Ecobuild has had its fair share of naysayers over the last few years, particularly amongst the timber sector.

Having flocked to exhibit in the early days, keen to promote the green credentials of building with timber, these businesses saw other sectors such as renewable energy technologies jump on the bandwagon and dilute their effort. Timber producers and timber construction companies started to focus their marketing efforts elsewhere.

However, this year’s Ecobuild, held at London’s ExCeL from March 6-8, may have marked the beginning of a turnaround in the timber industry’s opinion of the show. A handful of timber companies that had taken a break returned this year and were “pleasantly surprised” and a new, albeit small, timber zone gave the sector its own platform. The show was under the new ownership of Futurebuild Events, which has hailed Ecobuild 2018 as “hugely successful”, with visitor attendance at 26,500. The company has announced its plans for 2019 and that includes a change of name.

Next year’s incarnation will be under the banner “Futurebuild 2019”, with the Ecobuild (now ecobuild) name being retained for the event’s conference programme.

“Futurebuild 2019 represents everything we set out to achieve,” said Martin Hurn, managing director of Futurebuild Events. “It will be an event for the industry, by the industry and 100% committed to championing innovation and sustainability for the future of the built environment.” The new, dedicated ecobuild conference will be central to Futurebuild 2019, said the organiser.

“Over the years the ‘ecobuild’ name has become synonymous with the event’s industry-leading conference programme,” said Mr Hurn. “So ecobuild will be an ideas forum, which acts as a centre point of the event and which is dedicated to shaping the agenda and making recommendations across all aspects of sustainability.”

This demarcation will give the rest of Futurebuild the flexibility to focus on “wider construction issues as defined by industry feedback and input, including the skills gap, digital adoption and procurement”.

This will take place through six Futurebuild Hubs, each dedicated to a crucial aspect of the built environment and hosting exhibitors and delivering seminars and demonstrations. Back to this year’s show and one organisation with a major presence was the Structural Timber Association (STA), which hosted a programme of seminars over the three days and which took the opportunity to launch two major reports.

The latest Timber Estimating Guide was launched on the first day of the show. Designed to act as an authoritative source of information, it provides costings for timber products and raises awareness of the fundamental benefits associated with using different types of timber.

The following morning saw the soft launch of Timber vs Masonry, an independent cost study carried out by Rider Levett Bucknall. The report has been developed to support quantity surveyors by making direct cost comparisons between timber and masonry for the same drawings and outline specification for a series of house designs.

“One of the major obstacles for timber frame is that it is sometimes perceived as too expensive,” said STA chief executive Andrew Carpenter. “Our members were confident that it isn’t but there wasn’t any proof.”

For the study, HTA Architects was commissioned to draw up plans for 32 units of affordable housing – chosen as the most politically sensitive housing sector. These plans were then sent to four different contractors around the country to quote on. “The results were favourable for us and we will publicise them in April, after our board meeting,” said Mr Carpenter.

He added that Ecobuild had been “a brilliant show”.

“It’s been a wonderful week where we have hosted two lunches, three launches and chaired packed seminars. We’re delighted with Ecobuild – it has demonstrated an increase in interest in timber and in offsite in general.” Some timber construction companies were exhibiting for brand awareness, such as KLH UK, which exhibited in the Advantage Austria group of businesses.

KLH showcased award-winning projects such as the RIBA Stirling prize winning Hastings Pier, and technical director Kay Hartmann said there had been interest from a wide variety of visitors from commercial to self-builders.

“Self-builders are becoming more clued up about cross-laminated timber (CLT) and KLH is becoming synonymous with CLT,” said Mr Hartmann. “We have heard people saying they want ‘a KLH house’ rather than ‘a CLT house’.”

Marley had two stands at Ecobuild, one for the plumbing and drainage side of the business and one to officially launch its new SIPs modular system.

“Nobody knew about the new Marley Modular Systems brand before today but we’ve still been inundated with enquiries,” said marketing services manager Kathryn Legg. “We have even had designs through from people who had been on the stand on the first day.

“This is definitely the busiest event we’ve exhibited at and we love the different districts. We’re looking forward to developing the brand even further and coming back to showcase its journey next year.”

Another newcomer to Ecobuild and to the UK’s timber construction sector was Ireland’s Glavloc Build Systems.

Based in Cork, the eponymous build system is the brainchild of timber engineer Paul Glavin. It has been four years in research and development and started trading this year. The aim of the innovative new system, which can be used up to four storeys, is to enable developers to build high-quality houses more quickly. The company took its inspiration from the automotive industry where standardisation is key.

The system uses a small number (nine timber-based components and 12 insulation components) of CNC-cut generic, interchangeable components, which can be used to construct most building types. The components fit together with almost no mechanical fittings.

The current product line-up includes foundation systems and wall, floor and roof systems. The company says all its units have industry-leading thermal properties, with fully compliant A1 BER/Passive and nZEB rating on the building fabric. Glavloc is working towards achieving BBA certification this summer.

The end product looks much the same as traditional build, but during construction it looks quite different and it was its striking appearance that drew visitors to the stand at Ecobuild.

“We’re sticking a toe in the water at this show, to raise awareness in the UK,” said sales and marketing manager Eva Long. “The system’s very original appearance has definitely attracted people. It’s new, it’s revolutionary and it changes the way homes can be built.”

Glavloc currently sources its raw materials locally, using expanded polystyrene insulation from Kore Insulation. A few metres away from its stand, however, Steico was promoting its wood fibre insulation.

“We’ve been promoting the fact that insulation is a multi-function product and isn’t just about keeping buildings warm; it’s about indoor air quality, acoustic protection, fire protection and so on,” said Craig Colligan, national sales manager, housebuilding.

He added that after an absence of four years, Steico had seen “a vast improvement” in Ecobuild.

“It’s been busy and we’ve had some good conversations,” he said. “The new organisers have dramatically improved the show.” A Proctor said the show had been busy and visitors to its stand had included architects and project managers.

The company was promoting the HAMM Principles – the balance of heat, air and moisture movement in buildings – by showcasing products such as its top-selling Roofshield, along with Wraptite external air barrier, Protech VOC Flex and Fireshield, which was launched last October. The latter is a vapour permeable walling underlay with a fireproof surface. The company says that it is suitable for all walling applications, including those over 18m in height, and claims that the coating doesn’t just resist fire, it “actively extinguishes it”.

Medite Tricoya Extreme (MTX) exhibited last year and had planned on giving this year a miss until it was contacted by the organiser and asked to be part of The Hive, a central “pocket park” at the exhibition, designed to allow visitors to experience the benefits of biophilic design.

The company provided The Hive with MTX planters made by Dorset-based manufacturer Fat Leaf, which was working with the material for the first time, and featured products from long-term users Oxford Planters on its own stand.

“Medite Tricoya Extreme is the obvious choice because the planters can be guaranteed for 25 years,” said Peter Clifton, product manager for MTX. He added that this would be put into practice when the pocket park is relocated to form part of the community-use Marlborough Sports Garden near London Bridge.

Exhibiting had proved more than worthwhile, said Mr Clifton, with “Tuesday excellent and Wednesday off the scale”. He said the exterior applications and weatherproof nature of MTX had really captured visitors’ attention and architects, landscapers and local authorities had all been attracted to the stand.

“We even had some visitors from the Hotel Olympia exhibition which was going on at ExCeL at the same time as Ecobuild and they were interested in using MTX products in their grounds,” he said.

Fellow exhibitor Biotecture, which makes sustainable living walls, had also expressed an interest in using MTX as a substrate, rather than the usual cement-bonded particleboard panels, he added.

DECKING AT THE HIVE

While MTX was the headline sponsor for The Hive, its decking was supplied by Gripsure. It was a first Ecobuild outing for the company and managing director Mike Nicholson was pleased with the interest the anti-slip decking range was attracting.

“Most of its applications are commercial and we’ve had projects at Center Parcs and the Eden Project and with major developers such as Berkeley Homes,” he said. “Business is growing year-on-year and we’re expecting that to continue.”

Gripsure decking combines aggregate strips with softwood or hardwood but elsewhere at Ecobuild the rising popularity of wood plastic composite decking was on show at Hoppings Softwood Products’ SmartBoard stand.

“There has been a lot of interest in it,” said marketing, development and technical manager Adam Pulfer. “Visitors get what we’re doing and they like the simplicity of it. We’ve had a lot of specifiers on the stand who want it for their own garden as well as their clients’. First impressions are so important and we’ve nailed that.”

He added that Hoppings had signed up 150 stockists for SmartBoard in the first 11 months and this would probably rise to 180 by the end of April.

“We have to be the fastest growing composite board in the UK. Our strength is that we know the merchant trade inside and out and know how they work. It’s extraordinary for a composite but we’ve got the offering just right for the trade counter. All they need is the boards and some screws.”

Piveteaubois was also demonstrating its composite decking and cladding, along with its timber versions. The French company has only been in the UK market for three years so exhibiting at Ecobuild was all about brand recognition.

Along with cladding and decking there had been healthy interest in Piveteaubois’ glulam range and the announcement of its new CLT factory, currently under construction, had been a big draw, said Elisabeth Piveteau, who is responsible for new business development in the UK and Ireland.

One exhibitor that was less enamoured of Ecobuild was second-time exhibitor Randek. Technical sales engineer Joacim Hansson said the company had hoped the event would attract more prefabricated house manufacturers than it had.

“We have seen a lot of students and people building just one house,” he said. “We have had some leads though.”

The company was promoting its ZeroLabor robotic system for the production of walls, floors and roofs, which is new for the prefabricated house industry, and its AutoEye truss system.

“It’s an automated system for producing roof trusses and is market leading and one of a kind,” said Mr Hansson.