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New building systems and high-tech products are changing the way builders construct new homes. An alternative construction method using engineered wood components is leading the way into tomorrow. High performance glued engineered wood products and systems are providing builders with a cost-effective and labor- saving alternative in construction of your new home.
Glued engineered wood is manufactured by bonding together wood strands, veneers, lumber or other forms of wood fiber to produce a larger and integral composite unit that is stronger and stiffer than the sum of its parts. The phenomenal growth in the use and acceptance of engineered wood is proof that a new era is dawning in how homes are being built. | |
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The reason for its growing popularity is that glued engineered wood products allow designers greater flexibility to design the open spans that so many homeowners want. The benefit to homeowners is a more durable and stronger floor, wall and roofing structure. The product is easy to use and lightweight, which makes it a favored material among home builders. And it’s environmentally friendly.
As for the cost, most engineer lumber products will cost twice as much as regular grade lumber, but keep in mind there is less waste, because they don’t have any natural defects (remember these products are man-made). Almost 35% of traditional lumber is wasted while building a home (engineered wood products have 100% utilization ratio) because of imperfections in the wood. In the end, the cost of the product will offset the final construction bill because you’ll be using less product and contractors can work quicker and easier - cutting installation charges.
Here is a list of engineered wood products available for sheathing (in simple terms, sheathing is the material that builders attach to the exterior stud wall and on the roof rafters before the exterior finish and roofing material is attached) your exterior home:
OSB consists of wood strands bonded with waterproof adhesives to form a mat which is then pressed under high pressure and temperature to create the finished product. Like the veneers in plywood, these mats are layered and cross-oriented for maximum strength, stiffness and stability. OSB is mostly used as construction sheathing and as the web material for wood I-joists. By sheathing your home with OSB or plywood your walls will be stronger and provide greater resistance to high winds and earth shaking (yes, earthquakes) than foam sheathing.
Glulam is a glue laminated timber composed of individual pieces of dimension lumber, which are then end-joined together to produce long lengths, known as laminations. The length and strength (pound for pound glulam is said to be stronger than steel) of these laminations allows for long distances to be spanned without adding excessive intermediate supports. Glulam is one of the most cost competitive engineered wood product on the market today for beams and headers, because of its flexibility - it can literally, be shaped into forms ranging from straight beams to complex curves and it can go the distance (most companies stock beams up to 56 feet). Since it’s manufactured from kiln-dried lumber, it is more resistant to warping and shrinking than regular lumber and much more consistent in quality than natural wood.
Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) is the most widely used of the structural composite lumber products. Through the use of advanced engineering, lumber is chipped, structurally aligned and bonded in thin sheets at extremely high pressure. The sheets are then laminated together (once again at extremely high pressure) to form consistently stable boards much stronger than typical dimensional lumber.
Some of the product's many uses are headers and beams, hip and valley rafters, and a flange material for prefabricated wood I-joists. As homes continue to get bigger and bigger, contractors are faced with the problem of supporting larger surfaces, which is why LVL is the preferred product, because it can safely support large areas.
Prefabricated wood I-joists are structural, load-carrying members with high bending strength and stiffness. These characteristics allow for a product that can span longer distances and provide greater design flexibility than the “traditional” solid lumber framing in floor systems. In most cases they are delivered cut-to-length, which reduces framing labor and job site waste. Contractors are fond of this material because it’s a product that’s stable, consistent (generally no defects, since it’s manufactured), easy to work with and lightweight. As a homeowner, you’ll enjoy years and years of a more quieter floor system - than say the squeaky plywood floors that warp and shrink over time. And as for open floors - plan away.
Rimboard is a highly engineered and precision trimmed product, specifically designed as a component in an engineered floor systems. It is designed to tie joists together and precisely fill the space between sub-floor and plate and is engineered with the structural capacity to transfer vertical and lateral loads. An engineered wood flooring system typically consists of I-joists, glulam or LVL beams, rim board and Sturd-I-Floor panels. It’s important to note that if your contractor is using engineered wood - that they remain consistent in its use. The success of engineered wood floor, wall and roof systems - is using the right product. For example, substituting sawn dimensional lumber for rimboard in a floor system would greatly reduce the effectiveness of your flooring system over time.
Sturd-I-Floor is a tongue and groove, single floor system which requires less time and labor to install than a traditional glue and nail system and provides a stronger, stiffer floor. The majority of homes being constructed in this country are using Sturd-I-Floor as a standard product.
Code Plus Program
The APA - The Engineered Wood Association, which s a 70-year-old non-profit trade association and authoritive source for information on structural wood products, is like the watch dog of home builders. In an effort to promote and maintain high quality building practices using engineered wood products, the APA has implemented the Code Plus Program. It require participating builders to go one level above minimum code requirements. For example, most areas require some sort of let-in bracing or corner bracing using OSB or plywood on the corners, but a . Code-Plus home would have fully sheathed walls using OSB or plywood. Following in the footsteps of home security companies, the APA provides builders with brochures, window decals and a certificate to verify that your was built to Code Plus specifications. |
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