Cantilever: Wednesday’s Word Of The Week

A cantilever is a structural member that is fixed at one end and free at the other. The most common type of cantilever is a cantilevered beam. Either the entire beam can be cantilevered (where one end is rigidly connected to support and the rest is unsupported, although this is not easy to do with wood), or just the ends of the beam can be cantilevered (whenever a beam isn’t supported right at its ends.) Cantilevers are frequently required to create overhangs around the perimeter of buildings.

*Each Wednesday our structural engineer, Rik Vandermeulen, discusses a new term associated with glulam manufacturing. He will do this until we run out of words. If there is a timber or glulam term that you have heard of and want to know more about, let us know in the comments.