Cross Laminated Timber for workbenches

[DoctorWibble]

I've been reading a little recently about cross laminated timber. This is a little different from glulam beams in that it is intended as a sheet product and a little different too from SIPs in that it is solid timber rather than an OSB insulation sandwich.
For those who haven't' come across it its a like a chunky plywood but made from finger jointed softwood planks rather than peeled layers of hardwood. Have look here https://timberfirst.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/what-is-cross-laminated-timber-clt/
Strikes me it could make a great top for a workbench. Strong, stable, easy to plane. Should take more or less conventional joinery and should be easy to cut. And those thick layers should allow re-flattening / resurfacing as needed.

Has anyone tried it? Thoughts?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Perfect - but the cost is likely to be prohibitive (I'd think) and you're unlikely to get an offcut.

 

[marcros]

Perfect - but the cost is likely to be prohibitive (I'd think) and you're unlikely to get an offcut.

just what I was going to say, although I hadn't thought about the offcut.

 

[DoctorWibble]

Sounds like its not yet made in the UK. So would be imported to order from Canada maybe. That would make it a non-starter. One site states that floor slabs made from CLT cost UK buyers (for now) about twice the price of pre-stressed concrete floors. Whatever that might be.
One for our transatlantic buddies to explore perhaps. At least until someone starts making it here.

 

[ED65]

I'd be a little dubious about this stuff being fully stable, after all they used to say that about blockboard and look at the issues with that in practice. I'd want to wait for it to prove itself before I used it for something as important as a workbench top, assuming you could get your hands on any in the first place obvs.