Glulam Building: Start to Finish – Part Seven
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 a glulam manufacturer and designer.
Part 7: Glulam Production
With all of the phases of design and detailing complete, we are now ready to begin the production process. We’ll start with the production of glulam billets. A billet is an unfinished glulam beam that will later be fabricated into one or more finished glulam parts.
Part 7A: Order and Grading Lumber
The raw material for glulam production is dimensional lumber. We will order the type and quantity of lumber needed to produce all billets for the project. This actually happens near the beginning of a projects, once a down payment is received, lumber is ordered and stored in our warehouse.
Lumber is ordered specifically for the project based on:
- Species: Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) or Douglas Fir (DF)
- FSC Certification: Yes or No
- Treatment: Untreated or Type and concentration of preservative treatment
- Size: Anything from 1×4 to 2×12
- Grade: Various grades are available to order from mills, which we try to match with the laminating grades the project will require
- Wane/Bark: If the edges of the board are missing, it will need to be cut down to a smaller size for laminating.
- End Knots: If any knots are present at the ends of the boards they are cut off.
- Knots: Clear boards are sorted for appearance, and boards are graded as N1, N2, or N3 based on the presence of knots.
- Grain: Boards are evaluated for the density of growth rings and the slope of the growth relative to the board.
