Careers in the timber industry

The UK's multipurpose forests provide environmentally friendly materials for all sorts of things and there are a vast array of different types of job out there.

For more information on jobs visit The Doorway and A Job In.

Earthquakes

Many people live in places where there is a risk of earthquakes. Timber is a good choice for houses in these areas because wooden construction is able to absorb a lot of movement and energy. Materials like brick and concrete are very stiff and crack easily so it is more complicated to make earthquake resistant buildings from them. Steel bolts and welds can also crack in situations like this.

In most cases the buildings won't actually be designed to survive a big earthquake without any damage at all. The most important thing is for the building to stay standing long enough so that people can get outside. People often choose to build their houses from timber because it makes them easy to repair after a natural disaster.

The first video shows a timber frame building and the second video shows a concrete frame building. Notice how this timber building is able to recover after large movements, whereas this concrete building can't.

Traditional timber frame 2

Here is a nice contrast to the "traditional timber frame 1" video. Again it's a class of students in the USA, but this time they are using modern machine tools for their carpentry. The most interesting bit is towards the end where you can briefly see some computer controlled robotic saws in action.

Timber frame DIY

It's possible to buy a timber frame kit house and to erect it yourself. Here is a video showing a photo montage of just that. The kit is made of small and light components that can be lifted into position without a crane. Timber frame is a very popular choice for people who build their own homes.

The green stuff is a special membrane that helps the building "breath" - a bit like a gore-tex jacket.

The stages of construction you can see here are:
1) The foundations (which would include all the drainage and other services)
2) Ground floor preparation (to get a nice surface and keep the water out)
3) The walls of the ground floor erected
4) The floor placed on the ground floor walls
5) The upper storey walls erected
6) The roof trusses erected
7) The windows installed
8) The outer brickwork laid
9) The roofing installed

Traditional timber frame 1

This video shows a group of students at a workshop in the USA building a traditional timber frame "post and beam" house using hand tools. Buildings like this are still being made (check out Carpenter Oak in the UK), but only for special projects. They require skilled craftspeople and large pieces of timber so are not practical for everyday houses... but can be very beautiful.

In contrast, a modern timber framed house is usually made from pieces about twenty times smaller in size! ....but that doesn't necessarily mean that a modern house won't last as long. The timber is used in a different way that allows for the forces to be carried by a larger number of smaller pieces. The wood is almost always a softwood like spruce, pine or fir which is dried in a kiln before it's used for building.

In this video it looks like the wood is a softwood, but post and beam houses are also often made from hardwoods like oak. In both cases, the timbers tend to be too big to be dried before use, so the connections must all be made to allow for the timber to shrink as it dries out as the building ages.

Check out "Traditional timber frame 2" to see the same sort of thing, but with modern power tools.

Timber kit timelapse

This video shows a short timelapse of a timber frame house being erected...it looks like this was a demonstration during an exhibition. Many houses are now built like this in the UK. The timber kits are made as wall and floor panels in a factory and transported to the building site on a lorry in the right order for them to be placed on the foundations. A normal sized house can be put together like this in a matter of hours ...but this speed doesn't mean poor workmanship. In fact factory prefabrication (or so called "modern methods of construction") allow much tigher quality control than is possible outdoors on a busy building site.

Normally the house is then clad with brickwork to keep the wind and rain out...protecting the timber as well as the people living in the house. As far as most people can tell, the finished house looks like it is made from bricks.

The video seems to freeze 3 seconds in so you may need to drag the playhead to get it started again.