Geoff Arnold has a vision that timber frame construction will become mainstream in the UK.

Arnold, the managing director of Pinewood Structures, one of the larger UK timber frame manufacturers, said: “It might be 2020 before it gets there but it keeps me going, frankly. Timber frame has about 70% of the new housing market in Scotland. We have to believe England will go the same way.”

The last few months have been a busy time for Arnold, having led a management buyout of Pinewood at the end of 2006.

The company had been the focus of takeover rumours for much of the second half of the year, but the outcome is one that keeps Pinewood “in the family”, as former technical director and co-founder Tony D’Alton, who stepped down following the MBO, is Arnold’s father-in-law.

It was D’Alton that helped Arnold build his first home using a Pinewood frame back in 1987, just around the corner from the company’s Gamlingay factory. At the time Arnold, who for much of his working life has been in electronics engineering, saw self-build as the most cost-effective route to home ownership.

The new ownership, backed by venture capitalist Matrix PEP and the Bank of Ireland, is designed to give Pinewood strong management and financial foundations so it can capitalise on the continued growth in the sector.

Timber Building caught up with Arnold in Cambridge, a hub for regeneration where Pinewood has recently supplied frames for a number of landmark developments. One of these is The Triangle, a development of 183 apartments for George Wimpey (North Thames) designed by HTA Architects Ltd. This mixed private/housing association project, being marketed under the Laing Homes brand, is proving popular, and two blocks are already occupied, despite constructon work still going on.

The Triangle is George Wimpey’s first six-storey timber frame structure

It is also one of the more colourful timber frame developments you’re likely to see due to the architects’ use of metal louvre panels in greens and blues, to front the blocks’ free-standing balconies. Cedar boards feature between floors and will silver over time, to blend with the metalwork.

Another project for Pinewood in Cambridge is the Gallery II, a showpiece for the use of cedar cladding, again designed by HTA. The imaginative exterior privacy screens, supplied by W Hanson (Ironbridge) Ltd of Southall, match the cedar cladding on the adjacent Gallery I project, completed in 2001.

The floors at the Gallery II are 609mm deep, designed to meet Building Regulations Part E (resistance to the passage of sound).

With six-storey construction also taking place here, there are important technical issues relating to compression of the timber frame. This is to make sure the frame’s compression under load, typically about 7.5cm due to pressure on horizonal timber members, does not become a problem. In practice this means measures such as leaving gaps under window frames and special detailing on downpipes to move with the frame as it compresses.

“As long as you understand the sequence of build and the product you do not have a problem with it,” said Kevin Francis, senior site manager at the Gallery II.

Consultant CCB Evolution and Pinewood provided engineering input on the technicalities of the build process.

A further Pinewood contract in nearby Chatteris for Inspace Partnerships, formerly Wilmott Dixon Housing, represents a bit of a coup for the company. Pinewood produced 15 units for the site as part of the 106-home SmartLife project, which is trialling different modern methods of construction (MMC). The company’s timber frame system is being compared with steel frame, Polarwall insulating concrete formwork, and brick and block across three sites. Comparisons will be made for costs and sustainability, with the findings published at the end of the year.

COUP: Pinewood's contract in nearby Chatteris for Inspace Partnerships

SmartLife, which involves BRE, Cambridgeshire County Council, Warden Housing Association and others, aims to demonstrate how MMC can be used to alleviate housing shortages in growth areas.

Pinewood’s brand of timber construction is open panel platform timber frame, the favoured method of UK timber frame manufacturers and a relatively straightforward and tried and tested technology.

There are newer systems on the market, such as structural insulated panels, solid “massive” laminated wood walls and closed panel timber frame, but Arnold thinks these will be restricted to a niche in the market. “I think open panel timber frame has the potential to be mainstream. It has 90% of the new housing market in North America and 70% in Scotland. In my mind it really has to go like that in England because of the environmental credentials and performance characteristics of timber frame.”

He believes big timber frame manufacturers such as Stewart Milne, Pinewood and Prestoplan have to drive the growth in partnership with large developers.

Arnold makes no secret about his ambitions for the company. “I’d like to see Pinewood as part of a large concern and the predominant timber frame builder in the UK. We understand the market really well. We know what it takes to service our clients and we will grow our business based on that. It may be organic growth, maybe growth by acquisitions.”

In mid-2004, Pinewood set out on a 20% year-on-year growth plan. In 2005-2006 turnover was up 26%, while last year the growth was 10% at £23m. Turnover is projected to be more than £27m in 2007.

From Pinewood’s two factories in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, the company has capacity to double the existing annual production of 3,500-4,000 units, which Arnold believes could happen in the next three to four years.

He welcomed initiatives like the government’s Design for Manufacture competition and Code for Sustainable Homes, which he said were a wake-up call to the mass housebuilding market so used to meeting minimum Building Regulation requirements. “I think they’re a good thing. It keeps the pressure on and takes us to a new level”.

And future plans? Arnold is weighing up how best to support regional clients at the four corners of the UK as part of its expansion.