The UK Timber Frame Association (UKTFA) has hit back at an article in the national press claiming that timber frame houses should not be built on flood plains, saying: “People living in timber frame homes actually have an advantage.”
Following the recent floods across the north of England, Jeff Howell, Sunday Telegraph columnist and bricklayer by trade, said that repairing damaged plasterboard partition walls with blockwork would help when renewing flood insurance and clearing up after future floods.
However, he stated that this could amount to replacing half of a house when it comes to repairing buildings where the inner leaf of the external walls is made from timber studwork clad in plasterbaord and that the use of timber in constructions on flood plains “might have to be seriously addressed”.
But the UKTFA has rebuked this claim, saying that timber is the best building material to use in flood-prone areas.
“If you must build new homes in areas of flood risk, make sure as many of them as possible are built using timber frame,” said UKTFA chief executive Bryan Woodley. “While masonry walls can take six months or longer to dry out, with timber frame all you have to do is strip the plasterboard off the walls and let the timber dry. In theory you could be back in your home in six weeks.”
Mr Woodley added that “the bottom line is that we should not be building on flood plains” and that better use should be being made of urban drainage and other technologies designed to deal with extreme weather events.
