Best Dressed
Timber cladding can solve time, cost and durability issues for builders and owners. Michael Kennedy is driving back from meeting with a builder when I reach him on the phone. “My team are going to look at me with horror when I get back,” he says, laughing, before...
Dust Diseases
Cutting timber and stone, especially engineered stone, comes with significantly elevated risks of serious disease, but industries including ours have been slow to act. By Donyale Harrison Dust seems so innocuous. Half the time it’s too small to even see – and there’s...
Mother of Invention
Covid-related LVL shortages require some clever engineering solutions. First, we bought toilet paper for a respiratory virus. Then a bunch of strong-man leaders decided they could bend the virus to their will and were wrong! Closer to home I can tell you from personal...
Salvage Completed
The last truckload of fire-damaged logs has arrived at the mill. Black Summer already feels as though it was a lifetime ago, but it’s only a year and a half since mammoth fire storms swept through much of the country. While some problems are still waiting on solutions...
Sustainable Stories
Recycled timber’s list of merits as a practical material is long enough, but talk to an architect and another layer emerges as the wood brings an irreplaceable narrative with its use. Every year, the Timber Design Awards feature a Recycled Timber Award in their Timber...
Seagram Building Re-imagined
What would happen if you rebuilt Mies van der Rohe’s iconic tower, but with more wood. Metsä Wood’s drive to see the world more timber-rich has led to a series of engaging initiatives from the Finland-based international supplier. Some are extremely practical, such as...
Making Policies Real
Entrenched cultural problems don’t disappear without firm actions. There has been a lot said in the media of late about the state of cultures in Parliament House, in the media and in the corporate world. We know that issues of gender equality, equal opportunity and...
Tradie Licences
NSW is adding tradie licences to its digital wallet scheme. For NSW tradies tired of carrying around a wallet full of trade licences, help is at hand – literally. Trade licences are now being added to the digital wallet within the Services NSW app, meaning all those...
FutureFit and Open For Business
Drouin West’s new manufacturing plant’s official opening. After a long delay thanks to 2020, Drouin West Timber & Truss (DWTT) officially celebrated the opening of its new FutureFit offsite manufacturing facility on 23 April. Guests included Russell Broadbent MP...
Cassettes Are Back In Town
The timber version has all the convenience of the music variety, but is much longer lasting. By George Dolezal, Principal Engineer, Meyer Timber The era was the 1970s and 80s. Imagine carrying a boom box the size of a BBQ on your shoulder down the street. How cool do...
Aussie Logs for Aussie Jobs
The supply chain inquiry releases its final report. After opening on 11 June 2020, receiving 31 submissions (including from Industry Associations MGA TMA and AFPA) and conducting five Public Hearings (a mix of live and virtual, thanks to Covid restrictions), the...
All Systems Go
When The Truss Co. planned its newest plant in Centralia, Washington, the renowned American firm turned to Western Australia’s Vekta to supply its machinery and design its system. The conversation was meant to be about a PackFeeder – Vekta’s customisable, automatic...
The Wood House Effect
Stora Enso’s new EWP education site is a valuable hub. From its Helsinki headquarters, Stora Enso has built a remarkable international timber business that not only responsibly exports and imports timber products around the world, but has played an important role in...
TABMA National Conference
At the organisation’s 80th anniversary and conference, TABMA members will ‘shape the future’ of the timber industry. In June 2021, TABMA Australia will bring together the timber industry community in the picturesque Hunter Valley to ‘honour the past, treasure the...
Put a Load On
Never underestimate wind forces, especially when multiple lives are at risk. As an engineer, perhaps the worst kind of failure that you worry about is a progressive collapse. It has happened with roof trusses, but outside the industry, one of the better-known examples...
Driving Change
The 23rd Frame Australia conference is coming up, and things have grown a lot since the first. Kevin Ezard has just finished talking about speakers scheduled for this year's Timber Offsite Construction event when he pauses. “Of course,” he says, “the thing I've just...
H2F Treated Framing: Disposing of a Myth
By Jeffrey J. Morrell, Professor and Director, National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life It has been suggested that the disposal of H2F framing at the end of a building’s life may pose a substantial problem in 20-30 years. This article explains the nature...
What Happens Next?
Sustainability is a key selling point of timber, but we’re failing to make our case to some parts of the market and, in some areas, we’re also failing to meet our own standards. Economists and engineers often pretend we live in a rational world. We don’t. If you want...
Play It Safe With Casual Employment
Make sure your casuals aren’t full-timers in disguise. There has been a lot of activity around casual employment over the last couple of years – in the courts, in the Fair Work Commission and in regulation by the Federal Government including: The Workpac v Skene case...
Working Together
Although this year’s Independent Hardware Group Expo was held virtually, it brought together more people from the group than ever before to learn, make deals and celebrate their best. Last year in February, an auditorium full of people gathered on the Gold Coast to...
Security of Payments
New NSW legislation helps tradies get paid on time. Changes in the Security of Payment Act mean that since 1 March 2021, the Act also applies to contracts between homeowners and builders, and homeowners and trade contractors. The act had previously exempted...
Retail Heroes
The recent 2020 IHG Awards of Excellence were the good kind of different. There’s a charm and quality to good homemade products that the professionals can rarely match, simply because they don’t know their targets as well. This year’s IHG Awards of Excellence was the...
No Silver Bullet
EWP Design Software is no substitute for a fundamental understanding of construction. By Craig Kay, national product engineer, Tilling SmartFrame software was introduced to the building industry profession in 1997 to equip building designers with the tools to design a...
Forklift Dangers
A tragedy highlights the risks of forklifts even with well-trained operators. February saw another workplace fatality when a truck driver who had just delivered a load was crushed between his vehicle and a forklift in St Marys, NSW. This tragedy highlights the dangers...
