Tim Porter

Tim Porter, General Manager of Timber Span in Hawke's Bay, brings a rare blend of structural engineering, fire engineering, and manufacturing-world experience to the timber and prefab conversation. Napier-born, civil/structural engineering degree followed by a master's in fire engineering, then five years in UK management consulting with time in Doha, then twelve years at Home Solutions in Christchurch leading the construction sector team as the company grew from 17 to ~90 staff. Now supplying LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) portal frames and post-and-beam structures for industrial, commercial, and medium-rise timber buildings, Timber Span handles design and manufacture but not install, with LVL sourced from Nelson Pine processed via a SAM machine. Tim takes direct aim at fixed-price procurement ("provides cost certainty but not risk certainty, never does") as the root cause of NZ's innovation stagnation: when everyone is driven into minimum-margin corners, fear and greed take over, scope protection replaces collaboration, and the industry stops improving. He echoes Shane Brealey's model (Ep 57), "I'm a big admirer", and argues project team repetition is the missing ingredient, citing Fletcher's glory days (core group went project to project) and Goodman's industrial buildings (same small pool of contractors, engineers, architects) as pockets where repetition enabled real productivity. On prefab, Tim's core diagnosis cuts against the industry consensus: it's not a pipeline problem, it's a connections problem. British-history countries (UK, Australia, NZ, North America) consistently fail at prefab where Scandinavia, continental Europe, and Asia succeed, he speculates on "something to do with colonialism" but nails the practical gap: construction practitioners aren't good at solving interface and connection problems, and the people with that knowledge (mechanical designers of race cars, jet boats, airplanes) aren't being engaged. On mass timber, Tim is clear-eyed: CLT is great for two-way spanning floor slabs but "bonkers" when used for beams and rafters (half the fibre runs the wrong way), LVL is the structurally superior product for spans, and timber has become a more affordable choice than steel recently due to Middle East shipping and energy volatility. His form-vs-function pet case is Royal Adelaide Hospital (third most expensive building ever built, now 17th globally, "litany of operational issues") and a bathroom design where a beautiful standalone basin meant the soap dispenser hung in the wind, water pooled on the floor, and the operational team inherited a pool decision. The episode closes with Tim's data manifesto: "Without data you're just a person with an opinion" and the 3M quote "In God we trust, all others bring data", construction is rife with opinion and gossip, and that constrains the industry.

Key Topics Discussed

• Fixed price kills innovation. Cost certainty without risk certainty. No reward for innovation, so fear and greed take over. "80 years of no meaningful productivity improvement."
• Project team repetition as the missing ingredient. Fletcher's glory days (core group project to project), Goodman's industrial buildings (same pool), Shane Brealey (Ep 57) Simplicity Living model. "When people work together again and again, they don't need to waste time on trust."
• Why prefab fails in British-history countries. NZ, UK, Australia, North America all struggle where Scandinavia, Europe, Asia succeed. "Something to do with colonialism." Real issue: interfaces and connections.
• Connections are the prefab problem. Construction practitioners aren't good at interfaces. Mechanical designers (race cars, jet boats, airplanes) have "eye-watering" connection solutions that aren't being imported.
• Double sole plate pet peeve. Wall panels with two base plates stacked: double timber, double handling, complicated screw systems. Classic example of waste accepted rather than designed out. Mechanical connections (interlocking jaws, cam locks, IKEA-style) are the answer.
• Mass timber, right product, right place. LVL for portal frames (50m clear spans), post-and-beam for 3-4 storey. CLT for two-way spanning floors, sometimes shear walls. CLT for beams/rafters = "bonkers" (half the fibre runs the wrong way).
• Steel volatility flipped the economics. Middle East tension, shipping costs, energy prices. NZ pine grown here, shipped here. "We've been winning a lot of jobs off steel concept designs."
• Sustainability of timber. Must regrow at consumption rate. Concrete 8% of global emissions, no viable replacement. Steel's case is recyclability. Timber's case is replaceability. Right material, right place.
• Form vs function. Royal Adelaide Hospital: 3rd most expensive ever built (now 17th), "litany of operational issues." Bathroom standalone basin case. "Beauty doesn't matter in a bathroom."
• Client first, project second. Client gets project manager or architect first, they sell a vision. Client disappears. Commitment becomes to the project not the client. All filters = misaligned outcomes. Echoes Raji Rai (Ep 83) "protect the vision."
• Network Rail (UK) engineer-led bids. They flipped procurement: engineers lead consortiums. Engineer weighting became the filter for architects who understood blending form and function. Results improved.
• Scope protection as contract-driven mindset. Worst example Tim saw was in the States. "If there's any blurry issue it's like 'not me, not me, not me', issue just sits there, risk builds until you've got a problem. Contracts influence mindset."
• Understand the need, not the solution. The "can I borrow a pen?" example. You might need to sign a check (blue/black only), or scribble a note (pencil, charcoal). Construction rushes to solutions without understanding needs from client, architect, engineer, builder's points of view.
• Be obsessed with the customer. Tim credits Mahesh Muralidhar (Ep 84): "Be obsessed with the customer. Kill your ego. Nobody cares." Applies directly to prefab suppliers telling customers their product is fine when customers say it doesn't solve their problem.
• Data over opinion. "Without data you're just a person with an opinion." 3M: "In God we trust, all others bring data." Construction is rife with opinion and gossip. "Rumour mill just gets going."
• CLT uses 30 to 50% more fibre on sub-3-storey work. Tim's concrete efficiency caveat on the mass-timber hype: for anything three storeys or less, CLT typically uses 30-50% more timber fibre than conventional stick framing. Right product, right place.
• Auckland Airport international car park used timber piles. Recent completed project Tim references as a live NZ example of timber at structural foundation level. "Stay curious. What's that mean?" prompted Andy's investigation. Historical practice returning as a conscious choice.
• Hybrid structure case study. Heavy industry building: steel portal legs (needed for gantry cranes), timber rafters, timber purlins, timber girts. Reduced foundation costs, reduced structural weight, gave the operator the utility needed. Tim's live example of "right material, right place" rather than choosing timber for timber's sake.
• "Sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up". Tim's friend's programme aphorism. Captures the recovery psychology on projects that have already slipped.
• "If you want something done, ask a child, they haven't got all that constrained thinking". Tim's argument for beginner's mind in design. Pairs with the customer-obsession theme inherited from Mahesh (Ep 84).
• "No one's ever done this before, therefore no one knows what they're doing, that's actually liberating". Tim on how first-time problems should reframe fear into possibility. People find it suffocating instead of intoxicating.

Notable Quotes

"Fixed price provides cost certainty. But it doesn't provide risk certainty. Never does."

"When everyone's being pushed down on their fees, and being forced into a corner of doing things on minimum margin, where does the budget for innovation come from? You're not incentivised to do it. And so fear and greed take over."

"I'm a big admirer of how Shane approaches it. They've identified the formula. You get people working together again and again, they get to know each other, they don't need to waste time on the things that they know about and then they've done before. And then they get to unleash the creative energy on the bits that matter."

"Prefab has not taken off because people are blaming pipeline rather than solving the problems they need to solve. The whole summary is connections."

"CLT used as a floor slab makes a ton of sense because it's two-way spanning. I've seen people using CLT for beams and rafters, which just doesn't make sense at all because you've got half the fibre running in the wrong way. Just seems bonkers to me."

"Without data, you're just a person with an opinion. Construction industry is rife with opinion. Get past it. Get into the data. Speak with facts. If you don't know, be honest."

Guest Background

Tim Porter is General Manager of Timber Span, based in Hawke's Bay. Born and raised in Napier, father was an engineer, pushed Tim into engineering over physio in his last year of high school. BE (Civil/Structural), ME (Fire Engineering). Worked as a fire engineer, then moved to UK for five years in management consulting (including time in Doha). Returned to NZ to join Home Solutions (Christchurch), a product development and testing company, staying twelve years and leading the construction sector team as the company grew from 17 to ~90 staff. "Hawke's Bay boy, the call home was pretty strong", joined Timber Span to return to Napier, combining project management, structural engineering, prefab/offsite, and mass timber in one role. Previously served on the board of Prefab NZ. Surfing (Ocean Beach), travel, and food are his outside-work passions.