Glulam Building: Start to Finish – Part Nine E

 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 manufacturer and designer.

Part 9E: Finishing

Glulam members are typically shipped both ready to assemble and as fully finished visible parts of the building. To complete the finished look (and provide some protection during shipping and installation), all parts get either a flood coat of clear, penetrating sealer, or are finished with a wiping stain. It can take a carefully coordinated effort to get uniform results on both large and small parts with wiping stains – luckily we have many years of experience. 

Creating Chainsaw Finish is a messy, two-person job. In the foreground the difference between planed and rough sawn is visible.

Before stain or sealer is applied, one optional finishing step is Rough Sawn Finish. This is where we take the smooth, planed finish and intentionally distress it by carefully running a chainsaw, bandsaw, or rough grit sanders across it. This can give the finished installation a more rustic look – sometimes make it look more like solid, rough timber than glulam.

Exterior, chainsaw finished and stained glulam column after installation. World of Life Bible Institute, Schroon Lake, NY

With holes drilled, edges routed, ends cut, and the surface stained… you’d think we are done. But, we’ve only been working on one side of the member! Time to flip it over and do the other side. This is certainly necessary for stain… you can’t stain both sides of something sitting on saw horses. It is also useful for things like holes through wide members. Southern Yellow Pine has a tough grain that will deflect drill bits – so we’ll drill half way from both sides to minimize the effect of this drift.

Flipping a larger arch. Several team members must be carefully  coordinated to do this safely.

Once finishing of the second side is complete, it is time to give each part a water-resistant wrap – to help keep it clean and protected during its trip to the job site. Each part gets a unique, identifying sticker, and Glulam Fabrication is complete!

Finished parts wrapped and taped up.

QC Corner: For glulam members quality control does final checks to make sure each part meets the required Appearance Grade and to make sure the final fabrication matches the shop drawings. Then each part is stamped to indicate it meets ANSI A190.1 standards. We typically stamp the top of beams or other surfaces that won’t be visible in the completed building.