Filros Timber Consultancy
Principal Timber Consultant
Philip O'Leary
Phil is Director of Filros Timber Consultancy and has over 25 years of experience in the design, specification, structural grading, supply, installation and performance
in service of timber, including 20 years of experience as an expert witness.
Previously was head of Timber Consultancy at BM TRADA, the technical authority behind TRADA. With over 30 years of post-qualifying experience, Phil has published in local and international journals about wood science.
Phil is one of the UK's leading authorities for Visual Strength Grading and specialises in: condition surveys of historic buildings, performance assessments and determining the structural strength of timber in many situations, timber quality, performance characteristics, deterioration and preservation, serving as an expert witness in establishing the causes of timber failures, developing and presenting highly regarded topical and bespoke training courses on a range of timber subjects.
Phil is chair of BSI’s Wood Preservation Committee, a member of the Wood Protection Association’s Technical Committee and is a Board member of Woodknowledge Wales.
Principal Timber Consultant
Dr Andy Pitman
PhD, Msc, BSc, CTLHE, Fellow IOM3
Andy is a wood scientist specialising in understanding performance of wood in service. He holds a Masters in Forest Industries Technology and completed his PhD with the Mary Rose Trust investigating the conservation archaeological timbers. He spent 15 years teaching and conducting research at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College where he was Head of the Forest Products Research Centre, supervised students undertaking timber-related research and attained his teaching qualifications.
He is a Fellow of the IOM3 and past Chairman of the Wood Technology Society. In 2008 Andy joined BM TRADA as Technical Manager where he was involved in research, development and testing of timber products including modified woods and is author of TRADA’s Wood Information Sheet Modified Wood. Andy is a member of the Wood Protection Association’s Technical Committee and was a member of British Standards Committee B/5-15 which deals with British and European standards relating to wood protection. Andy has been involved in several multi-organisation research projects relating to wood protection and testing performance of novel wood products. In terms of extension work, Andy has delivered CPD training to Architects and Engineers on behalf of RIBA, Wood for Good and TRADA. CPD training relates to selection and design of timber products to achieve best performance and the conservation and repair of timbers. While at TRADA Andy was a consultant to the Cutty Sark and involved in the sourcing and repair of teak planking and has consulted on the conservation of HMS Victory
Andy worked in R&D for a start-up LIGNIA for four years developing a resin impregnated modified timber which has provided experience in working with resin and adhesive providers and laminators in the UK and Europe, working with investors and commissioning testing services from Europe and North America.
Andy is experienced in writing grant bids and participating in collaborative research projects relating to wood and the circular economy and performance of wood products. He has acted as a reviewer for several wood journals, examines PhD’s and has published over 50 wood science papers. Andy has acted as an Expert Witness in several legal cases relating to the performance of wood products. Andy has inspected and reported on the condition of timbers in a wide range of end uses from buildings, bridges, piers and yachts.
Andy is trained to visually strength grade softwoods and hardwoods and CQI IRCA ISO 9001:2015, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and PEFC Lead Auditor. Andy holds a current Construction Skills Certification Scheme CSCS card.
Associate Consultant
Nick Clifford
TRADA-trained timber expert Nick Clifford has over twenty years’ experience of providing high-quality advice on timber-related issues to architects, engineers, contractors, developers, conservation bodies and public clients in his former role as Senior Consultant in BM Trada's highly renowned Timber Consultancy.
Working within the UK centre of expertise and quality of report that was the Timber Consultancy at 'TRADA' a high level of expertise was the only standard accepted in a team that produced and trained many of the expert timber consultants in the UK today.
Areas of expertise include assessing the condition of timber structures, mass timber moisture planning and site moisture analysis, flooring, cladding and decking defect diagnosis, with a wide range of specialist timber-related knowledge and skills that extend to wood species identification and visual strength grading.
Nick teaches visual strength grading and is a regular public speaker on timber-related subjects.
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