Glulam Building: Start to Finish - Part 11B

 Welcome to our "Glulam Building: Start to Finish" series. Our goal is to provide an overview - from idea to completion - of a glulam building from the perspective of a glulam manufacturer and designer.

Part 11B: Assembly

It is now time to starting putting pieces together in the field. Before lifting parts into their final positions in the building structure, organization of parts and some assembly can happen on the ground.

Shop drawings should be your guide to organizing parts. Every glulam pieces, steel plate, and welded assembly has an identifying number. Shop drawings have a detail for each connections where these components come together, including a list of the hardware used at the connection. If washers are included in the part list, they are typically installed anywhere a bolt head or nut would directly contact the wood surface.

Example column base connection detail including list of parts

Some portions of a structure require assembly before installation - for example trusses. It would not be practical to support and handle all of the truss components for assembly in the air, so they are pieced together on the ground. Whether this is done in our shop or at the jobsite, it is important to have sawhorses or other blocking that can be leveled to support all of the parts during assembly.

Glulam frame craned into place after assembling individual parts on the ground

Other pre-assembly is done for convenience or to minimize the number of individual parts that need to be lifted into the air. For example, beam seats can be bolted to girders and columns prior to lifting those parts.

Glulam pavilion under construction