I have to confess that I am a timber man at heart. I have spent many happy hours tinkering with wood and turning out kitchen units, windows, doors, gates etc. Sometimes I indulge my passion as a self-taught cabinet maker and make furniture. Wood just does it for me and you can’t beat a nice piece of seasoned timber and sharp tools to while away a Sunday afternoon in the workshop. Aaaa.

There is a frustration however in that good pieces of timber are now fairly hard to come by, at least that is without spending huge sums of money. There is a supplier about a mile from my home who has a wood library and the place is a joy to behold. The sheds in the yard are stacked high with exotic timbers from all over the world and providing your pockets are full you could have a field day. To give you a guide I once bought just two pieces of teak, planed to size and no more than 50x50 in section. They fitted easily on the back seat of the car. The cost? No change from £80. See what I mean?

KEEP STILL!

The other frustration is in the movement that you now get with timber particularly in the building business. The fast grown stuff which we use is a devil to keep still. The need for solid blocking in floors (or herringbone strutting if you prefer) and the most often missed, leaving joists up to 15mm proud between the top of a support steel and the underside of the floor boarding to allow for shrinkage of the timber without the floor hogging over the steel. This latter element is all important as far as insurers are concerned.

To avoid all this we see more and more of the TJI or metal web joists being used and despite my being a traditionalist I like them! They bring their own problems however and the placement of the strongbacks for metal web joists is the most often incorrect detail I spot on my travels. Builders invariably put them on the bottom chord of the truss. Why? Well I suppose because it is easy. They should however be under the top chord. You live and learn.