Engineered Lumber - 3 Products to Simplify Building Construction

Engineered lumber has multiple advantages over regular sawn lumber. Engineered lumber, also called engineered wood, is a man-made wood product that involves binding together wood components with water proof adhesives.

Engineered to specific design tolerances, engineered lumber comes in various sizes, formats and products and is designed for use in residential and commercial buildings. Designed and tested to meet and even exceed national building code standards, engineered lumber provides higher strength tolerances than solid wood.

Engineered lumber is one of the most ecologically friendly building materials available. Smaller diameter trees are used in the manufacture of engineered lumber, One hitter pipe thus making use of trees that would otherwise be considered waste in regular logging operations.

Three products that demonstrate this are: I joists, laminated veneer lumber and rimboard.

I Joists

I joists, which were in invented in 1969, are designed to for use as floor and roofing joists. I joists are incredibly strong for their size and weight. Available in depths ranging from 9.25" to 24'" and lengths up to 52', i joists are engineered to support heavy loads over long spans.

I joists provide numerous advantages over regular dimensional lumber. These include: not splitting, twisting, checking, bowing or forming a crown. Because i joists are more dimensionally stable than regular wood beams and don't shrink, squeaky floors are virtually eliminated. Additionally, I joists light weight to performance ratio, allows for faster construction.

Laminated Veneer Lumber

Laminated veneer lumber is made of multiple layers of thin wood and water proof adhesive, and cured under high pressure to create a wood product that is more uniform, stronger, and straighter than comparably sized milled lumber.

As with I joists, laminated veneer lumber because of how it's designed and manufactured is less prone to twist, bow, split, warp, check or shrink.

Available in various lengths, depths and widths, laminated veneer lumber is engineered to be used for headers, beams and spans bearing heavy loads.

Rim Board

Rim board is another engineered lumber product used by contractors to simplify building construction.
Used as part of the floor framing system, rim board is applied around the perimeter of the floor to enclose the I joists. The rim board provides a flat surface allowing either gyrpoc or exterior cladding to be easily installed.

Rim board is made of large wood flakes, waterproof adhesive and cured under high pressure to create a product that is easy to handle and install.

Rim board is manufactured in depths that correspond to the depths of i joists, eliminating the extra time and work required to cut traditional lumber on site. It also lessens the chance of making mistakes in measuring and cutting.

These three engineered lumber products when used as part of a floor and roof framing system simplify construction, lower costs and provide increased strength compared to traditional lumber.

As a contractor, Jason Sumner has years of experience using both traditional and engineered wood. Additional information on Engineered Wood, including downloadable Specification and Installation Guides is available at: =] http://www.internationalbeams.com