Scarcity of mature timber hits construction sector

Stakeholders in the construction industry have condemned the use of immature timber for roof construction, saying it is one of the causes of building collapse. Builders, engineers, estate surveyors, land surveyors, quantity surveyors, architects, politicians, policy makers, government officials, sawmillers  and carpenters in Oko-Baba Sawmill on Lagos Mainland, who spoke at a forum organized by […]

Stakeholders in the construction industry have condemned the use of immature timber for roof construction, saying it is one of the causes of building collapse.
Builders, engineers, estate surveyors, land surveyors, quantity surveyors, architects, politicians, policy makers, government officials, sawmillers  and carpenters in Oko-Baba Sawmill on Lagos Mainland, who spoke at a forum organized by Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG)  urged government to embark on urgent large-scale tree regeneration and afforestation programmes to overcome scarcity of mature timber.
With the theme “Timber as an Endangered Material in the Nigerian Construction Industry”, the forum threw up issues such as wrong quotation for timber by carpenters, inappropriate measurement of planks by sawmillers, cutting-corner habit on the part of contractors and building owners.
A member of House of Representatives, Mr Jide Jimoh who was chairman of the occasion urged the forum to find solution to the problem of timber in construction industry.
 President of Forest Association of Nigeria, Professor Labode Popoola lamented high rate of deforestation  in the country, saying mature trees have been cut down, while illegal lumbering has denied government the expected revenue from forest.
According to him, 400,000 hectares of land have been lost to shifting cultivation.
He stated that signs of endangered timber include: high extraction cost, high rent or royalty, high number of logs loaded by trucks, high price of resource commodity and distance travel.
President of BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu pointed out that timber sizes specified in the Bill of Quantities are at times, at conflict with what are obtainable in the market, urging that the problem be resolved by  stakeholders.