> Won't we just end up worsening deforestation? Probably the reverse. Structural timer beams used to be made out of a single length of timber, which of course

> Won't we just end up worsening deforestation? Probably the reverse. Structural timer beams used to be made out of a single length of timber, which of course could only come from a old, large tree. Now houses in Australia now use wooden I-Beams made out of this laminated wood. It's made from young trees (read: plantation timber), which are small and thinner than the I-Breams themselves, but that means the I-Breams made out of them can be any length. In fact their rise seem to be driven by the change from using old-growth timber to plantation timber. I was surprised when I first saw it, because the manufactured timer I'm used to such as chipboard and fibreboard are really at the bottom of the barrel. They are heavy, rapidly destroyed by moisture, and weak. These glued laminates seem to be reverse of that - stronger by weight than the original wood (largely because you can shape them, eg into a I shape), and of course that makes lighter than solid beam of wood, and they are just as waterproof. As a consequence anything much ticker than a wall stud is made out of the stuff now - large long beams of a single piece of timer seem to be a thing of the past.