 |
Related Showrooms
• Chadsworth's - Columns, Pillars, Pilasters & Balustrades
• Renovation Experts - Put your home in good hands. Get FREE estimates on your project.
When you think about it, wood is all around us. From the tables we eat on, chairs we sit in, boats we ride on and houses we live in, wood is everywhere. It is one of the world's most useful and diverse materials and for thousands of years we've come to rely on it to shelter and transport us.
But as our supply of resources grows tighter, demand for new products and applications increases. Fortunately, technology continues to answer the call and today wood is literally being engineered into new and better products that actually improve upon what Mother Nature has been providing us for years.
Generally speaking, "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. One of the most widely recognized and used engineered wood products is plywood, which has been around for nearly a century. In recent years, however, through the innovation of wood product manufacturers new technology has delivered other engineered wood building materials including oriented strand board (OSB), glulam timber, wood I-beams, structural composite lumber, structural composite panels and more.
Many of these products have become standard features in residential construction, and the benefits are numerous. From greater design flexibility with wide open spaces, to more structurally sound floors, walls and roofs, engineered wood is shaping the way we build.
"Engineered wood makes use of wood elements that might otherwise be discarded," says Tom Williamson Executive Vice President of APA - The Engineered Wood Association. "In addition, these products make efficient use of faster-growing and otherwise under utilized trees from managed forests and farms, which helps preserve old-growth and other forests."
Engineered wood also rates well when compared to non-wood products with regard to pollutants and emissions during manufacturing. Aluminum siding, for example, requires four times more energy--and brick veneer 22 times more energy--to produce and transport to a building site than equivalent wood siding. Concrete floors require 21 times more energy overall to be produced than do wood floors.
Even more important than these environmental benefits, however, is the fact that engineered wood is strong, durable, and can provide greater protection from the effects of natural disasters. It exceeds the performance ratings of its raw-wood counterparts. For example, cross-laminated plywood and OSB distribute along-the-grain strength in two directions, making it stronger overall. Wood I-joists and glulam beams carry greater loads over longer spans than are possible with solid sawn lumber of the same size.
The sales growth of engineered wood products, says Williamson, is testimony to the technological adaptability of the wood products industry in the face of a changing wood fiber resource base. "With less traditional and public forest timber available for wood product manufacturing, producers are improving on existing methods and inventing new ways to make more with less, and with alternative wood fiber resources."
|
© 2001 BobVila.com
- Add To:
-
 Del.icio.us
-
 Digg
-
 Google
-
 Y! MyWeb
-
 Reddit
-
 Technorati
|
|
|
Related Articles
Related Tips
Related Videos
