Making Glulam Out of Recycled Wood

It’s always cool to try something new. On a recent project we glued recycled ipê wood into beams for an outdoor trellis. Ipê is a tropical wood species often used outdoors because it is naturally insect resistant (making further treatment unnecessary.) The wood we received from our customer came from an old boardwalk that was replaced in the New York city area. If the stories we heard are true, this ipê had been installed in the 1930s! The wood was in such good shape, that it’s really hard to believe it is so old.

Ipê is much harder than the southern yellow pine and Douglas fir that we typically glue, so it was a challenge to glue and then make finish cuts on these beams.

Our team has expertise in working on projects like this, and we’re always up for a challenge. 


What kind of challenge do you have for us?