The benefits of Woodspan

When choosing any supplier for your building project, you’ll want to be sure they can best meet your project needs. Whether that be keeping costs down or ensuring enough supply, it’s critical to understand exactly what you’ll be getting from your chosen supplier both now, and into the future.

With more mass timber products and offsite manufacturing solutions on the market and the popularity of these products only growing in New Zealand, we want to outline what you can expect when you choose Woodspan PLT solutions.

In this article you’ll find all there is to know about Woodspan along with the benefits of Woodspan mass timber products. Read on to find out more.

Mass timber construction products

At Woodspan (owned by Taranakipine), we’re specialists in providing mass timber solutions for residential building and construction projects throughout New Zealand. With over 40 years in the industry, we are a proudly New Zealand owned manufacturer and fabricator of PLT (Parallel Laminated Timber) mass timber panels and glulam engineered wood products.

Mass timber is typically categorised as large format, engineered timber panels for either wall, floor and roof construction and also glue laminated structural beams and posts. There is growing awareness across the construction industry of the benefits that mass timber and off-site manufacturing provide. Particularly in combating climate change by using more sustainable building materials in their structures.

There are many different types of mass timber available. Here at Woodspan we’re specialists in PLT panels which are made from finger jointed or whole timber structural boards that are then laminated into large panels. As all grain runs in the direction of the primary span, a strong, structurally sound panel is produced. We also manufacture mid-size glulam posts and beams following the same methodology.

Building with mass timber like PLT can result in a significantly lighter framework than other construction materials like concrete or steel. This results in many benefits which includes reduced foundation size and cost, particularly for areas with difficult ground conditions.

Why choose Woodspan parallel laminated timber?

There are many benefits to be had from choosing Woodspan parallel laminated timber panels over other options on the market. For new residential developments where construction time is critical and overheads must be kept to a minimum, Woodspan PLT can provide you with an efficient structural floor and roof panel system that is not only easy on your bottom line, but built with the planet in mind.

Here we explore the benefits of Woodspan mass timber PLT in more detail.

Availability & Supply

With our own sawmill we process local, New Zealand Radiata pine logs. We have a constant supply of timber available to manufacture our PLT panels and glulam which means we have complete control of our feedstock availability. Once construction plans are confirmed, utilising our full wood processing manufacturing capability means we can ensure fast lead times.

We have a high-volume automated laminating production line – we have plenty of supply for jobs big or small meaning you’re never caught short.

Custom-made offsite

All PLT panels we supply are custom manufactured offsite at our specialist CNC fabrication workshop here in New Plymouth. We work with you early in the design phase, and once plans are signed off we get to work manufacturing the mass timber products that you need.

The benefit of manufacturing the panels offsite ensures that you have what you need delivered on-site and ready for direct installation, exactly when you need it. This results in slashed installation time, lower labour costs, minimal onsite waste and less onsite headaches (just to name a few).

Lower overheads

Any developer or builder will know that costs can quickly add up. Building a house or developing a new construction project is a complex task and any number of situations can arise that could result in a budget blowout.

At Woodspan we help keep construction costs as low as possible by ensuring our PLT panels are fast and simple to install. Your Woodspan PLT floor and roof panels are made to measure and once they’re delivered to site, all you’ll need is a hi-ab or small crane along with a crew of 3 to 4 to put them in place and then screw down. The positioning of the panels is straightforward and they are light enough to adjust their position with a crowbar, big hammer or a bit of muscle.

Our PLT panels are safe to walk and work on immediately after the install which enables other trades to get on with the job at hand. A reduction in install time and using a made to measure product ensures you get a competitively priced floor or roof installed, that doesn’t compromise on quality.

Sustainability

Sustainability is at the forefront of the building and construction industry in New Zealand and it’s not hard to see why. Historically, construction activities have accounted for 39% of annual global carbon emissions. Two ways that we can reduce our emissions in the building and construction industry include utilising low carbon building materials, and reducing construction waste that gets sent to landfill.

Carbon neutral engineered timber

Choosing timber for construction can help to tackle climate change as wood naturally stores carbon, making it carbon negative (when accounting for sequestered carbon). Growing trees captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The sequestrated carbon from these trees then remains locked in the wood for the life of the piece of timber and the building it is used in.

At Woodspan, we are committed to combating climate change by promoting a clean environment. We apply this philosophy to both our mass timber products and our manufacturing processes. By using 100% NZ pine from sustainably managed plantation forests, we’re able to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere thus minimising our environmental footprint.

Less construction waste sent to landfill

Every year, New Zealand industries and households discard over 3 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste to landfills. In order to reduce this figure, we need to be proactive in our approach to reducing our construction waste.

Building a sustainable future is a key driver to everything we do here at Woodspan – by producing all materials offsite and made-to-measure, we can ensure we’re only using what we need. There is a small amount of plastic wrap and strapping, however zero timber waste from the construction site is sent to landfill. All excess manufacturing wood residues are used to fuel our bio-energy boilers at the factory.

NZ construction industry standards

Woodspan takes pride in being a New Zealand owned and operated company, manufacturing quality timber and PLT products to New Zealand building and construction industry standards. Backed by 40 years of wood processing experience, our engineered timber solutions are developed in line with all New Zealand construction standards and regulations. This includes independent third-party quality auditing of our quality control processes.

Trust Woodspan to make life easier

Whether you’re working on a new build or you have townhouse developments in the works, it helps to know what your options are when it comes to sustainable building and flooring/roofing solutions. Better yet, it’s even better knowing that you’ll get a custom product that’s been designed for your specific project from the onset.

When you choose Woodspan you’ll get a dedicated team who will work with you to provide the mass timber solution, that’s perfect for your project. We will create shop drawings, customising each panel to fit within your structure, talk through leadtime and on-site dates, and then deliver your PLT timber panels to site, ready-to-go, when you want it. Making your life easier is what we do.

If you would like to discuss your upcoming residential, townhouse or apartment project or commercial build with us, we would love to hear from you. Simply reach out to us at any time here.

Ready to browse our product range? Our design and install guide is the perfect starting point. Inside you’ll find details on our entire PLT panel product range including specifications and install advice.

Get the design & install guide here >>