Red Seal Carpenter Practice Exam 2026 - Free Carpenter Practice Questions and Study Guide

Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) is classified as an engineered wood product. This means it is manufactured using multiple layers of thin wood veneers that are glued together under heat and pressure to create a product with uniform strength and stability. The design and manufacturing process allows LVL to have specific qualities and performance characteristics that are advantageous for construction applications, such as beams and headers.

In contrast, solid wood beams are made from a single piece of lumber, which can lead to variations in strength and stability due to knots and other natural imperfections. Natural wood materials refer to untreated, unsourced wood directly from trees without any engineering process applied. Plywood, while composed of layers glued together, is a different type of engineered product that uses thin sheets of wood veneer assembled in a cross-laminated fashion, which differs from the parallel lamination in LVL. These distinctions highlight how LVL’s engineered properties offer distinct advantages over both solid wood and other wood products.