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Fire Rating: Wednesday's Word Of The Week
A Fire Rating is the time a structural component or wall is calculated to maintain integrity during a fire. 1 Hour is a common rating.Last week we covered Type IV Construction (Heavy Timber), which...
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Moisture Content: Wednesday's Word(s) Of The Week
Several physical properties of lumber used to manufacture glulam are checked during the material grading process. One of these is moisture content: the percentage of a wood sample's weight that is...
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Glulam - Before We Even Built Our Plant
Today, we're traveling in our Wayback Machine to a time before we had even built our current plant in Sidney, NY. From around 1958 until 1963 (when the plant opened,) we made both glulam and wood silos...
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Material Grading - Knots: Wednesday's Word(s) Of The Week
Knots in wood are the locations of former tree branches. If you've ever worked with wood, you probably know how hard the knot material is. However, the knot interrupts the primary, longitudinal fibers...
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It's A Rotary Wheel! #FridayFun
Yesterday, my co-worker delivered this to me and announced that we have nearly a dozen more in our steel shop. It's sort of funny, because we don't exactly know where they came from. They're quite...
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Material Grading - Density: Wednesday's Word(s) Of The Week
Another important physical characteristic of wood used in glulam is its density. Density is simply the mass per volume of wood, normalized to the moisture content. There is a strong correlation between...
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Beautiful #Glulam Bus Canopy
Here are a couple of photos of curved beams that we made for a new bus canopy. These are curved beams, and not arches. It's common to think that anything curved is an arch, but it's not quite that...
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Material Grading - Slope of Grain: Wednesday's Word(s) of the Week
The final physical characteristic of wood affecting its design strength is slope of grain. This is particularly important in Southern Yellow Pine where grain direction can vary greatly. Slope of grain...
View ArticleNEW VIDEO: All About Unalam - Part II
The second episode in our video series All About Unalam is now live.In this video, we touch on how innovation has driven our evolution from a lumber and feed mill, to making wood silos, to building our...
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Installing #Glulam Roof Trusses
New glulam roof trusses are going into a building at our nearby state university. After we manufactured and fabricated the glulam we assembled it in our shop, so the installer could pick and place it...
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Sealer: Wednesday's Word Of The Week
Sealed glulam trussesAlmost all glulam projects are completely shop finished. This includes cutting members to shape and size, fabricating necessary holes/slots/daps at connections, and repairing...
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Unalam Is A 2016 FSC Leadership Award Winner
This evening, our President Craig and VP of Operations Leif will receive a 2016 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Leadership Award. The award will be announced at an awards reception at Greenbuild...
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Stain: Wednesday's Word Of The Week
Stain is an alternative surface coating to a clear sealer. A penetrating stain will provide similar protection to a sealer, but will also affect the wood's color and appearance. Depending on the stain,...
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This Glulam Golf Course Bridge Will Remind You Of Summer
Summer may have come to a close in this area, so we thought we'd share this bridge photo to put a little sunshine back in your heart. It's a lovely little bridge on a golf course in our area. Glulam...
View ArticleNEW VIDEO: All About Unalam - Part III
Enjoy a quick tour of our glulam manufacturing plant in this third episode of our video series All About Unalam.While video tours are fun, if you're ever nearby you can schedule an in-personal visit....
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End Grain Sealer: Wednesday's Word(s) Of The Week
Rapid moisture transfer into and out of wood can have several negative effects, from checking to dimensional stability to decay. The structure of wood is similar to a bundle of straws - it is primarily...
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Wrap: Wednesday's Word Of The Week
With architectural grade structural members finished in the factory, there is a risk that they will get dirty or marred while traveling to the jobsite or being installed. Proper loading, jobsite...
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Throwback Thursday: Union College Field House '74
Here are some current photos of a project we supplied way back in 1974 - the Union College Field House in Schenectady, NY.For this job, we manufactured glulam barrel arches. Barrel arches are similar...
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Unique Glulam Combination Layup
There's a reason I reposted our Word Of The Week about Combination Layups yesterday. It was to get you ready for today's post about these beauties.We recently finished manufacturing curved combination...
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Surfacing: Wednesday's Word Of The Week
Before planingThe standard surface texture for glulam material of Industrial, Architectural, and Premium grades is a smooth surfaced finish. This can be done by sanding or by planing - different...
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