Put away the clamps. Forget the hand-nailing with 16ds and pounding. If you want your LVL pack-ups to lay tight, get some of the GRK RSS screws, drive them with your impact gun, and watch even severely cupped LVLs just suck right together.
Gene Davis, Davis Housewrights, Inc., Lake Placid, NY
Replies
GRK's and Timberlocks, what the heck did we do before they came out?
Mike
Cupped LVLs are sure a pain in the neck. A couple of thoughts come to mind.
If you get badly cupped LVLs, my first thought would be to call the supplier and ask for replacements. If they're cupped it means they've gotten wet and have dried out on one side only.
If they're not cupped too bad, lay them out in the sun where they can dry. Make sure the convex side is up and the concave side is down. When the convex side dries out, the LVLs will straighten out.
It annoys me that suppliers leave these things out in the weather. They're so danged expensive you'd think it would be worth it to keep 'em covered.