Getting Creative- An Inspector’s Pursuit of Construction High Design
In my field of Inspections and Observations, I come across a lot of building materials and wonder at other applications for the materials. Recently I explored LVL, and it’s non-traditional uses.
Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) is a high-strength engineered wood product used primarily for structural applications; however, it can also be used for other woodworking purposes. After working in the field performing inspections and seeing LVL beams used as structural beams, I decided to build a TV console table using the LVL lumber as the primary material.
The below table was made up of 18 feet of LVL lumber cut in various lengths and glued together.
After the glue is cured, the wood was carved with an angle grinder using a carbide wheel, then sanded and finished with polyurethane.
Some of the structural benefits of LVL lumber that transfer to furniture design is its ability to be uniform and predictable, as well as its ability to resist warping, splitting and shrinking while supporting heavy loads.
Another benefit of LVL lumber from a design point is that the direction of the wood grain is always parallel to the length of the billet, making a smooth flow to the grain pattern throughout the entire piece.
