Architectural Timber Solutions
Designed | Engineered | Built

Hunterbond engineered wood products for both Commercial and Residential structural projects. These range from large scale multi-storey developments, public buildings, warehouses, stadiums, resorts and bridges to beams, posts and structural flooring in a wide variety of applications.

With any project we can offer assistance with design and involvement in many facets of the engineering.  The build stage of a project is when our experience and skills are best utilised and we ensure that a quality product is produced which meets all the structural, architectural design and functional requirements of the project.

Our expertise in manufacturing glulaminated timber and LVL has seen Hunterbond produce some of the leading-edge timber designed buildings in New Zealand.

NZ Engineered Glulam

Many building designers shy away from design in glulam because they perceive it to be more difficult than steel or concrete. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hunterbond have design tables available and can call on help from engineers who have experience in glulam design.

Hunterbond have two types of systems - glue laminated solid timber and LVL. Both can be used on commercial and residential projects.

Engineered glulam meets the growing demand for a more dependable, sustainable, versatile building material that reduces our carbon footprint and can easily be substituted for more energy intensive alternatives.

Benefits of Glulam

There are a number of features of glulam that make glulam superior to alternative structural members. These unique advantages include:

User friendly. Light weight, easy to cut and drill make glulam beams simple for any builder to erect. No special skills and only traditional carpentry tools are required, minimising the number of sub-contractors required on site.

Flexibility in design. This enables the designer to use glulam in any manner. Glulam can be curved to virtually any radii without loss of strength. Gracious curves can be produced following the line of the designer's thoughts.

Excellence of acoustics. In many situations glulam has been used with success to improve or overcome acoustic problems.

High strength to weight ratio means lighter members are required, enabling a reduction in size in other structural components, for example additional floors to a building are often constructed of glulam for this reason.

Chemical resistance. Glulam works well in harsh environments, for example in corrosive chemical stores, fell-monger, acid plants, salt-water environments and swimming pools. It does not rust.

Earthquake resistance. Exceptional performance in seismic events.

Fire resistance. Glulam performs well in fires, charring the outer few millimetres of material but continuing its structural function long after steel trusses would have collapsed in the same situation.

Renewable resource that's better for the environment.  Wood is the only truly renewable construction material.  Glulam is made from New Zealand plantation timber and as a wood product, acts as a carbon sink.  It also reduces energy use in existing buildings with its outstanding insulation properties.  The plantation timber used for manufacturing takes 14 times less energy to produce compared to the equivalent steel beam.

Glulam can successfully be used in the construction of:

• Industrial - Factories, warehouses, fertiliser stores, wool scours, aircraft hangars
• Commercial - Administration buildings, office blocks, reception lounges, hotels
• Leisure - Sports centres, swimming pools, grandstands, community centres, resorts
• Churches - Chapels, auditoriums, halls, convention centres
• Education - Halls, gymnasiums, classrooms, universities
• Bridges - Road bridges, footbridges
• Specials - Columns, bench tops, curved plates
• Residential - Roofs, floor beams, pole houses

The range of forms that can be created with glulam give designer's imagination free reign.  Glulam can be used for straight beams, posts, lintels, tapered beams, curved beams, rafters, columns, portal frames, curved shapes, domes, angle knees, ply gussets, reverse curves, arches, structural flooring, bridges, decking, ply boxes and glued trusses.

Contact us to find out more about Hunterbond Architectural Timber Solutions, we welcome your enquiry and look forward to assisting you.

Our preferred industry partners

NelsonPine Design Software for New Zealand and Australian Standards

Download this powerful design programme for professional designers to assist with certified specification of engineered wood products Glue Lamination & LVL in common applications. For in-depth detailed design an advanced version is available on request for registered professional engineers.

Click here to download NelsonPine Design