LVL used in new Richmond Warehouse

The new Richmond Warehouse is a two-storied development with retail downstairs and offices on the first floor. The building has been constructed from LVL post and beams, machined on NPIL’s new Hundegger K2I. NPIL also supplied LVL to local company, XLam who made large earthquake resistant cross-laminated ‘shear walls’, made 50 percent of LVL with Douglas Fir used as ‘padding’ to hold the stronger LVL in key areas. Some other advanced features of the building include:

· Steel plates that are fixed to the walls using European rectangular nails (Timber Rivets), giving a very strong bond, the equivalent of welding the plate to the LVL.

· Rather than bolting beams to columns, 300mm European steel screws are used, meaning the builders didn’t have to match bolts to holes and the final look is more attractive

· A traditional concrete first floor, laid onto concrete beams. The K2I notched the top of the LVL beams to take the concrete beams, saving time on site and giving a far better appearance.

· Seismic protection includes beams that can pivot on barrel connections and dissipaters connected to the base of the building. After an earthquake the buildings will be straightened up, and the dissipaters replaced so the building can be quickly reoccupied.

The building was designed by Irving Smith Jack Architects and Craig Thelin Engineering and was built by Gibbons Construction, NPIL was involved in the early stages of the design to help optimise the sizes and design to suit the new K2I.