Over the years we have had many presentations on Mid-Rise and this year we decided to have fabricators talk about the realities of the projects being done.
Now, I have been told by many people that three storey buildings are not Mid-Rise and I know that but the fact is since the NCC Changes were introduced it made it easier for our sector to build more in this area without the added costs and red-tape.
The more 3 storey buildings our sector does and the more they become the norm, than hopefully the next step is the 4 and 5 storey buildings becoming the norm.
To have someone like David van der Plaat move from doing detached housing to taking on a job of 81 three storey buildings in Canberra in lightweight frames and trusses is superb and I doubt it would have been as easy to make the transition if it wasn’t for the changes to the NCC
For me having three different sized fabricators on this panel all doing the same thing was fantastic, especially when it came to Mark Conlan of Emcee explaining that Timbertruss provided cassettes for the same job he was working on just shows our great our industry is.
The panel outlined the importance of getting in with the builders early to ensure you can get timber across the line as the preferred building material and it was great feedback from Jim McAdam on the importance of the FTMA Mid-Rise Market Implementation Group. The MIG is open to all fabricators who want to work in the Mid-Rise area and I encourage you to give me a call or email me at kersten@ftma.com.au if you want further information on how you can be involved.
For us to get more traction in the 4 & 5 storey buildings we need to do case studies on projects as they are completed and we encourage fabricators to talk to us and we can coordinate the right people to help undertake these case studies.
Even if you don’t want to share all the costs, we can still do case studies on the time savings and other factors.
Please help us spread the news of the great work you have done by helping us build on the case studies.
A huge thank you to Mark Conlan of Emcee Truss & Frame in Victoria, Jim McAdam of Timbertruss in Victoria and David van der Plaat of High Country Truss & Frames in Cooma.
