Glulam Engineered Timber Frame Buildings

Aesthetic enhancement • Sustainable Buildings • Direct replacement for steel • Commercial • Residential • Amenity

What is Glulam?

Glulam is a natural product made from laminated timber laths, sourced from Scandinavian Forests. A completely natural, sustainable direct replacement for steel or concrete structures.

The northern Scandinavia forests have a very cool climate, offering slow growth conditions helping to make glulam a stable and robust product, suitable for a wide variety of sustainable construction solutions.

Timber selection is usually Spruce, though Redwood or Siberian Larch are used as alternatives

Glulam Production

Glulam is manufactured by bonding timber lamellas together, each between 30 & 45mm in thickness, under pressure using a variety of high strength waterproof adhesives.

Each beam is then accurately planed to the required dimensions for stock or bespoke beams and columns.

The resulting high quality finished beams are corrosion proof with a high level of fire resistance due to the natural charring effect of the timber when exposed to fire.

The pleasing aesthetic nature of the timber beams has a significant advantage over steel and concrete alternatives.

The Benefits of Glulam

Glulam is a fully natural product, with a high-quality machined face, giving a warm and quality look & feel. The beams give you a great sense of a natural product, set in the environment of a mix of other building materials and products.

Light in colour, but it is also light in weight: Being under 20% of the weight of a reinforced concrete beam and 30% the weight of steel.

Glulam is constructed in such a way that it can be made to specific needs, designs and is a versatile product as a direct replacement for steel or concrete beams & columns. Completely sustainable, using just 10% of the energy it would take to produce an equivalent steel beam. Much of the energy used in manufacturing can be easily sourced renewably from wind or solar generation as an example.

Glulam is an approved British Standard and is more fire resistant than steel structures. The lamination process will provide a product that is 18% stronger than an equivalent sized sawn timber beam. Also, cold bridging issues are greatly reduced when using a timber product over concrete or steel.