Laminated Veneer Lumber

Laminated veneer lumber, abbreviated LVL, is an engineered wood product made by bonding together multiple thin layers of wood veneer with structural adhesive, all with their grain running in the same direction, unlike plywood's alternating cross-grain layers, producing a straight, strong, dimensionally stable structural member. Developed and commercialized in North America from the 1970s onward, it is manufactured in long, continuous billets that can be cut to length, and it is used chiefly for beams, headers, joists and the flanges of engineered wood I-joists in light-frame construction, where its consistent strength and freedom from the knots and defects of solid sawn lumber allow more predictable structural design and, often, longer spans than an equivalent solid timber member.