BUILDING industry regulations can be a moveable feast for any timber company. Regulation changes can play havoc with business plans.
Just ask David Effron, owner of Davids Timber, one of Victoria's largest timber wholesalers and treated timber specialists.
Davids had treated softwood timber for years with CCA (copper chrome arsenic), but health fears about the arsenic content prompted a policy change.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), the federal statutory authority that registers all agricultural and veterinary chemical products, banned all above-ground use of timber treated with CCA.
This included decking, fencing, external staircases and pergolas.
Davids sought a replacement - alkaline copper quaternary-treated timber (ACQ) - and the business survived, but it brought home the need to be innovative.
''In the last few years we have worked hard to find a new niche,'' said Mr Effron, who runs the 20-year-old South Dandenong family business with his son, Maurice, and 32 staff.
Annual turnover is more than $20 million, and the company processes more than 60,000 cubic metres of treated pine a year.
Now, Davids Timber has identified a new niche, and one that is very topical: fire-resistant treated timber.
Mr Effron has been searching for such a product for almost six years.
''I realised the need for a fire retardant. I could see it [the danger from bushfires] coming,'' he told BusinessDay.
The company will begin distributing timber treated with Guardian Fire Shield to retailers and building suppliers next month. The fire retardant treatment was developed in Finland by Kemira, a chemical company, and is manufactured under licence in Australia by TimTech Chemicals.
Davids Timber has the rights to the product in Victoria.
Mr Effron said it had been tested by the CSIRO and New Zealand company BRANZ.
The New Zealand company's manager of strategy and innovation, Chris Kane, sits on the Australian Building Codes Committee.
''We made sure all the tests were done by the proper authorities. We would not do anything that was not right,'' Mr Effron said.
There are seven hardwood timbers that are fire resistant, such as ironbark, red gum and spotted gum, but Mr Effron said treated pine was still cheaper.
''While all timber eventually burns, the fire-resistant timber gives that extra time that can be vital,'' he said.
