Engineered wood products that bond together wood, fibre, strands or chips offer a high-performance, dimensionally stable and environmentally responsible option for any building project, however large or small, residential or commercial. And structural engineered wood products offer incredible design versatility for architects.

In today’s sustainably built environment, engineered wood products play a major role, both in interior and exterior applications. Engineered wood is sometimes referred to as composite, as it’s comprised of wood veneers, lumber, panels, fibres or strands bound together with an adhesive to make the end product. Common engineered wood products used in contemporary building projects are laminated veneer lumber (LVL), oriented strand board (OSB), plywood (both hardwood and softwood) and various structural beams, such as I-joists. Glulam, and I-beams.

Engineered wood is generally more dimensionally stable and consistent than its solid-wood counterpart.

Parallel strand lumber (PSL) 

PSL is a strong, consistent material that has a high load-carrying ability and is resistant to seasoning stresses.  It is well suited for use as beams and columns for post-and-beam construction, and for beams, headers, and lintels for light framing construction. PSL is an attractive material that is suited to both applications where finished appearance is important and structural applications where appearance is not a factor. 

Finger-jointed lumber 

This lumber is made up of short pieces of wood combined to form longer lengths and is used in door jams, mouldings and studs. It is also produced in long lengths and wide dimensions for floors.

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)

Developed in Switzerland in the early 1990s, cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a multi-layer wood panel with each layer oriented crosswise to its adjacent layers for increased dimensional stability and strength. As part of a framing system, CLT can be used for long spans (floors, walls or roofs), and CLT products can be prefinished, reducing labour onsite, and be utilized equally well in new construction and additions to existing buildings.

CLT has gained traction since 2000 through the emerging green building movement, as engineered wood products offer a strong combination of environmental performance and sustainability, design flexibility, cost-competitiveness and structural integrity. And as CLT is all wood (except the adhesive that binds it together), it offers carbon-storage advantages over non-wood alternatives.