Exposed Beams vs. Glulams

8 years ago

Hi all,

We're building a contemporary styled house on the pacific northwest coast. We will have some exposed beams in a high ceilinged great room as well as as rafters in the bedrooms on 2nd floor. We'll also have some exterior beams showing for supports of porch/garage roof/patio/deck.

We can't decide between solid natural douglas fir beams (would just seal, no stain) vs. fir glulam. The issues I'm aware of are:

1. Glulam is more dimensionally stable/reliable for building and we'll likely need smaller beams w glulam (ie. cheaper). I've had one opinion that we may not need an engineer to review plans if we use glulam but would if we used solid fir?

2. A bit harder/longer to source the solid timber

3. Checking/splitting of solid timber - I'm ok with this, part of having natural wood

At the end of the day I'm sure it is a personal decision and of course both look great in the right context. I think I have an overall preference aesthetically for the fir as well as the allure of it being "solid wood". I'm a bit concerned about the extra cost, which has been hard to actually quantify.

Thanks for your thoughts and things we may not have already thought of!

Featured Answer

User

8 years ago

One of the first things that you should learn about design is to not design outside the parameters of your materials choices if you are letting specific materials drive the design.

What good is a 17’ long island if the granite that you want only comes 9’ and you don’t want a seam? What good are cool expensive trapezoidal windows if they face the neighbors and must be kept covered and you don’t want to pay for custom window treatments? What good is it to design a faux timber frame house with glue lams if you have to go back and cover them with timbers?

If you want a timber framed house, perhaps that is what you should be designing

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Comments (7)

armchairshopper
8 years ago
You need to re-examine your statement that “3. Checking/splitting of solid timber - I’m ok with this, part of having natural wood”.

Read the paragraph entitled “Shear Failures in Actual Structures” (page 2) of the article at the link: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1996/ramme96a.pdf

If you don’t like the look of stained glulam, you can always cover them with the lumber of your choice.
User
8 years ago
The trick is to avoid long spans and large point loads for heavy timber beams.
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PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
8 years ago
Ask your architect.
PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
8 years ago
Ask your architect or builder to give you pricing alternatives.\

The exterior beams, whatever they are, will need protection from the elements, particularly the beam ends and tops.
User
8 years ago
Here is a reference about protecting exposed heavy timber
suezbell
8 years ago
Glulams may not stain well; however, if you're painting the exposed beams, that shouldn't be an issue.

Something you might discuss w/your architect and/or builder if you want to stain the beams in your great room is how practical it might be to use actual beams in the great room only but use glulams in the other rooms where the beams will be exposed and paint those beams.

Something else you might consider is using glulams throughout, but in the great room, have the glulams wrapped in actual boards and stain the boards.

Let us know how your project goes.