Engineered wood products

Engineered wood products (EWP) now covers a wide range of different wood based products, with a wide variety of applications. The names of which may vary depending on origin and the descriptive inclusion of for example the terms wood or timber (normally UK based) or lumber (normally US and Canada), in some cases adopted under both versions of English for example in the cases of Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL). Such products include homogenous wood-based materials as well as non-homogenous products, the definition of which may also vary depending on interpretation for example in terms and inclusion of the use of and type of glue.

In general engineered wood products (EWP) might be separated into panel systems, structural systems, massive wood (heavy timber) systems, flooring, walling and roofing systems. The variety of EWPs and relevant systems may have differing structural capacities as well as fire ratings, with different expected lifespans for internal or external applications and as such product details should be investigated on a case by case basis. Likewise although the use of timber and EWP's can positively impact the sustainability of construction works, because of the carbon sequestration potential of timber based products, this should also be investigated on a case by case basis for any composite engineered product to include any glues, nails, metal fixings or extra fire protection used, as end-of-life scenarios will differ on a product by product basis.

An example might be from the Structural Timber Association guidance document Engineered wood products and an introduction to timber structural systems which defines engineered wood products as: ‘…reconstituted wood-based products which may be formed from homogenous wood-based material; for example glulam or non-homogenous products to form a composite material e.g. I joists.’ Whilst glulam might be considered as homogenous in some cases, one of its component parts is glue, the basis of which may vary in terms of its environmental impact, where as the engineered product DWL or brettstaple might be considered to be more truely as a homogenous timber based material because it is made up of only timber based components. There a wide variety of timber products available and a wide variety of terms to describe these, some of which are different terms to describe very similar products with slight variations, below is a list of possible engineered wood product terms the list is not exhaustive, nor is it definitive and terms will vary on locality and appliaction.