How to build your dream house – laminated veneer lumber, material features

Recommendation points

• Manufacturing technology of glued profiled timber
• Why “glued”?
• Your dream home!
• Price = quality

Continuation. Part 2. How to build your dream house – glued laminated timber, an inside look

Many have heard of such a building material as glued profiled timber, but since the material and production technology are relatively new, few have enough information to appreciate it. And the lack of information raises doubts about the price and quality..

To begin with, in order to understand where these or those properties come from, consider the essence of the technology.

Manufacturing technology of glued profiled timber

The raw material for the production of laminated veneer lumber is an edged board, mainly pine, less often larch due to the high price of raw materials and more complex processing, but, in principle, the technology allows you to work with almost any wood and even combine different types. For example, the outer lamellas are cedar, the inner ones are pine, however, technologists do not advise to get carried away with such “puffs”, since due to the different density of wood, a partial loss of the positive qualities of the final product may occur.

The boards are sorted and dried in specialized drying chambers at the molecular level to the so-called furniture moisture content of 10-12%. It is almost impossible to dry the solid wood evenly, in contrast to laminated veneer lumber. Thus, one of the main advantages of a house made of laminated veneer lumber is that such a house practically does not shrink (within 1% – insignificantly) and, accordingly, the owner of such a house without any fear immediately inserts windows, doors, carries out the desired decoration and can move into new housing.

After drying, the raw material goes to the optimization line, where defects (rot, unhealthy knots, etc.) marked with special markers are cut out according to technical conditions. The customer can himself regulate some of the technical specifications, for example, the presence of knots per running meter and even their absolute absence. Due to such optimizations, glued laminated timber, unlike solid wood, does not have defects in the form of blue, rot, cracks, biological lesions, etc., respectively, its strength characteristics are higher, and thermal conductivity, including due to the level of humidity, is lower.

Lamellas – “clean” pieces of board, sorted into future internal and external lamellas and sent to the splicing line. Splicing is carried out using an adhesive composition and cutting a thorn-groove, due to this technology, a beam up to 12 meters long will turn out and this is not the limit, which is unlikely to be found in nature. The resulting lamellas are planed and glued under the press into, in fact, a bar. Depending on the required width of the timber, the number and thickness of the lamellas are selected; today the net width of the timber reaches 230 millimeters..

Why “glued”?

Unknowing people are very, very confused by the adjective “glued”, immediately a lot of questions arise about the safety, reliability and “naturalness” of the material. No, this is not a “supermoment” glue and not even a carpentry glue, this composition has little in common with the usual glues that we are used to using. Glue for laminated veneer lumber is a special mixture, which is a catalyst for the diffusion process, and diffusion, as you remember from school physics, is the process of “growing” of one surface into another. Thus, firstly, there is almost no adhesive composition in the bar itself, and secondly, this drug is recommended for the production of products that come into contact with food (cutting boards, for example) – this is a sufficient basis for safety. The strength of laminated veneer lumber increases significantly, and if you try to break a thin cross-cut, it is guaranteed to break along the lamella array, and not along the splicing seam.

Next, the timber glued under the press is planed and trimmed – the semi-finished product is ready. Then it is profiled; again, depending on the standard size, the type of the profile also differs, but, in any case, during assembly, the edges of the profile go over the previous beam, i.e. there are no straight slots, which also affects the thermal conductivity. The profile will allow you to easily and quickly assemble the walls of your future home in the future, and also increases the seismic resistance of such a building. To ensure complete comfort and warmth, it is enough to put a narrow strip of a two-millimeter foam seal “isolon” in the profile, no other insulation is required, moreover, it is categorically not recommended, and there is nowhere to use it.

Your dream home!

But still, in the end result, we need not just a timber, but a dream house. And this desire to realize is very easy – you order or choose your favorite project of the house, a scattering is done on it, so to speak, the house is “disassembled” into the component parts of the designer and, according to this scattering, the glued profiled beam is sawn into the necessary elements, the corner joints are cut on a special machine ( cups) – your constructor is ready. I must say that the cup naturally differs from the standard “notches” in the solid – its shape also does not allow for direct air flow.

Price = quality

The classic technology is described here, modern developments and machines allow for several operations on one equipment, i.e. virtually only a few people can create your dream home, which will undoubtedly lead to cost savings sooner or later. Today, the only drawback of glued profiled timber is its high price. On the other hand, if you calculate the savings:

• the complexity and speed of work on production and assembly (about 150-250 sq. m. the house is assembled on a turnkey basis within 2-3 months);
• no costs for additional insulation;
• if desired, it is possible not to use additional internal and external finishing (the timber is perfectly flat and has no defects, for protection it is enough to apply a complex impregnation);
• reliability, durability and much more,..

…it turns out not so expensive, at least the principle “price equals quality” works on this material to the fullest.

Continuation. Part 2. How to build your dream house – glued laminated timber, an inside look