Patent ID: 7507456

Claim:
An elongated, composite log, comprising: a pair of elongated, laterally spaced apart facing members constructed at least in part from wood, said facing members having confronting inside surfaces which define an elongated core space between them, said facing members also having opposite outside surfaces, a top and a bottom; an elongated core in the core space, said core comprising a plurality of wood strips connected together to form cell walls, with a first set of the wood strips extending horizontally and being perpendicular to the inside faces of the spaced apart facing members, and with a second set of the wood strips extending vertically and being perpendicular to both the inside surfaces of the facing members and the first set of wood strips, said first and second sets of wood strips together forming six-sided cells extending in parallel rows both vertically and horizontally and lengthwise of the logs; a low density material in the cells of the core, said low density material being bonded to the wood strips that form the cell walls; wherein the horizontal and vertical strips of wood in the core extend crosswise of the core between the facing members and have a grain that extends crosswise of the log, for transmitting loads between the first and second facing members; wherein one of the top and bottom of the log includes a longitudinally extending tongue; and wherein the other of the top and bottom of the log includes a complementary longitudinally extending groove; wherein each log may be stacked with the tongue of the logs fitting in the groove of another log.