Plugs: Wednesday's Word Of The Week

Plugs are pieces of wood used to aesthetically repair the wood surface. There are two general categories of plugs used in glulam construction.

The first are shop installed plugs. These are used to repair surface defects of glulam members. Defects might be naturally occurring or a result of manufacturing. The affected area is routed out, solid wood plugs are glued into place (Unalam only repairs with solid wood plugs, not with wood filler compounds), and then they are planed by hand to match the surrounding surface. We will learn about some of the specific defects requiring plugging in coming weeks.

Field installed plugs (outlined)

The second type are field installed plugs. These are typically round plugs installed over bolts. The bolt heads are countersunk below the surrounding wood surface then covered with specially cut plugs. This is usually done for aesthetic purposes, but can also be necessary for fire resistance. The wood plug protects steel components from weakening during a fire.
*Wednesday's Word Of The Week is a feature on Unalam's Wood Times Blog. Each Wednesday our structural engineer, Rik Vandermeulen, will discuss a new term associated with glulam manufacturing. He will do this until we run out of words. If there is a timber or glulam term that you have heard of and want to know more about, let us know in the comments.