Conventional wood-framing practices consume vast amounts of lumber made out of large pieces of solid wood. More than 95% of the old-growth forests once in the United States are gone, increasing the urgency to save what’s remaining.

What is Engineered Lumber?
 

• Plywood: Thin sheets of wood veneer bonded together with glue, heat, and pressure to form a rigid panel. Each veneer is glued together with the wood grain perpendicular to the other. These alternating layers make plywood incredibly strong. Although solid wood expands and shrinks because of humidity, plywood remains dimensionally stable.
  

• Oriented strand board (OSB): Small scraps of wood glued together like plywood. Instead of solid sheets of wood, OSB uses fragments of wood, making OSB nearly as strong as plywood.
  

• I-joists: Engineered I-joists are named for their shape, similar to a steel I-beam. Thick pieces of plywood create the top and bottom chords of the beam. The middle part, called the web, is made from OSB. These light joists are much stronger than solid wood of the same size, and can be used for framing the floor and roof.
  

• Glue-laminated lumber: Glue-laminated lumber, or glu-lams, consists of long strands of wood glued together to form a thick, solid beam. The resulting beam is almost as strong as steel, but much less expensive and more attractive.
  

• Laminated veneer lumber (LVL): Similar to plywood, LVL uses thin layers of wood glued together to form dimensional lumber suitable for framing. Think of it as a smaller glu-lam.
  

• Oriented strand lumber (OSL): OSL is essentially the same as LVL but uses large flakes of wood instead of solid layers. The appearance of OSL is very different from plywood or LVL.
  

Although the idea of small fragments of wood may sound weak and brittle, the reality of engineered wood is quite different. Strong, stable, and long lasting, engineered wood works seamlessly with your wood-framed home. Using these engineered products will reduce the amount of wood you need to use in building your home by half. In addition, engineered products never warp or split like solid wood.

Tip: As a general rule, any time you need to use a stud larger than a 2-x-8, you should substitute an engineered wood product.

The various engineered wood products come in a range of costs. When looking at engineered wood, don’t forget about the important advantages of engineered wood over solid wood: consistent size and greater strength. The initial cost of certain items, such as glu-lams, will be more than a solid beam of the same size.  ....read more