Engineered timber products

Engineered timber products

Date Published

27 August 2022

Document Type

Category

Author

TRADA
Summary

The term ‘engineered timber products’ relates to wood-based composite materials. Typically, solid softwood is processed in a factory, combined with other materials (for example adhesives) and formed into a new material. These engineered timber products combine all the positive attributes of timber, for example strength, weight, sustainability etc, while removing some of the negative attributes, such as variability, stability and limited section sizes.

Key Information

Engineered timber products’ are wood-based composite materials, combining positive attributes of timber while removing some of the negative attributes.

Engineered timber products process the timber and remove some of the variability of the natural material.

Solid timber can be converted to particles, strands or laminates which can be combined with other materials, such as glues, to form composite wood products.

Structural wood composites may be divided into categories of: layered composites, particle composites and composite structural assemblies.

Case studies

This tiny two-bedroom house, only 75 square metres on plan, sits unobtrusively within the confines of an old brick wall in Deptford, London.

The new Performing Arts Centre for Sevenoaks School sits on a beautiful sloping site overlooking Knole Park. It contains a concert hall large enough for a symphony orchestra, choir and an audience of 450, a recital room for 100, and a music school with 23 teaching spaces of various sizes, plus a new drama studio, with drama teaching and technical spaces.