Adding value to UK grown timber in construction: a challenging opportunity in a future market

The usage of UK grown timber in construction has been taken into consideration other recent years. The major UK timber resources have been criticized as not economically vital for construction interest because of a number of considerations. The fast growing softwoods derived from UK woodlands have been undervalued, and often seen as lower quality compared to imported species because of the lower grading strength. However UK grown softwoods like Sitka spruce are often under graded, in an attempt to minimize the rejected timber and maximize the sawmills production efficiency. There is potential for use of spruce in higher value products like glued laminated Timber (glulam) and cross laminated timber (CLT), which might balance the economic inputs and benefits. This is especially the case if the producer’s end products are not limited to glulam and CLT, as they can utilize the rejected timber into different co-products such as fuel. The manufacturer can therefore minimize the economic loss associated with rejects. Moreover, in future a forestry approach such as selection of appropriate species for future plantation planning could open a great market for local grown construction timber products. A better approach to evaluating and designing the products that will be needed for future applications could result in a better species planting mix that can be utilized into the desired materials.