More strength with less wood

Wesbeam revolutionises the architectural mindset with its range of precision-engineered Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) products.

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Date: Wednesday 19 Sep 2018

Offering strength and consistency properties comparable to steel, Wesbeam LVL e-beam enables architects to create practical, easy-to-construct designs without compromising on aesthetics and creativity.  It has an LVL plant in excess of $115 million in full production in Western Australia, technical innovation enshrined as company policy, and exclusive access to sustainable reserves of Pinus Pinasta.

Pinus Pinasta is a fantastic resource. LVL is a consistent cost-competitive timber framing product second to none. And at Wesbeam we plan to compete against steel with vigour.

LVL is currently the only forest product that can effectively match steel as a preferred load-bearing member for use in residential framing. During the design process, architects often assess whether to specify timber or steel structural members for roofing systems. Both products have their advantages - steel provides strength and consistency, while timber is easy to work with. But both products also have their drawbacks, either during design or construction.

Using steel means involving cranes and welders during construction, which in turn means lengthier and therefore more costly construction times. Using timber imposes constraints at the design phase, since it is a natural product and therefore less consistent in quality. And with natural growth forests now locked up, sawn hardwood members are no longer a cost-effective option for roofing systems.

In contrast, LVL offers the benefits of steel and timber without the downside. It has the load-bearing properties of steel and a low Coefficient Of Variation (COV) that, at 9%, puts in on a par with steel at 7% whilst outperforming timber, which has a COV of 38%. Factor in LVL’s lighter foundation requirements, ease of construction and Wesbeam cost benefits, and suddenly Wesbeam LVL products overshadow both steel and timber alternatives.

With contemporary trends dictating open-plan living in larger houses, the load-bearing properties of Wesbeam’s LVL products also meet the design needs of today’s architects. And for the cost-conscious specifier, Wesbeam’s LVL alternative to sawn hardwood members for roofing systems can help produce cost savings.

The high LVL e-beam strength-to-weight-ratio and its longer length availability swing the pendulum conclusively in favour of Wesbeam.

Available Australia-wide in a range of thicknesses including 36mm, 45mm, 63mm and 75mm with depths from 95mm to 450mm, the Wesbeam LVL e-beam is manufactured from sustainably sourced timbers.

Wesbeam’s e-beam conforms to the requirements of AS/NZS 4357 Structural Laminated Veneer Lumber.

To manufacture the LVL products, we laminate a series of 3.2mm Pinus Pinasta veneers with phenolic adhesives in a continuous assembly. Veneer grain directions all run longitudinally.

The product is then pressed as a 1200mm nominal width continuous billet in various standard thicknesses. Next e-beam is cut to standard widths and specified lengths for use as structural beams and other framing elements.”

Framing carpenters appreciate the fact that Wesbeam LVL e-beams are smooth, splinter-free, chamfered beams which handle well. They offer high-strength consistency for all roof member requirements in lengths up to 12.6 metres whether rafters, roof beams, strutting beams, strutting counter-beams, hanging beams, counter beams or verandah beams.

Customers are provided with ample technical information and support, with detailed Wesbeam Span Tables based on AS 1684.1 Residential Timber Framed Construction criteria readily available. These spans are designed to accommodate dead loads, live loads, wind loads, snow loads, earthquake loads and/or a combination of these loads.Wesbeam’s raw resource are Maritime Pine (Pinus pinasta), Radiata Pine (Pinus radiata) and Karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) and the ability to combine the three species is the key to the unique properties of Wesbeam’s LVL products.

The key to understanding Wesbeam is understanding the extraordinary resource we work with. Unlike Pinus Radiata, Pinus Pinasta is a separate species of dry soil conifer from Portugal and southern France. It grows during the short and relatively mild Western Australian winters, replicating many native Australian plant growth patterns.

The result is that the growth rings form much closer to one another and therefore Pinus Pinasta wood is up to 20% denser than Pinus Radiata. This allows Wesbeam to manufacture LVL sections from peeled 3.2mm Pinus Pinasta veneers to standard architectural dimensions. These sections feature a higher load bearing capacity than Pinus Radiata. Alternately, Wesbeam can create an e-beam with a comparable load-bearing capacity at a smaller sectional size.

There is more good news for the ecologically-aware architect.

Wesbeam has signed a 50-year agreement with the WA government to supply our company with up to 200,000 cubic metres of logs per annum. In return Wesbeam will participate in the planting of further sustainably sourced timbers. Whilst it is true that pine forests are a monoculture Pinus Pinasta not only increases the microcultural ecology of the salinated soil by adding humus and nitrogen, it lowers the water table reducing the risk salination.

An architect’s decision to specify LVL rather than steel in a roofing system therefore translates as a win/win situation not only for the builder and client, but also for Wesbeam, the WA government and the farmers of WA in their three-way endeavour to arrest rural land degradation whilst fostering greater use of a non-polluting renewable resource.

The message is simple. Offering unsurpassed structural integrity, Wesbeam LVL products equate to cost savings for all aspects of an architect and client’s residential framing needs.

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