Singing the praises of LVL

NelsonPine LVL has a passionate new advocate with Jason Guiver contracted in the position of LVL Market Development Manager.

Jason has been involved in timber and joinery from his early teens. He gained a Civil and Structural Engineering degree at Trent University in the UK and worked on timber conservatory structures for a company that made over 7,000 timber conservatories a year for the UK and European market. Jason moved with his family to Nelson in April 2007 and joined Hunters, becoming General Manager in October that year, and gaining familiarity with LVL during the fabrication stage of the NMIT Arts and Media building. The company was sold in 2009 and Jason continued to work for the new owners until he moved to set up the NZ Wood Design Centre in October 2010, before joining us last month.
He is great believer in the capabilities and potential of timber: “It’s the oldest structural building material but it has had the least amount of funding in research and design.”

Jason and Peter are pictured, right.

Deputy CEO Peter Barr says Jason’s challenge will be to convince architects and engineers to use LVL. They’re used to the domination of concrete and steel in commercial construction, but we want them to look at LVL as an alternative, with its structural strength, fire safety, earthquake resistance, aesthetic appeal and environmental advantages.

“Jason was on the design team that won the 48 hour challenge to design a new CBD for Christchurch, and with the release of the new plans for that city focused on low rise there is plenty of potential for LVL,” he says. “There is also opportunity elsewhere in the country, particularly in Auckland, with the large number of commercial buildings that are not going to meet earthquake specifications.”

Jason will spend four days each fortnight in Christchurch.