Pros and cons of the house of glued laminated timber:

In modern realities due to environmental degradation in large cities, humanity began to lean toward the opinion that the closer a person is to nature, the more his life will become. In order to improve their living conditions, the majority of our citizens have increasingly begun to turn their attention to the construction of the private sector outside megalopolises, and also to choose natural materials for this.

Especially, wood deserves a lot of attention, it’s not for nothing that our ancestors preferred the houses from it, which, by the way, have long been considered curative. In addition, wooden structures are durable and wear resistant. Proof of this can serve all known log houses, many of which cost more than 100 years.

Apart from the fact that a house made of timber and logs creates favorable ecological conditions, it is also possible to make the most unusual and bold architectural fantasies into reality with the help of wood. Wooden houses are comfortable, warm, eco-friendly, beautiful and, clearly, this type of architecture is associated with the concept of “ideal housing”.

Note! According to statistics, in Russia in the last five years alone, at least 60 million m2 of low-rise private buildings were commissioned, which annually accounts for about 35% of the new housing stock of our state. Every year, these figures are multiplying. Moreover, most of the private sector, built in recent years, was built of wood.

Thanks to innovative woodworking technologies, with the help of which glued laminated timber is made (from larch, oak, pine, etc.), such houses, which already have a lot of advantages, have acquired many positive features and additional advantages. Since this is quite a new building material, many will be interested in what are the pros and cons of houses from laminated veneer lumber.

This building material, although used relatively recently, has already managed to recommend itself only from the best side. Before listing the existing advantages of houses from laminated timber, in order to understand what this new product is, consider the technology of its production, since it was she who improved the quality of wooden housing that was built up to this point. So how is glued wood made?

The technology by which glued laminated timber is made

The tree, in addition to a large number of advantages, has one main drawback - it has a high deformation susceptibility. With the introduction of new technologies and the invention of modern equipment, we managed to get rid of this minus.

The manufacturing process of the glue bar is a complicated procedure where the tree goes through more than one processing stage (there is a clear deviation instruction for this, which is unacceptable) in the following sequence:

1. Timber is dried to 8-10% moisture.
2. Billets are stripped to a perfect geometric shape.
3. The raw material is spliced ​​to the desired length (if necessary).
4. The boards are treated with special protective compounds.
5. The material is glued under high pressure.
6. The profiling of the obtained blanks is made (cutting of tongue-and-groove joint).
7. If necessary, nodal connections are cut.

In short, glued timber is a building resource that is obtained by gluing a special composition of well-dried wood in 3 layers. The whole process occurs only in the factory.

Both for the glued lumber and for the profiled lumber, only carefully selected raw materials are used. For these purposes, such basic wood species are used as:

• Siberian pine;
• larch;
• Siberian cedar;
• ale.

Using such a new method, the output is a high-tech and high-quality building material, from which modern houses are being built. What is the difference between laminated timber buildings and houses built, for example, with solid wood or brick?

Properties

Advantages of houses made of laminated veneer lumber

As you know, the technical and operational characteristics, external data, strength and durability of buildings as a whole directly depend on the properties of the selected material. Next, we will consider directly the advantages and disadvantages of a laminated timber house, since only in this comparison will the real picture be made.

The most significant advantages of glued timber buildings are the following factors:

1. As it became clear from the above, the main advantage of such houses is the material itself or, in other words, the technology of its manufacture, which eliminates the drying up of wood. Due to this, such housing has practically no deformation during shrinkage, which, by the way, unlike conventional cylindrical logs (shrinking approximately 8-10%), is only 1%. In this regard, such housing can be operated immediately after its construction.
2. An important advantage of these structures is also the fact that their construction takes place as soon as possible. So, such a house can be raised from scratch in just 5-6 months. Such rapid rates can be achieved only with the use of shield materials, but their quality and performance characteristics are incomparable with laminated timber.

If you compare the buildings of it with brick or concrete houses, then using this material, they are built 3 times faster, because the timber is manufactured with high precision and it only remains to assemble it. Provided that there is a skill in construction, you can even make a house out of it yourself.

1. Again, due to the special process of manufacturing glued wood, where modern compositions are used to protect raw materials, the houses made of it are almost not subject to the aggressive influence of the external environment: decay, fungus and insects. This directly affects the durability and durability of such houses as a whole.

As laboratory studies have shown, the strength properties of this building material are approximately 2.5 times higher than those of ordinary wood. In addition, such timber can be used where the use of ordinary solid wood is not possible, for example, in regions with a damp climate. The humidity of such buildings does not exceed 12-14% (about 30% for logs), because of this they are also not subject to the process of cracking.

1. These structures, as compared to brick and concrete buildings, have a small proportion (from 650 to 850 kg / cubic meter), which makes it possible to save considerable effort and time and money when laying the foundation, since they do not require complex designs. Most often, under such houses fit either tape or pile type of foundation.

The only thing that should be taken into account is that the depth of driving in piles should be at least two dozen cm more than the maximum depth of soil freezing. This is a mandatory aspect, otherwise the building will give uneven shrinkage, which ultimately will lead to disastrous consequences.

1. Housing from laminated wood is 50% stronger (depending on the type of wood) than solid timber structures. Due to this, with the help of it there is an opportunity to build multi-tiered structures.
2. Despite the fact that the price for glue wood is higher than, for example, for rounded logs, nevertheless, due to its attractive appearance, geometric ideality and smooth surface of the beam, the need to produce exterior and interior decoration of houses is eliminated. This significantly compensates for material costs. As a result, this structure is much cheaper than others.

1. And finally, it should be noted that this timber has excellent thermal insulation properties, which is important, especially for our climatic conditions. This will allow in the process of operating such a house, compared with, for example, a brick building, to save 10-15% of the finances that will be needed to purchase expensive heating equipment.

Comparative data of thermal conductivity of brick, laminated and solid timber

For example, the thermal conductivity of a tree is 0.18 W / m, and the same coefficient for brickwork is 0.76 W / m оC. This allows you to build warm housing from glued boards with a significantly smaller wall thickness than in brick or concrete houses.

Table with numbers of resistance coefficients in heat transfer (Ro) for some types of walls:

Note! According to SNiP, where comfort conditions and sanitary-hygienic standards are prescribed, for the regions of the middle zone of our country the required Ro values ​​should be equal to 3.49 m2 оС / W.

The disadvantages of houses made of laminated veneer lumber

Perhaps, in the construction of housing from glued wood there are only a few drawbacks. For example, compared to a profiled bar, such material is more expensive, but those for whom comfort and comfort are important will not spare money, especially since this is a rational investment.

The second disadvantage is that not all companies are professionally suited to the production of this building material, so you need to purchase it only from reliable manufacturers, because a lot will depend on its quality characteristics.

Conclusion

From the above it can be seen that the advantages of structures erected from laminated wood are many times greater than the disadvantages. The existing disadvantages of the construction of laminated veneer lumber is not so significant, therefore, clearly, for such housing the future.

Watch the video in this article, which will certainly serve you as a good example and help you make the right choice and build a new generation of housing.