Engineered Wood
Sheet and laminated products rather than a tree. Density comes from the binder and the press, not from a species.
What this group isthe rule that puts a species here
Nothing in this group is a species. These are manufactured panels: veneers glued in alternating layers, fibres bonded with resin and pressed, strands oriented and glued, or strips laminated into a board. The entry that looks most like a natural material — bamboo — is a grass laminated into boards, and is grouped here for that reason.
The engineering point of all of them is dimensional stability. A solid board moves with humidity along its width; a cross-laminated panel resists that because each layer restrains the next. That is why cabinetwork, jigs and anything that has to stay flat is built from this group rather than from solid stock.
The trade-off is that the properties stop being a single number. Density is reasonably stable and is what the entries here record, but strength and moisture resistance depend on the grade and the adhesive — an interior-grade panel and an exterior one can share a density and behave nothing alike once wet. Check the grade on the panel, not just the product name.
Where the line fallscases this grouping does not settle
- No botanical name, by definition — these are products, so the species field is empty on every entry.
- Density depends on the manufacturing route as much as the input species: strand-laminated bamboo and strip-laminated bamboo differ, and both are grouped here.
Sheet and laminated products rather than a tree. Density depends on the binder and the pressing, not on a species, so these carry no botanical name.
Densityevery engineered entry, heaviest first
All wood- MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) — 0.75 g/cm³ · 750 kg/m³
- Bamboo — 0.7 g/cm³ · 700 kg/m³
- Birch Plywood — 0.68 g/cm³ · 680 kg/m³
- OSB (Oriented Strand Board) — 0.65 g/cm³ · 650 kg/m³
Density profilevs water 1.00 · aluminium 2.70
Frequently asked questionsabout the engineered group
Is engineered a statement about hardness?
No. There is no species to describe: these are manufactured panels, so the properties come from the adhesive, the layup and the pressing. Density is the one figure that stays comparable across the group.
What does the density figure actually let me do?
Turn a size into a weight. Multiply the volume by the density and you have a shipping or support estimate before anything is cut — the lumber size database does that arithmetic for all 18 nominal sizes across every species in this database, so you can read the figure off directly rather than working it out.
How should I read these densities?
As reference figures for air-dried stock at roughly 12% moisture content, not as a specification for a delivery. Density varies with growth rate, origin and moisture, so treat a single board as being within about ten percent of the figure either way — and remember green timber can be half again as heavy.
Other groupshow the four splits differ
Hardwood
Broad-leaved North American species, with the density figure that decides what each one is good for.
Open Hardwood →Softwood
Conifers — the structural timbers. Reference density at air-dried moisture content, and what each one is specified for.
Open Softwood →Exotic
Imported hardwoods, grouped the way they are bought and sold — by origin, not by botany.
Open Exotic →