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HomeFraming Lumber & Traditional vs. Engineered - This Old House Jobsite
Join Matt Risinger at the "This Old House" jobsite to chat with builder Jeff Sweenor about the pros and cons of engineered framing lumber, such as 2x4s, 2x6s, LSLs, LVLs, and Engineered Beams. The first structural lumber you will see is actually salvaged from the original roof structure; it's beautiful, old growth wood. They repurposed the original roof 2x8s into 2x4s to use throughout the build.When not using engineered wood, you probably used kiln-dried douglas fir or spruce. In the new section of this remodel, they're using almost exclusively engineered wood. It is so straight and so strong. You might think your traditional spruce or doug fir lumber is straight, but it has obvious imperfections when you compare it to the engineered wood.While the benefits of using engineered wood seem like a no-brainer, they do add a fairly significant cost. Sweenor said the engineered wood for this build cost about double of the traditional lumber. Also, they're significantly heavier than traditional lumber. You have to account for the weight when putting up walls and designing the home.Check out the full video to hear all of the pros and cons of engineered lumber.