LVL
Who Makes LVL in Australia? The Brands Behind the Beams
Walk around any house frame going up in Australia and you will find LVLs doing the heavy lifting: garage beams, lintels, rafters, floor joists. Look at the branding printed along the timber, names like e-beam, SmartLVL, SpecFrame or hySPAN, and you would think half a dozen companies are making LVL here. They are not. Behind almost all of those names sits one Australian factory and a handful of overseas mills, and whichever of those names is on your plans, Allmat can quote it. Here is who actually makes what, and what the name on the beam really tells you.
First, a quick refresher: what is LVL?
LVL stands for Laminated Veneer Lumber, an engineered structural timber. Logs are peeled into thin veneers, which are glued and pressed into long billets with the grain running along the length, then cut into beams and studs. Because natural defects are spread across dozens of layers, LVL is straighter, more consistent and stronger for its size than sawn timber, which is why it turns up wherever a frame is working hard.
Only one company makes LVL in Australia
That company is Wesbeam, with its plant at Neerabup, north of Perth. Wesbeam is the only Australian manufacturer of LVL, and the only local maker of LVL I-joists as well. Its products carry the e- prefix: e-beam for beams and lintels, e-joist for floor joists, e-frame E10 for wall framing, and several others in the range. So when a job calls for Australian-made LVL, Wesbeam is effectively the answer.
Which means the tip here is simple: if buying Australian made matters to you, tell your builder or designer you want Wesbeam LVLs in the build, and ask for the e- range by name when the frame gets quoted. Allmat quotes Wesbeam right alongside all the other major brands. Everything else on this page is quality product, but Wesbeam is the only LVL that grew up here.
Nearly everyone else imports it, and puts their own name on it
Most of the other LVL brands you see in Australia are house brands. The company on the label is a distributor, and the manufacturing happens overseas, in New Zealand, Europe or Asia. That is not a knock on the product. The mills behind these brands are world-class engineered timber operations, and every structural LVL sold here has to meet the same Australian design requirements regardless of where it was pressed. It just means the brand usually names a product line, not the factory.
SmartLVL and SmartJoist (Tilling, SmartFrame range). Tilling is an Australian distributor. SmartLVL 15 and 16 are made overseas to Tilling’s specification, and the mills behind the brand have changed over the years, with European and Asian producers behind it at different times.
SpecFrame, Spec Joist and Swelite. Another imported range. SpecFrame 10.0 and 12.1 cover framing and beams, with Spec Joist and Swelite covering I-joists. The mill of origin is not published, so what you are buying is the product line and its published design data.
Kerto (Metsä Wood). One overseas maker that does sell under its own name: Kerto is made by Metsä Wood in Finland and reaches Australia through local distribution partners, as well as sitting behind other brands over the years.
hySPAN and hyJOIST (Futurebuild LVL, Carter Holt Harvey). Made at Marsden Point in New Zealand. Probably the most recognised LVL name in Australia, and it is an import too.
NelsonPine LVL and J-Frame. Both made in New Zealand, by Nelson Pine Industries and Juken New Zealand respectively.
meySPAN and meyJOIST (Meyer Timber). Meyer is another Australian distributor whose LVL range is imported and sold under its own names.
So what lines up with what?
Builders usually meet one brand on the plans and a different one at the counter, so here is roughly how the common names correspond, by the job they do:
Beams and lintels: Wesbeam e-beam, Tilling SmartLVL 15 and 16, SpecFrame 12.1, plus hySPAN, meySPAN, NelsonPine LVL and Kerto.
LVL wall framing: Wesbeam e-frame E10, Tilling Smart10 and Red Alert 12, SpecFrame 10.0 and J-Frame are the common studs-and-plates lines, most of them engineered as straight, stable alternatives to MGP10 pine.
I-joists for floors: Wesbeam e-joist, Tilling SmartJoist, Spec Joist and Swelite, plus hyJOIST and meyJOIST.
Formwork: Tilling SmartForm, the safety-orange LVL, and Form Spec are the common formwork lines, with Edge Spec covering edge boards.
Comparable is the right word here, not interchangeable. Each product has its own grade, section sizes and published design data, and the numbers in the names (15, 12.1 and so on) point to different stiffness ratings. If your plans specify a particular product, confirm any substitution with your building designer or engineer.
Has a particular LVL been specified on your plans? Allmat can include it in your job-lot quote, or price the comparable option.
What does the H2S on the label mean?
Most LVL sold for house framing carries an H2S treatment mark. The H2 part is the hazard class for timber that stays inside the building envelope, protected from the weather, and it guards against termites and borers. The S means the treatment is rated for use south of the Tropic of Capricorn only, which covers all of South Australia. North of that line, the full H2 treatment is required. In LVL the treatment is usually a glue-line treatment, mixed into the adhesive during manufacture, so the protection runs right through the beam and cut ends and drill holes do not need re-treating. For the bigger picture on treatment levels, see our guide Treated Timber Explained, or just tell the Allmat team where the timber is going and we will make sure the treatment is right when we quote it.
Where to buy LVL beams in Adelaide and across Australia
In Adelaide and across South Australia, the answer is Allmat: the trusted stockist when it comes to LVLs, with all the major brands quoted from one place. Australia-wide, the story is the same wherever you are: Wesbeam, Tilling, Metsä Wood and the New Zealand mills all sell through networks of approved stockists, so buying LVL starts with a stockist. That is where the price, the availability and the advice live.
Allmat: one stockist for all the LVLs
The name Allmat comes from All Materials, and LVLs are exactly the sort of thing we mean. Whatever the plans call for, we will quote it, or the comparable option, in the sizes and treatment the job needs. That goes whether you are a builder or carpenter, a hardware store or timber reseller, or an owner-builder working to an engineer’s spec.
Send us the beam schedule or the framing list and we will come back with pricing and availability. And if the rest of the frame is on the list too, our guide to where Australian structural pine comes from covers that side of the job.
LVL FAQs
Yes, one company's: Wesbeam, at its plant at Neerabup in Western Australia. Wesbeam is the only Australian manufacturer of LVL and LVL I-joists. The rest of the LVL on the Australian market is imported from New Zealand, Europe and Asia and sold under Australian distributors' own brand names, and the quality from those mills is excellent.
Tilling owns and distributes the SmartLVL brand, but does not manufacture it. SmartLVL is made overseas to Tilling's specification, and the mills behind it have changed over the years. What stays constant is the published SmartLVL grade and design data, which is what your designer works from.
Futurebuild LVL, part of Carter Holt Harvey, at its Marsden Point plant in New Zealand. It is one of the most recognised LVL names in Australia, and it is imported.
H2 is the treatment level for framing that stays inside and protected from the weather, guarding against termites and borers. The S means the treatment is rated for use south of the Tropic of Capricorn only, which covers all of South Australia. In LVL the treatment is usually mixed into the glue during manufacture, so cuts and drill holes do not need re-treating.
Often a comparable product exists, but grades, sizes and design data differ between brands, so any substitution on a specified job needs to be confirmed with your building designer or engineer first. What we can do is tell you which comparable products are available and in what sizes, so the swap is easy to get checked.
Approved stockists and timber merchants. Wesbeam, Tilling and the other brand owners reach the market through their stockist networks, so the place to buy LVL is a merchant that stocks these ranges. In South Australia, Allmat stocks LVL and quotes across all the major brands.
From Allmat. We are an Adelaide based stockist of LVLs, whether you are a builder, a hardware store or working on your own job. Send us the beam schedule or framing list and we will quote the specified product or the comparable option, or include it in a job-lot quote with the rest of your materials.
Treated LVL is. Most framing LVL sold in Australia carries an H2S treatment, which protects against termites and borers in inside, protected applications south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Untreated LVL has no termite protection, so check the stamp before it goes into the frame.
Standard LVL is made for dry use inside the building envelope, and H2S treatment is termite protection, not weatherproofing. Some products are available with higher treatment levels for protected outdoor applications. If the timber will see weather, tell us where it is going when you get a quote and confirm the specification with your designer.
Both are engineered timber, made differently. LVL is built from thin rotary-peeled veneers glued with the grain running along the length, while glulam (GL) is built from thicker sawn boards stacked and glued. In housing, LVL dominates beams, lintels and I-joists, and glulam turns up in posts, long spans and feature beams. Some ranges cover both, such as SmartLVL alongside SmartLam glulam.
It points to stiffness: the product’s modulus of elasticity, so an LVL 15 is around 15,000 MPa. The higher the number, the stiffer the LVL. Each product’s grade comes from its maker’s published design data, which is why brands with different numbers are comparable rather than interchangeable.
Get an LVL Quote
Send us your beam schedule or framing list and we will come back with pricing and availability across the major LVL brands.