building with timber frame.
Technical experts such as NHBC, TRADA and BRE publically advocate the use of timber frame as a perfectly acceptable method of building. Even the most stringent risk-assessors, including mortgage lenders and insurers, accept that well-built timber frame homes are as safe and reliable an investment as brick and block homes.
Site Safety is Paramount
Singularly the most critical initiative the UKTFA is working on this year is SiteSafe. A mandatory requirement of membership, the initiative goes above and beyond current legislative procedures and relies on collaborative working of the entire construction supply chain to reduce the risk of fire on timber frame construction sites. SiteSafe ensures UKTFA manufacturing member companies, that are working on large projects (4 storeys or more and/or with an aggregate floor area of more than 2,500 m2) give clear concise information and assistance to the Principal Contractor regarding fire safety on construction sites.
Please click here to be redirected to the SiteSafe page for further information.
Please Click here to access the ’16 Steps to Fire Safety on Timber Frame Construction Sites’
Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 1994 - .
Key Reading
The Construction Confederation and Fire Protection Association have published a Code of Practice for fire prevention on high value construction sites. Compliance with this Code often forms a condition of insurance. The Code describes a series of simple precautions and safe working practices which, if adopted, will ensure that adequate detection and prevention measures are incorporated during the design and planning stages, and that work on a site is undertaken to the highest standard of fire safety.
There is also a checklist which is particularly helpful in offering a tick-list of things to consider, including storage of flammable materials, hot work on site and many other issues.
To read the HSE information sheet on ‘Construction Fire Safety’ click here.
For the Building Regulations (England and Wales) on fire safety which apply to all methods of construction, including masonry, steel and timber frame, click here.
For information on the Scottish Building Standards on fire, click here.
For information on the Northern Ireland Building Regulations, click here.
Click here to go to the free download articles section of the website, where fire related articles are available. You can also read a briefing note on ‘Timber Frame and Fire Safety’
Additional details on the BRE’s authoritative fire tests on multi-storey timber frame (the TF2000 project) can be found here.
