Frames keep tradition alive 

House building in Japan relies on wood. The key elements of the strong and flexible wooden frame structures in Japanese houses are glue-laminated posts and beams. They are manufactured from European pine and spruce at our four mills in Austria and Estonia.

Nowadays the majority of our post and beam production is supplied to the Japanese market. This is natural, as the demand for these standardised products is increasing steadily in Japan. Posts and beams come in the same sizes, but they vary in their specific structure and strength requirements, as they are made for different purposes.

Posts, usually made of whitewood (spruce) laminas, are used in vertical frame structures, while beams, usually made of redwood (pine) laminas, are used in horizontal structures.

Glue-laminated frame products are popular in many areas, such as Central Europe, where Stora Enso Timber markets the ‘Duo’ and ‘Trio’ laminated beams made by our subsidiary Holzwerke Wimmer in Germany and the Czech Republic. All posts and beams are strength graded to meet the required building product standards.

The future of glue-laminated products looks promising. Our customers – mainly large trading companies and some industrial pre-cut material suppliers for the house construction industry – want more ready-to-use products. For post and beam production this means customised lengths. Besides ready-made building components, we also supply a large amount of laminas for glue-laminated product manufacturers.

Read more: Timber product range, Timber sales offices