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The building design for the post and beam storage barn called for a ridge beam spanning 38 feet, making glulam the best-suited product for the job. Glulams are engineered for strength by bonding pieces of wood to create a large beam that is stronger than any similar sized piece of solid lumber. That strength enables the building designer to achieve spans not possible with non-engineered products.
Glulams like other engineered wood products, also represent an efficient use of available wood fiber. In today's world, the trees we have to work with come primarily from second-growth forests. Glulams are one example of how products made from these smaller trees are as good, and often better, than the traditional lumber products they've replaced.
On his tour of Willamette Industries, where the glulam used in Bob's "Dream Garage" was manufactured, Bob followed the journey of the lumber from its arrival at the plant through its metamorphosis into glue laminated beams, and finally through the quality-control process at the Willamette plant and at APA's testing facilities in Tacoma, WA. (The APA - The Engineered Wood Association, formerly the American Plywood Association, is a non-profit trade association.)
Most of the physical testing of glulams is done at the Willamette plant with APA monitoring the results. The extensive component testing includes: testing of glue bond using block sheet tests, full-scale tension tests of end joints between individual pieces of lumber, and cyclic delamination tests to verify adhesives for end joint and face bonding. The stress test at APA's lab, as well as the other APA-monitored test demonstrate the degree to which Willamette glulams exceed the minimum quality standards required by APA.
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© 2001 BobVila.com
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