High Hopes for New Timber Frame Leader

Stewart Milne Timber Systems Managing Director for England and Wales Stewart Delgarno this month took the helm of the UK Timber Frame Association. TiC spoke to Dalgarno to find out his plans for the future of timber frame.

TIMBER FRAME will become a mainstream construction method across the UK within the next five years according to Stewart Dalgarno, the new chairman of the UK Timber Frame Association (UKTFA). Despite coming into the role with a 24-year career in timber frame behind him, at 39 Dalgarno is still the association’s youngest ever chairman, and will bring with him energy and commitment to making the construction industry sit up and listen to the benefits of the material.

“We aim to become a mainstream method of construction and we’re looking at capturing a minimum of 30% of the UK market from the 16% to 18% it is now,” he tells TiC. “That will be driven by creating a desire for timber frame and developing a toolkit of knowledge for our members to help them to respond to the market.”

Dalgarno has been an active member of the UKTFA for eight years. He spent the last year as vice chairman to the then chairman, Phil Key of Pace Building Systems.

Delgarno says he and Key spent the time growing the stature of timber frame among the construction industry and developing the association so it can better serve its members.

“The last year has seen us going through a transitional growth, moving from a small entrepreneurial association, towards a more mainstream trade association,” he says. “We have invested in people and now employ seven, which gives us a good platform to reach out to our members.”

Dalgarno has spent his entire career in timber frame working for Stewart Milne. He started off working as an apprentice in Aberdeen in the company’s drawings office. Dalgarno became managing director of the office at the age of 33, looking after a £40m turnover business, which produced 5,000 houses a year in Scotland. He has since gained valuable experience pioneering timber frame south of the border, in a construction industry wary of the material.

“Towards the latter part of my time in Aberdeen, we saw the opportunity to exploit the market in England,” Dalgarno explains. “We invested in a plant in Oxfordshire and spent £15m on developing a brand new greenbelt facility in Witney. That was five years ago, and I moved down here towards the third year of production.”

Dalgarno says English and Welsh contractors have a thing or two to learn from their Scottish counterparts. “Timber frame is a mainstream production method in Scotland, and produces 75% of the houses in the country,” he explains. “We think it’s cost effective, good quality, safe and meets the more stringent Scottish building regulations.”

The fact that contractors elsewhere in the UK haven’t picked up on timber frame sets them apart from contractors across the rest of the civilised world, Dalgarno says. “Scotland’s not unique in the world and timber frame is one of the most highly used building methods among the developed countries,” he says. “With only 8% to 10% of homes built using timber frame in England, there’s scope to bring it into the market place.”

Targeting contractors

One of the themes Dalgarno hopes to develop during his time at the head of the UKTFA will be quality. He says the association aims to aim to expand its quality mark for timber frame and get recognition of its status with key specifiers and organisations like the Homebuilders’ Federation and the National House-Building Council.

Dalgarno also wants to develop the association to look after its member’s changing needs within the construction industry. Timber frame is not just about manufacturing, he says, a lot of companies are subcontractors and homebuilders in their own rights. Stewart Milne itself expanded its housebuilding operations into the North-West of England last year when it bought Nuttall Construction in Manchester.

“The industry isn’t just about manufacturing; we’re a subcontractor in our own right,” Dalgarno says. “I want us to get things right when we’re subcontracting – the terms, conditions, the legal side and contractual obligations need to be understood.”

He says he wants to avoid the heavy-handed tactics that main contractors have employed when dealing with subcontractors in other sectors. “The ethos in the construction industry is they don’t always see the benefits that a subcontractor can provide,” Dalgarno says. “We’re undervalued in what we offer the general housebuilding and construction industry.”

He says the association also sees an opportunity to liaise with the government on matters such as retentions, and construction companies withholding payments to their subcontractors.

Over the coming months the UKTFA also plans to launch a health and safety code for contractors working specifically with timber frame. “We have a duty of care that the industry needs to look after its own safety,” Dalgarno says.

Greening up the image of timber frame

Other than pushing the changing role of timber frame within the construction industry, Dalgarno wants to use his time as UKTFA chairman to emphasis the material’s green credentials. He says much of the impetus for sustainable timber comes from manufacturers themselves, who then pass this onto their clients. “The market dynamics are changing quite dramatically,” Dalgarno says, “but we will continue to push certification and responsible procurement to our members.”

To enforce its green credentials, the industry will also push something Dalgarno calls “carbon excellence”. “This has been driven more recently with developments such as the Code for Sustainable Buildings and the government pushing for zero carbon buildings by 2016,” he explains.

“We are strongly looking to push the benefits of timber in construction to meet these targets.”

Dalgarno says the UKTFA may also develop the sustainability of timber frame through collaborations with other organisations. He said the association would consider talking to Trada and the Building Research Establishment to develop low carbon technologies and closed panels.

Dalgarno says collaborating with other associations will also add strength to the UKTFA when it comes to lobbying for timber. He says: “There’s a role for a trade association to plan and to influence the consumer and to work alongside organisations such as Wood for Good, the Timber Trades Federation and the Construction Products Association.”

The future for timber frame?

As the UKTFA gains credibility in the eyes of the construction industry, Dalgardo says he hopes to see large construction companies playing an important role in the association. He says the association has begun along this path as an important source of information for contractors and designers interested in finding out more about timber in construction. He adds that the UKTFA might even consider promotional tactics for getting large contractors involved.

“Our membership has grown quite significantly, and we’re getting interest from housebuilders, specifiers and clients who are keen to get information about timber frame,” Dalgarno says. “If companies like Taylor Woodrow or George Wimpey wanted to join, perhaps we could give them free membership, which would give us the opportunity to share knowledge with them.”

Dalgarno’s time as chairman of the UKTFA looks like it will be an exciting one, as the UK construction industry warms to using the material. The UKTFA itself looks like it will grow as the industry grows and will evolve to incorporate the changing working practices of its members.

Whether Dalgarno’s desires will be met and timber frame will become a “mainstream” construction method in the near future is in the hands of developers and contractors, and it is up to them to decide if they can deliver homes fast enough, to budget and to the rigorous green standards demanded by clients and through legislation.

One thing is certain though, if at least some of Dalgarno’s enthusiasm and passion for timber frame rubs off on the construction industry, the sector is in for a boom.