Give me strength

The timber frame company provided us with I-beams for the first floor but only specified the glulam beams that we require. Over the last week I have spent hours trawling the web and contacting companies in a fruitless effort to source them enduring several sleepless nights along the way. Finally I learned from the helpful Sam at Glulam Beams in Southampton that the glulam grading system has changed and that it is not possible to get the grade of beams that have been specified.

The revised standard provides common European strength classes for glulam. It turns out that since August 2015 the strength classes available in the UK are GL28cs and GL30c. As all beams are now made from the same strength class of glulam, beams to support larger loads require larger beam section sizes (i.e. the bigger the load the bigger the beam!). The glulam beams specified for Woodlands strawbale were 240mm deep and of a stronger, obsolete, strength class. Our fear was that we would have to substitute larger beams which would impact on the ceiling height and also require us to pad the I-beams which are 240mm deep.

We contacted Vision and requested that their engineer check the loading figures and advise what size GL30c beams we should use. We have been told that we can use the same size of beams as originally specified. Finally we catch a break.

Find a copy of the UK span table here.

#glulambeam #glulamstrengthclasses