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Understanding Engineered Lumber

At Channel Lumber we offer a wide variety of building materials. There have been interesting advances in the world of engineered lumber — here is a pocket guide to the specialized lumber products we carry.

• Glue-Lam Beams - Glue-Lam (or Glulam) is typically a large structural beam comprised of layers of smaller dimensional lumber laminated to end-use specifications. Glue-lam beams have a very high strength to weight ratio, and produce far less greenhouse emissions in their production compared to steel or concrete. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of Glue-Lam is that can easily be made into arches and allow more design flexibility than lumber or steel.

• Parallam® PSL - PSL stands for parallel strand lumber. The parallel strands are typically veneers, and other non-dimensional lumber created in the process of cutting dimensional lumber. The strands are compressed and bonded with adhesive. The strands are not more than ¼” thick, and have a length of at least 300 times the least dimension.

• Microllam® LVL - Microllam is similar to plywood in construction. The advantages of microllam are that the dimensions are uniform and predictable, and the product is very strong. It resists warping, and can be treated for weather protection.

• Timberstrand® LSL - Timberstrand is laminated lumber comprised of smaller timber that is not straight or strong enough to produce traditional dimensional lumber. This type of lumber has many advantages: it is free of knots, does not twist or bow, and it is stable and strong.