Incoming 

Glued laminated timber salvaged from the former 'BOMACO' warehouses in Relegem

Here's a surprise we've been preparing for a while. Last summer, we salvaged over 80 cubic metres of glued laminated timber from the roof structure of one of the former 'BOMACO' warehouses in Zellik, which are currently being converted. The 34 massive 18-metre-long pine beams were first inspected on site to remove any remaining screws or nails, then cut to length for transport. As we have done in the past with similar smaller batches, we then sawn the beams parallel to the large face to obtain panels that can be used for interior design: think tables, wall cladding, furniture, etc. This time we have chosen thicknesses from 3.5 cm to 6 cm. And the good news is: we have over 1300 square metres of panels! Our warehouse now looks (and smells!) like a timber yard. 
For this production run, we have gone one step further and decided to mill some of our panels with an industrial 4-side planer. The result is a panel with even surfaces and consistent thickness and width, to within 1mm. Apart from a few details, it looks like a piece of freshly manufactured glulam - and yet it is truly reclaimed wood, for which not a single tree has been harmed (at least not in the last 40 years!). Another nice thing is that we can make many more of exactly the same panels by further processing our current stock of reclaimed glulam, or based on the next roof structure we will salvage. This is seen by some as the philosopher's stone of material reuse: the ability to produce a stable, 'as new' product from sources that are, by definition, extremely scattered and variable.

This operation was made possible thanks to the Province of Flemish Brabant, which owns the BOMACO site since 2020 and is redeveloping it to house the Provincial Training Institute. The building from which the beams originate was historically a 3-span concrete structure, which was extended in the 1980s with an additional wooden span by the construction company Jumatt. This extension had to be demolished and the Province ensured that the wooden structure was salvaged.