Glulam Building: Start to Finish – Part Eight B

 Welcome to our “Glulam Building: Start to Finish” series. Our goal is to provide an overview – from idea to completion – of a glulam building, from the perspective of the glulam manufacturer and designer.

Part 8B: Fabricating and Finishing Steel

Steel fabrication and finishing required its own set of specialized equipment and skills, so we have a department – and actually a building – dedicated to this work. This is also important for safety and to protect the finish of our wood products.

Inside our steel shop

As steel orders are received, components are sorted by job. Laser cut plates are ready for assembly, but for other steel shapes and plates we will first need to cut them to size and punch and drill any necessary holes. Plates that will be combined into welded assemblies are prepared for welding (cleaning areas to be welded), assembled, tack welded, and then structurally welded together. We typically use continuous, two-sided fillet welds along all of the plate joints. 

Typical fillet weld visible on this connection, We’re testing the fit before bringing the assembly back to our steel shop for finishing.

From there, all plates and welded assemblies move on to the steel finishing. If hot dip galvanizing or powder coating are specified, we will ship the parts out to a vendor to perform that work. Otherwise, all parts are cleaned in our shop and given a coat of anti-corrosive primer. We avoid shipping any unfinished steel or hardware to the jobsite to avoid having steel components rust and potentially stain wood framing.

Left – Galvanized steel assemblies in the field, Right – Prime painted assemblies preparing to ship