This house I am helping family with need some expertise.
The front and real entries are fairly large. 12x20'.

The framing is going to be large laminated beams. They will be stained with a darkish stain. The horizontal one over the entry thinking about doing a radial arch type look on it.
How would a laminated beam look with that done. Also how would one accomplish the radial cut.

If you are standing out in the street looking at the front entry. The bottom of that horizontal beam would have a radial cut in it that would give you the arch appearance instead of it being a straight edge on the bottom of the beam.

They like the idea of glue lams intead of actual solid would beams. So that is why they would rather have glue lams. There are other reasons like twisting and cracking and becoming more weathered over time.


Thanks guys.

If it cannot be accomplished with a glue lam it will just be a straight glue lam and think it would still look great.

Not an expert but my concern would be the laminate taking stain consistently. I'd try to get a scrap piece to do a trial run.

In my experience the lvl is wrapped in a stainable skin after install.

I used a large glue lam beam on a lean two on my shop. Stained it. It took the stain easily and looks today like it did about ten years ago when we built it. Beautiful.

quote:

If you are standing out in the street looking at the front entry. The bottom of that horizontal beam would have a radial cut in it that would give you the arch appearance instead of it being a straight edge on the bottom of the beam.

Curious, if it's laminated that's multiple thin sheets of wood glued together, so if you arch cut it would it have lines going across the beam where each laminate was glued not like grain.

Think I'd ask the manufacturer of the beam, can they cut in the arch then wrap it with a skin so that it would look like a natural solid wood beam that was arched that could then be stained.

Firstly, don't start cutting into solid wood or glue-lam beams. Beam sizes to carry the load over the width of the opening will be spec'd/calc'd by somebody with an engineers stamp.

What normally happens (at least here in AZ) is the arch is added to the load-carrying beam after the fact. Let's assume a 6' opening. Take a 12' beam and cut it in half then butt one piece up against the bottom of the load carrying beam. The radius to create the arch is cut into the bottom piece and does NOT touch the load carrying beam. While we sometimes framed arches in multiple sections I'd try to swing the radius so that it leaves an inch and a half of wood at the top of the decorative piece so that it's solid end to end.

There are other ways to do it but it sounds as if all of your framing is exposed, yes??

You could check and see if there's a corbel cutting company in your area and what they'd charge.

What type of arch are you imagining? Architects will cringe but the framing terms we used here... a true arch (barrel arch) will have a radius equal to half the opening. Picture a semicircle then add studs that go straight down at the widest point. I think you're trying to describe a flat arch; just a slightly concave bottom, yes? If that's the case then you can pick whichever dimension you like for the radius.

ps. I'm confused by your 12x20 dimensions. Is that the area of the front patio and rear deck? A 12' tall wall by 20' long with a door in the middle? Something else? An open semi-gazebo looking thing to give the front entry curb appeal? Sorry, not sure exactly what is being built. Just didn’t want you to start cutting on load bearing timber.

Yes Kbob, a flat arch describes what I am envisioning. The entry is open. It is 20' wide and 12' deep. It is vaulted. Will have glue lam beam framing. The truss' will be convention rafters built on site. Hope that clarifies things

As KBob said, don't be cutting on a load carrying member without verifying the modification with an engineer!!!!

Glu lams take stain just fine but if you're talking about cutting notches out of a glu lam, I urge you to stop.

If you want an arch, frame the arch with 2x material and let your glue lam be your structure.

Or get arched glu lams engineered and fabricated.

Okay, I can picture what is being built. Most of the time we constructed arches out of plywood and 2x4 then scabbed it onto the load-bearing beam (not exposed; stuccoed) but we did stuff similar to yours a few times but with rough-sawn instead of glu-lams. The weight of the arches we added would have been detailed and accounted for in the plans.

What you're describing can be done but you'll have to talk to the architect. Curved glu-lams can be built but that's probably expensive. Easiest would be a sacrificial beam added to the bottom. Cutting the radius on-site with the usual construction tools one finds isn't a good idea. It would look rather ragged so a corbel guy with one of those handheld portable bandsaws (or whatever they're called) is the way to go.

When we built those trusses the specs for the brackets to bolt together the perlins, chords, etc. were very precise. Not only the location of the bracket but the number, size, and placement of the bolts so that no excess wood was drilled out weakening the beam.

Unless the house is still in the design phase I'd leave it alone. Changes after plans are approved can become quite expensive. 30 years ago when I started framing my boss LOVED customer changes. $30 bucks an hour plus material while paying me $12. He'd say yes to anything the customer wanted. lol.

Dan