Glulam™ stands for Glue Laminated Timber. At a very basic level this means connecting a number of smaller pieces of timber together to make larger, single components. It is a way of manufacturing timber elements that cannot be easily sourced in solid timber due to their large size or unusual shape.
Glulam™ is an innovative laminated timber structural solution used in a wide variety of commercial and residential projects. Perfect for long span and curved designs, it is the construction material that offers strength without aesthetic compromise. Basically wherever a steel or concrete structure is needed for a building, Glulam™ could also be used as a more sustainable alternative.
The first and most obvious benefit of Glulam™ is that its main constituent, timber, grows out of the ground and does not need to be mined and subjected to the high energy demand manufacturing processes that concrete, steel or any of the traditionally used construction materials require. Of course there are also energy requirements for Glulam™ manufacture in the felling, transportation, manufacture of the glue etc., but this is still far outweighs that of steel or concrete.
Timber has an excellent strength to weight ratio in comparison with steel and concrete. If you consider equivalent beam sizes for the same load bearing capacity in Glulam™ and steel, the former has approximately one and a half to two times the strength to weight ratio of the latter. This results in the advantage of smaller foundations and further positive environmental impact.
Glulam is the part of the natural eco-cycle as it is renewable, recyclable and additionally the manufacturing of glulam products is based largely on bio-energy. The glue accounts for only one percent of the mass, which makes glulam an environmentally friendly material.
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