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Engineered wood is truly an amazing material. While touring a newly-constructed home a few weeks ago, I saw what appeared to be floor joists constructed out of

Engineered wood is truly an amazing material. While touring a newly-constructed home a few weeks ago, I saw what appeared to be floor joists constructed out of thin, cheap particle-board. It turns out that they're made of engineered wood, and are actually stronger than an equivalent sawed wood beam. https://imgur.com/a/3AkZblF https://imgur.com/a/3AkZblF

abakker 8y ago
Engineered wood and chipboard/ Oriented strand board (OSB) are a very different animal that particleboard or MDF. Each has their purpose. True particleboard is a very crappy material, best used for ballast and being cheap. MDF is smooth, stable, and machinable, and OSB provides a lot of tortional resilience. For any home woodworkers, I don’t recommend working with OSB or particleboard. However, OSB is moderately waterproof, which neither of the others is.
- samstave 8y ago
  In the 80s, in Tahoe, we built a tree-fort near my house. My dad was a general contractor and we had a lot of MDF available to use from his company... Yeah - MDF and SNOW do not a happy tree house make. The MDF sops up water like a sponge and deteriorates into its constituent particulate... which really sucked because our fort had two levels.... We built a house on the truckee river and there was a giant glue-lam beam that was used for the main truss of the roof. It had to be custom ordered from some manufacturer, and when I asked my dad why we were using that, he talked about how the glued laminate layers were stronger than a single material beam.
  - abakker 8y ago
    A critical part of composite materials is that they are dimensionally stable. They don’t warp, elongate, or shrink, which is better than true wood. The glue and different grain orientations counteract the normal movement. The grain patterns in OSB look a lot like those in parts made of forged carbon, and provide a similar purpose.
hwillis 8y ago
Not stronger (or weaker)- lighter, but more importantly MUCH more stable. Fiberboard (web) and plywood (flange) is stronger and heavier than wood of the same dimensions, but the biggest draw is that humidity doesn't make it swell or shrink. Since it's all glued in place, they also don't come with any bend or twist, and you can actually make flat floors without low or high spots. The light weight means you can ship a huge number on the back of a truck, and they stack more efficiently than 2x8s or 2x10s.
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
Glulam is getting quite popular here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber
vanderZwan 8y ago
Am I being paranoid if I worry about how long the glue will last? I mean I'm sure the chemists who created the stuff thought of this but I've never seen any articles on the how that is researched.
- Doxin 8y ago
  You're being paranoid. There is furniture around that's 100s of years old where the glue still hasn't failed.
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    Just because the right type of glue exists does not prove that this is the glue being used in these materials.
kimburgess 8y ago
It's not just something for small scale structures either. We've been working on the tech fitout for this recently: https://www.aurecongroup.com/projects/property/25-king https://www.aurecongroup.com/projects/property/25-king.

abakker 8y ago

Engineered wood and chipboard/ Oriented strand board (OSB) are a very different animal that particleboard or MDF. Each has their purpose. True particleboard is a very crappy material, best used for ballast and being cheap. MDF is smooth, stable, and machinable, and OSB provides a lot of tortional resilience. For any home woodworkers, I don’t recommend working with OSB or particleboard. However, OSB is moderately waterproof, which neither of the others is.

samstave 8y ago
In the 80s, in Tahoe, we built a tree-fort near my house. My dad was a general contractor and we had a lot of MDF available to use from his company... Yeah - MDF and SNOW do not a happy tree house make. The MDF sops up water like a sponge and deteriorates into its constituent particulate... which really sucked because our fort had two levels.... We built a house on the truckee river and there was a giant glue-lam beam that was used for the main truss of the roof. It had to be custom ordered from some manufacturer, and when I asked my dad why we were using that, he talked about how the glued laminate layers were stronger than a single material beam.
- abakker 8y ago
  A critical part of composite materials is that they are dimensionally stable. They don’t warp, elongate, or shrink, which is better than true wood. The glue and different grain orientations counteract the normal movement. The grain patterns in OSB look a lot like those in parts made of forged carbon, and provide a similar purpose.

hwillis 8y ago

Not stronger (or weaker)- lighter, but more importantly MUCH more stable. Fiberboard (web) and plywood (flange) is stronger and heavier than wood of the same dimensions, but the biggest draw is that humidity doesn't make it swell or shrink. Since it's all glued in place, they also don't come with any bend or twist, and you can actually make flat floors without low or high spots. The light weight means you can ship a huge number on the back of a truck, and they stack more efficiently than 2x8s or 2x10s.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

Glulam is getting quite popular here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber

vanderZwan 8y ago

Am I being paranoid if I worry about how long the glue will last? I mean I'm sure the chemists who created the stuff thought of this but I've never seen any articles on the how that is researched.

Doxin 8y ago
You're being paranoid. There is furniture around that's 100s of years old where the glue still hasn't failed.
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  Just because the right type of glue exists does not prove that this is the glue being used in these materials.

kimburgess 8y ago

It's not just something for small scale structures either. We've been working on the tech fitout for this recently: https://www.aurecongroup.com/projects/property/25-king https://www.aurecongroup.com/projects/property/25-king.