QandAs: Home

What is LSL or Laminated Strand Lumber?

Answer:
Many people may be familiar with a manufactured lumber

known as "oriented strand board" or OSB. Small strips of various hardwoods and other scrap materials are combined with an adhesive under pressure to form usable panels or subflooring.

An improvement over the original OSB process uses strands of yellow birch, poplar and aspen to form an even more versatile manufactured lumber called LSL or Laminated Strand Lumber.

Laminated strand lumber uses small strands (up to 12 inches long) of various hardwoods which ordinarily are not considered suitable for heavy-duty construction use. Pine woods such as aspen and yellow pine don't always have enough strength of their own to be used in floor joists or load-bearing wall framing, but if individual strands are laminated with a waterproof adhesive and bonded under pressure, the resulting product, LSL, can be used for any number of purposes.

One advantage LSL has over other manufactured lumbers is environmental safety. Laminated strand lumber does not contain the formaldehyde-based adhesive commonly used in other lumber such as medium density fiberboard or MDF. The adhesive used to form LSL is not considered as toxic as others which use formaldehyde as a curative. There is little risk of LSL off-gassing dangerous levels of hazardous chemicals into occupied areas.

Laminated strand lumber can be custom ordered in various sizes, from the traditional 2 by 4 to large subflooring panels to extended floor joists. Many builders have become very interested in working with LSL as the price and availability of traditional hardwood lumber continue to be budgetary factors.

LSL does utilize hardwood scraps which ordinarily would have been discarded or otherwise deemed unusable in most lumber applications. However, the cost of LSL per linear foot can be significantly higher than other manufactured lumber such as MDF, so it may not be an affordable option for some builders and contractors working under tight budgets.


	more Q&A sessions like this
	What are the different types of Wood Cabinets? What is Lumber? How much does Hardwood Flooring cost? How much does a Wood Shingle Roof cost? What does a Roofing Contractor do? What does a Siding Contractor do? What is Engineered Wood? What are the different types of Siding? What is Floor Resurfacing? What is Free Floating Floor? What are some Popular Woods for Grilling? What is Hybrid Grilling? What foods are good to grill with Apple Wood? What foods are good to grill with Hickory Wood? What foods are good to grill with Mesquite Wood?