Institute for Timber Construction South Africa

03/08/2023

06/06/2023

The ITC-SA is scheduling a Roof Inspection Workshop in Johannesburg from 18th to 20th July 2023. Anybody interested in attending can get further details on the ITC-SA website at

Erector Training Inspector Training Estimator / Designer Training

17/04/2023

Solar panels and roof structure design - critical considerations

With the well documented electricity supply crisis in South Africa, solar panels are being widely installed on many types of domestic and commercial roofs. Most of these solar panel installations are retrofitted onto existing roofs which, in almost all cases, were not designed to carry additional permanent loads.

The design of a roof structure is very complex and takes into account various types of permanent and temporary loads. Simply adding additional permanent load, in the form of solar panels that were not part of the original roof design, to a roof structure may result in catastrophic overloading of that structure; which could result in loss of property, serious injuries or death. The owner, or responsible person, that installs solar panels on a roof structure, without the review and sign of by a competent person, would have no recourse to any other party should a roof subsequently collapse or become structurally unsound. It is also highly unlikely that an insurer would pay out for losses where a modification to a roof structure or loading was done that subsequently collapsed, if it was not signed off by a competent person.

In order to avoid this the ITC-SA recommends that, any solar panel installation onto a roof structure, gets signed off by a competent person, who is able to confirm that the underlying structure is able to safely carry the additional load of the solar panels. This sign off would then transfer the responsibility for the safe loading of the roof structure to the competent person who should have professional indemnity insurance in place for their decisions.

In the case of timber roofs this sign off should be done by an ITC-SA Accredited Timber Engineer and their associated Certified Roof Inspectors that can be found on the ITC-SA website with the links

https://itc-sa.org/members/individuals/accredited-timber-engineer/

and

https://itc-sa.org/members/individuals/inspectors/

The ITC-SA is the SAQA recognised Professional Body as well as the ECSA recognised Voluntary Association for the prefabricated timber roof truss sector.

28/10/2022

Anyone who missed the Timber and Fire Webinar can the 27th October can access the video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOxY7LIqrXo

A big thank you to Sawmilling South Africa, the South African Wood Preservers Association and the Institute of Timber Construction - South Africa for making this webinar possible, and to our academic, industry and Government partners, University of Stellenbosch, Ignis Testing and the dtic.

If anyone wishes to be on the mailing list for any future Talking Timber webinars please email [email protected]

On Thursday 27 October, along with SAWPA and ITC-SA, SSA once again sponsored a webinar as part of the Talking Timber series. The aim of these webinars is no...

14/10/2022

Please see below a request from Pretoria University for possible intern positions for Timber Architects. Please contact them directly should you wish to participate in the program.

Good day

You are invited to complete the following form: Click here

The University of Pretoria intends to develop a Timber Architecture Internship Programme. The programme's objective is to provide timber industry exposure to recent architectural graduates. The overall aim is to promote timber construction in South Africa through knowledge transfer and networking.

The intention is to develop a three-month rotational programme where interns get exposure to various industries related to timber construction. The intention is that every intern will work for at least three months at a time at three different organisations within a single year.

It may include primary processing, secondary processing, preservation, design, construction or other timber-related industries. Initially, the programme will focus on graduates from the University of Pretoria, but expansion to other institutions may be considered with time.

This form aims to identify industry partners that would like to participate in the programme. By completing this form, you only indicate that you are/aren't interested in participating in the programme.

You are requested to indicate whether you are interested in providing internships for three months and, if so, how many. If you can't offer internships but would like to be informed regarding the project, you may indicate this as well.

A first Questions and Answers session will be held on Wednesday, 19 October 2022, 10:00-11:00. Once you have confirmed your interest in participating in the programme, you will receive an invitation to the discussion. If you are interested in participating in the programme, we will contact you regardless of whether you can attend the Q&A.

This programme will form part of the York Timbers Multidisciplinary Chair in Data-Driven, Wood Structural Engineering for a Sustainable Built Environment and African Bioeconomy.

https://www.up.ac.za/york-timbers/homepage/preview/975?module=frontpage&slug=homepages-home%20page&id=2961940

Will you please share this form with interested parties?

Kind regards
Schalk Grobbelaar
Senior Lecturer

Department of Engineering & Technology Management
Graduate School of Technology Management
University of Pretoria
Enterprise Building
140 Lunnon Rd
Hillcrest
Pretoria
0083
South Africa

York Timbers Chair, University of Pretoria

28/09/2022

The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) has recently informed the ITC-SA that their application to be verified as a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Service Provider was successful. The verification of the ITC-SA as an ECSA CPD Service Provider is in line with the prescribed Rules on Continuing Professional Development (Board Notice 86 of 2017) and the Standard for Continuing Professional Development (ECPD-01-STA) The verification is valid for a period of three years.

06/07/2022

FINAL CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
ROOF TRUSS ESTIMATOR / DESIGNER COURSE

The ITC-SA invites prospective and existing estimators and designers in the nail-plated timber roof truss industry to sign up for the last online course of 2022.

Modern roof truss estimators and designers use ever-evolving engineering software to generate the specifications of trusses. A minor input error can have an enormous impact on the final product, and the estimator/designer must be able to spot and fix mistakes in software output.

It is therefore essential to have a sound understanding of the terminology, basic concepts and principles of design, theory and calculations and underpinning engineered timber truss design.

The self-study course consists of two compulsory assignments based on the study material supplied and a final written exam.

The ITC-SA is the SAQA recognised Professional Body for the prefabricated timber roof truss industry in South Africa. The course is the training requirement for the Professional Designation of Certified Timber Roof Truss Designer as recorded on the National Learner Database. It is a recognised ECSA CPD Activity with the Validation Number ITC-SA-TRTD-Level1-2021 to 2024, or ITC-SA-TRTD-Level2-2021 to 2024.

Start date: 2 August 2022
Exam date: 26 October 2022

Information & registration: https://itc-sa.org/designer-programme/
Or email [email protected]

The ITC-SA offers Basic and Intermediate courses through the SABS to Estimator/Designers in the nail-plated timber roof truss industry.

12/06/2022

The ITC-SA thanks everyone who visited us at our stand at WoodEx for Africa 2022 on 7 - 10 June. It was great to meet you and share experiences and information.

The pic shows the ITC-SA's Erik Soderlund and Gerard Busse of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) taking a brief break to catch up after several years.

28/05/2022

Visit us to learn more about our role in professionalising the engineered timber trusses industry. We look forward to meeting you at WoodEx for Africa co-located with the Decking & Flooring Expo and Construction expo