Glulams enioytrend towards customhomes

Hope Lumber are used for door and rvindow headers as well as floor and roof framing. Farmer reported that many large modern custom homes also include a nostalgic link to the past-the covered patio-back porch. The roofs over these porches are usually framed with a high-strength glulam, such as the 3000f glulam Power Beam from Anthony Forest Products.

Hope Lumber's Raul Garcia said the camber of the Power Beam is popular with builders because it avoids sagging and deflection under heavy loads. This means fewer call-backs for builders and for dealers. Since the Power Beam bccame available in 3000f, it has replaced 2400f glulams in many applications, Garcia said.

Hope Lumber has held product information events for builder customers in the past, but Farmer said that glulams are now so widely used that most builders no longer need engineered wood "education."

"Contractors who formerly nailed three 2x12s together for garage door headers now specify the glulam Power Beam because of its strength and onepiece application at the job site," Garcia noted.

Hope Lumber offers engineering and estimating assistance for engineered wood, both from CAD programs and on-site consultations.

Another reason that rvide-width framing lumber is being replaced by engineered wood in many applications is because kiln dried (727o motsture content) glulams offer greater stability and resistance to twisting and warping at the job site. And unlike LVL and PSL beams which can change size when they absorb moisture, individually wrapped glulams are less susceptible to weather problems during construction.

Kiln-dried glulams also have the stability to resist warping and twisting, a problem that develops with conventional solid sawn beams in this climate. They are wrapped and come in pre-cut lengths up to 60 fr. with the strength and camber to resist sagging.

GLULAM sales have benefited from the tren.d toward larger cuslom homes, such as this 7,600-sq. ft. showplace. lts glulam beams are covered with plywood ind housewrap.

-l.HE CROWING marker for large I. custom homes has been good news fbr the engineered lvood market, particularly glued laminated beams.

Robert Farmer, a practicing architect and engineered wood specialist with Hope Lumber Co., Conroe, Tx., said his company's volume of glulam beams has doubled in the past four years.

Most of the bcams supplied by