Overview - Plantation Pine Framing

Plantation pine has unique advantages as a material for constructing frames for new homes and extensions to existing dwellings as well as other non-residential applications.

These advantages are widely recognised as:

• Environmental friendliness
• Ease of use
• Cost effectiveness

Australia’s house framing market is estimated to be worth $660 million, with timber frames now accounting for more than 90 per cent of new house frames. Three species of timber are used for plantation pine products; Radiata Pine, Hoop Pine and Slash Pine, sourced from a variety of resource locations around Australia.

1. Environmental Friendliness

Timber is a natural and renewable resource which offers significant environmental benefits. It offers energy efficiency advantages as a construction material and there are recycling opportunities. Timber products store carbon and also contain smaller amounts of embodied energy when compared to the manufacture of alternative building materials.

In addition pine plantations can help reduce harmful greenhouse emissions by providing a carbon sink, and can help to reduce the impact of soil erosion and salinity.

2. Ease of use

Timber frames now account for more than 90% of new house frames. Plantation pine is lightweight, strong, readily available and easy to work and install. Builders clearly recognise these advantages for on-site construction as well as in the selection of pre-fabricated timber framing systems which can save time and cost. Design and specification information is readily available to support timber’s use in virtually all applications and, with recent technology developments in timber grading and quality assurance, consumers can be more confident than ever before that products supplied by the industry will be suitable for their intended use.

3. Cost-effectiveness

In recent times the price of timber for building has risen far less than that of other materials such as steel and cement. Whilst with other materials, particularly steel, we have seen significant rises due to a number of factors, the plantation pine timber industry has continued to rationalise into larger scale world class manufacturing operations in a very competitive environment which has delivered clear pricing benefits for consumers. The large area of constantly renewed Australian pine plantation resource also suggests reliability of future supply which, together with a responsive importing network to cater for periods of peak demand, is likely to place continued downward pressure on the price of building timber.

Further information

Further information and technical assistance is available from the A3P Plantation Pine Advisory Service.