15 Advantages of Lumi Polar Houses

If you are looking for the highest quality or something truly extraordinary, come to us. You may be surprised, but we are particularly interested in the most demanding clients, for whom we are able to create house models made of natural wood that are fundamentally different from those offered by our competitors.

We are creating a new culture of wooden house construction with a team of experienced Finnish professionals whose talent and exceptional knowledge in wooden construction have been developed and refined for more than 100 years.

Today, we are different from the mainstream in the wooden house market in every respect

A wooden house is a product — a unique product. It is not built to last for just a few years, but for many centuries, and it has a whole range of advantages over houses made from all other materials. Specific differences can be found in the section “Why Finnish Timber Houses Are Recognized as the Best in the World Compared with Houses Made from Other Materials”

Wood is a “living”, natural material, and working with any natural material is much more challenging than working with artificial materials. Therefore, to create a modern, high-quality house from a natural material, the entire design and construction process must be adapted to wood from the very first steps.

Architectural Design of a Wooden House

Designing a premium house from natural wood has its own specific requirements. That is why our houses are created by architects who have significant achievements in working with wood and prestigious international awards. They know the latest structural solutions for wooden houses, advanced production techniques, master construction technologies, and have substantial experience in developing modern wooden house models.

Our houses are not conceived as isolated units. From the very beginning, we design them with harmonious interaction with the landscape and surrounding environment in mind. Therefore, we begin our work by designing the site, with the aim of integrating the house perfectly into the natural landscape.

1. Comprehensive and Detailed Design

To achieve maximum comfort and privacy, all meteorological and natural data of the location are studied, including the movement of the sun, prevailing wind directions, cardinal directions and the characteristics of the surrounding areas.

Based on the data obtained, a site master plan concept is developed. The best architectural and technical solutions for the wooden house and its interior layouts are then calculated around this concept, making maximum use of solar energy, wind and the land itself, while taking into account the best views and all the client's wishes.

When natural wood is combined with thoughtful design, the result always exceeds expectations. It becomes a family home that inspires a special emotional connection — a home with a soul that brings joy and contributes to a longer, more fulfilling life.

The Lumi Polar signature is a carefully designed site master plan, refined functionality, thoughtful architecture and natural simplicity of style, all perfectly integrated into the landscape and created around comfort designed specifically for you.

Original Interior Designs

Impressing clients with the interiors of a wooden house is no easy task. That is why our interiors are created by exceptionally talented Finnish and European designers, often gifted Italian professionals with extensive experience in combining wooden structures with different materials and selecting colours, shades and lighting.

We create interior designs in any style, but to achieve elegant luxury in wooden houses made of solid glued laminated timber, a restrained and minimalist décor without unnecessary elements is particularly suitable.

At the client's request, we can completely furnish and finish the interiors of wooden houses and bring the most interesting ideas to life, as we work directly with Finnish, European and Italian specialists and manufacturers, each with its own area of expertise: kitchens, sofas, lighting, floor and wall finishes, and more.

Lumi Polar Landscapes – Natural Enhancement of the Native Environment

The natural surroundings of our wooden houses are designed according to the principles of naturally enhancing the existing landscape. We create site projects based on the integrity of the overall composition and from the perspective of the future concept. Our design ideas are based on a long-term vision that looks far enough ahead for the house and its surroundings to become truly luxurious over the years.

We can create a landscape design for you and turn your dreams into reality. Perhaps you also enjoy working with the land and plants yourself. In any case, we recommend visiting the “Landscape Design” section — where one section contains useful advice from renowned landscape architects for enthusiasts, while another presents the landscape design services we offer.

2. Advanced Ultra-Modern Wooden House Production

100 years of accumulated generational experience, unique Finnish knowledge in woodworking and wooden house manufacturing, together with some of the world's most advanced technologies, innovative developments and original technical solutions, allow us to bring even the boldest contemporary projects to life in natural wood.

Selected premium-grade timber, modern production, multidimensional detailing of structures, high-precision cuts, unprecedented non-settling technologies and much more provide wooden structures with perfect shapes and exceptionally tight joints. This gives our houses outstanding airtightness, a high level of energy efficiency and refined aesthetics.

Thanks to detailed drawings and 3D modelling, the house structures leave the production facility with perfectly precise shapes (SOFT ANGLE LUX system). The house is 80% factory-ready, with no additional modifications required on the construction site.

3. Construction According to High Scandinavian Quality Standards

Lumi Polar is a coordinated team of talented architects, engineers and construction professionals capable of turning your ideas and opportunities into reality and offering the best solution based on high Scandinavian quality standards, extensive Finnish experience and the importance of our know-how in wooden house construction.

We Will Build You a High-Quality House Using the Latest Technologies

Lumi Polar wooden house structures, manufactured using the most advanced techniques and technologies, are assembled with consideration for the specific characteristics of each element — tightly, carefully and precisely. This will allow you to live without repairs and problems in the future, keep maintenance costs to a minimum, and enjoy high, long-lasting quality, reliability and beauty.

The Walls of Your House Are the Most Important Part

When building a house, you can save on certain things, such as design, furniture or landscaping, but never on the walls of your home. The quality and environmental properties of the materials surrounding you are directly connected with your health, vitality and longevity — both yours and that of your house.

To make the right choice regarding which materials are best for building a house, we recommend reading our section “Why Finnish Wooden Houses Are Recognized as the Best in the World Compared with Houses Made from All Other Building Materials” , to understand why they lead today even in technical characteristics. You may be pleasantly surprised.

4. Important Advantages of Finnish Timber and Lumi Polar Glulam

Many companies in different countries manufacture and build wooden houses. Therefore, below we will describe the specific advantages of our houses compared with competitors, starting with the most important factor — the quality of the timber and glulam from which the walls of your house will be built.

The most important thing is the quality of the material; everything else is secondary. Poor-quality materials make even a suit fit badly, a car malfunction, and a house become distorted. Our material is Finnish timber, recognized by the World Forestry Association as the highest-quality timber on the planet.

Why Finnish Timber Is the Best Choice for Wooden Houses

• 90% of Finland's land area is covered by forests, and the majority of forest ownership is private. Once a forest has matured — which takes at least 60 years — every owner wants to sell the timber at the highest possible price. To achieve a high price, the timber must be of the highest grade, which means the trees must be grown healthy, strong and straight.

• For this reason, Finns care for their forests much like people care for a flowering garden or vegetable garden: they plant correctly, maintain the forests annually and remove undergrowth so that the trees receive maximum sunlight, light and nutrients from the soil. When trees are harvested, new strong seedlings are planted in their place.

• Forest owners care for their forests throughout their lives, and sometimes they do not even have time to sell the timber themselves — their children do it. Trees reach technical maturity suitable for the construction of high-quality residential houses only after approximately 60 years. Trees are harvested carefully and responsibly, with expensive machinery capable of processing up to 1,000 trees per day.

• Finns have focused on growing some of the world's finest forests because Finland has highly favourable meteorological and natural conditions for coniferous species — a northern climate combined with dry hills and sandy soils. After centuries of growing and caring for forests, Finns have developed an exceptional understanding of this natural resource and how to process it.

Ideal natural conditions, combined with many years of personal care for each tree, make our timber healthy, with straight and strong trunks rich in fragrant resins that provide our wooden houses with numerous technical and aesthetic advantages.

Finland – An Inexhaustible Source of Coniferous Timber

100 million m³ – annual growth of commercial timber

60 million m³ – supplied to export and domestic markets

Thus, Finland's forest resources increase by approximately 40 million m³ every year. Finns proudly call their forests the country's “green gold” and “gold reserve”. When Finnish companies purchase timber from other countries, it is generally because of lower prices, allowing them to preserve their own expensive premium-grade timber for temporary structures, disposable products, pallets, packaging and similar uses.

We Use Only the Highest Timber Grades: A and B

There are four timber grades: A, B, C and D. Grades C and D are not used. They are characterized by uneven density within the trunk, numerous knots and defects affecting the structure and colour of the fibres, curvature, wane, fungal damage, cracks, resin pockets and other imperfections. Lower grades are approximately 20% cheaper than higher grades. The walls of our houses compared with others:

We manufacture our wooden houses from 60- to 90-year-old timber – the period when wood is of the highest quality, when trees are at their strongest and most beautiful. Before the age of 60, the wood is young and immature; after 90, it becomes old and less dense.

Our houses made from 60–90-year-old timber compared with others:

We manufacture houses from Finnish spruce and pine. To decide which species you would prefer for your house, we recommend reading our section “Advantages of Spruce and Pine Houses”

Advantages of Lumi Polar Finnish Glulam

Our premium-grade Finnish timber guarantees reliability, quality and durability, while providing exceptional aesthetic advantages. One of the most visible indicators of the highest timber and glulam quality can be seen in the walls of our houses, where long, beautiful and perfectly straight beams are used without finger-jointed sections.

The more finger-jointed sections a beam contains, the shorter the trunks from which it was manufactured.

Shorter trunks indicate lower timber quality because trees growing in poorly maintained forests are more likely to develop diseases and other defects that manufacturers have to cut out.

The more areas affected by disease or defects in a trunk, the shorter the resulting beam and the more finger joints it requires. The longer the beam, the better the timber and, consequently, the higher the quality of the house.

We Manufacture Glulam Using the Nord Cross Non-Settling Technology

All wooden structures undergo some degree of settlement. We have long sought to eliminate this effect, which is why we conducted numerous experiments and have now developed and implemented exceptional non-settling technologies. These technologies give our houses the same possibilities for construction and finishing as houses made from other building materials.

Our non-settling technologies have their own specific know-how and work through the natural characteristics of wood, special cutting patterns and a unique gluing process.

Non-settling glulam is manufactured from premium-grade coniferous species grown in central Finland, with specially selected “timber inserts” from Arctic species grown in Finland north of the Arctic Circle glued into the centre.

The special characteristic of Finnish Arctic species growing north of the Arctic Circle is their hard, dense structure. Through a specific fibre-cutting pattern, special drying process and original gluing method, they create rigid reinforcing cores in the centre of the beam that prevent the building from settling.

The Lumi Polar Non-Settling House – A True Fortress

The implementation of this exceptional invention has produced impressive results and major advantages:

Wooden structures do not settle, so the house does not require adjustment. The walls fit tightly from the outset, and interior finishing can begin during construction.

• The houses are stronger because dimensional stability increases the static strength of the structures in all directions. Technical specifications of the non-settling glulam: weight – 32.22 kg/m; volume – 0.0716 m³/m; moisture content – 14 ± 2%.
• Built-in furniture in kitchens, bathrooms, saunas and other spaces can be installed directly against the walls without additional timber strips or special fasteners to accommodate settlement. This is both more reliable and more aesthetically pleasing.

• The houses are warmer due to low thermal conductivity of 0.13 W/mK, high specific heat capacity of 2.10 kJ/kg and a U-value of 0.40 W/m²K.
• Higher sound insulation between rooms and floors, with no dynamic vibrations in intermediate floor structures.
• No settlement gaps are required where glulam walls meet other structures. There is no need to cover such joints with cover strips, architraves or mouldings because the connection lines are straight and tight.

• Improved fire resistance and seismic resistance due to the hardness of the Arctic species and tighter structural connections.
• Windows and doors can be installed without gaps or settlement elements, eliminating the need to cut special openings for them.

Architects Have Gained Unlimited Possibilities

Non-settling glulam structures have given our architects the freedom to implement virtually any architectural concept in wood and design houses in any style, complexity or form (except round forms).

For example, different forms of glulam structures have become possible, as well as gables made entirely from glulam rather than timber frames and combinations of glulam with materials of different nature, including stone, concrete, metal and glass.

It has also become possible to create large open spaces inside houses without unnecessary beams, supports or columns.

Our non-settling houses are somewhat more expensive than conventional settling houses. However, when all their technical and aesthetic characteristics are considered together, the additional cost is more than justified.

Other Advantages of Lumi Polar Glulam

To make a wooden house high-quality, durable and strong, glulam is manufactured by bonding lamellas together. A lamella is a thick board sawn through the centre, which means that every tree is split precisely through its centre.

To prevent cracks both inside and outside the house, we glue the lamellas with their heartwood sides facing outward on both sides of the beam. By its natural structure, cracks in wood tend to develop towards the heartwood. When the heartwood has been sawn through, cracks have nowhere to originate and nowhere to propagate.

When a tree is sawn into thin boards rather than through the center, the pith can end up in different positions within the timber, which can lead to cracking as the wood dries and the house settles over time.

The closer to the heartwood, the fewer knots there are in the timber. Therefore, when the heartwood faces outward in the glulam, there are fewer knots — although of course they are still present, since trees without branches do not exist.

The closer to the heartwood, the stronger the timber. Therefore, glulam and beams manufactured in this way contribute to the strength of all the structural elements of the house.

Unique Environmentally Friendly Adhesive

We bond our lamellas using the premium Swiss PURBOND environmentally friendly adhesive. It is exceptionally strong and does not harm health because it does not release toxic emissions and contains no phenols, formaldehyde or other harmful chemical substances. The adhesive is also unique in its technical characteristics.

The adhesive does not prevent air exchange and prevents moisture accumulation because its structure is “network-like”: it does not seal the cells of the wood but leaves them open, allowing the wood to breathe and moisture to evaporate.

The glued joints in our glulam do not separate because delamination testing shows zero delamination. After this unique adhesive was introduced into production, the strength of glued structures increased fivefold due to the adhesive's enhanced bonding strength.

In addition to the remarkable properties of the adhesive, the reliability of our glulam structures is ensured by additional manufacturing processes. For example, the surface of the lamellas is roughened using special Rotoles System equipment so that the adhesive penetrates deep into the vascular structure of the wood, giving the glued joints exceptional strength. Schematically, the wood roughening process looks like this:

For comparison, when adhesive is applied directly to untreated wood, the surface can become compressed, closing its pores. In such houses, glued joints may separate over time. Schematically, this looks like this:

Seals Are Installed into the Glulam During Production

This guarantees exceptional tightness between the glulam elements and eliminates the possibility of structural distortion during assembly. It also ensures protection against drafts, freezing and other negative effects in the future.

All Cuts and Electrical Openings Are Made During Production

To achieve impeccable aesthetics, we manufacture as much as possible at the factory, including electrical openings, allowing electrical wiring to be safely installed inside the glulam. Inaccurate cuts and exposed wiring are not only less reliable, but also spoil the appearance of the house.

Elegant Wave-Shape Glulam Profile

Compared with a traditional glulam profile, which leaves the joints between courses of timber exposed and therefore allows rain and moisture to enter them, we developed the “wave-shaped” Wave-Shape profile, which eliminates this problem.

Thanks to the elegant Wave-Shape design, there is also no need to finish the façades or interiors of the wooden house. The walls are beautiful in their own right — neat, seamless and monolithic in appearance.

“Silk” Glulam

We sand the glulam under pressure on a special high-precision production line to achieve an exceptionally smooth surface, making the walls of our houses look almost like silk. We then perfect the surfaces after the house has been assembled, a process carried out by our specialists on site.

A Wide Range of Glulam and Log Profiles

The wishes of clients from different parts of the world guide the direction of our development. Therefore, we manufacture glulam in a wide variety of profiles and dimensions and offer the optimal solution depending on the region where the house will be built.

5. 100% Environmental Friendliness of Lumi Polar Wooden Houses

We do not treat our glulam with antiseptics or other protective chemicals because such substances contain chemicals that can compromise the natural properties of wood. As a rule, timber is treated by manufacturers who use lower-grade wood because of various diseases, defects and other imperfections present in it.

Valuable Components of an Eco-Friendly Wooden House

Healthy, high-quality timber does not need to be treated with chemicals. In our houses, the pristine purity of wood, environmentally friendly adhesive, wood-fibre insulation — which breathes and retains heat better than synthetic alternatives — and other natural materials are the valuable components that promote well-being and create quality designed to last for centuries.

6. Above-Average Warmth and Energy Efficiency by 60%

We achieve warmth and such a high level of energy efficiency through advanced production, high-quality materials and professional construction. The main factors are:

6 main components:

1) We install a warm, energy-efficient foundation.

2) An energy-efficient, well-insulated roof – we insulate the roof thoroughly, leaving no gaps. This is especially important because the greatest heat losses occur through the roof, as warm air naturally rises.

Importantly, an energy-efficient roof works in both directions: in winter, it helps keep the house warm, while in summer, it helps keep the heat out and prevents the house from overheating.

3) Premium-grade timber with a dense, uniform structure without defects, diseases, cracks or other deformations.

4) Absolute airtightness of the structures. Perfect tightness between all house elements is achieved through highly precise components and cuts.

5) Environmentally friendly building materials without synthetic components.

6) High-quality, energy-efficient Finnish windows and exterior doors.

7. The Elite Aesthetics of Lumi Polar Houses – Constant Modernization of Details

Perfection lies in the details. We constantly refine and modernize individual elements so that our wooden houses acquire an increasingly sophisticated appearance. Here are some examples:

Soft Angle – we give the corners of posts, beams and columns an oval shape by additionally processing them with specialized equipment. The soft curvature gives the house an elegant appearance and also makes the corners less vulnerable to accidental impacts, which can damage sharp corners in conventional houses.

One Line – our houses feature a unique technical solution called One Line, in which the glulam elements meet at the corners in a single straight line rather than overlapping. One Line gives our glulam houses a modern and stylish appearance.

Hobafix – we use reliable, invisible Swiss-made Hobafix fasteners that allow beam ends to be securely attached to walls and load-bearing structures without cutting one element into another. The result is clean, tight joints that do not need to be covered with architraves or other finishing elements.

Modern Corner – thanks to the development of these reliable solutions, the corners of our houses are not made with traditional protruding log intersections but with clean, straight corners. This significant innovation has allowed us to build modern wooden houses even in urban environments. We use Modern Corner in all avant-garde-style houses, giving them dynamism and clarity of form.

Classic Corner – for lovers of classic architecture or at the client's request, we manufacture houses with corners using traditional technology, with protruding log courses at the corners. For example, our houses with traditional corners in the classic style.

8. Glued Panels

When frame structures are used in a house, we do not use ordinary cladding. Instead, we manufacture special glued panels that completely imitate the dimensions of the house's glulam and even the locations of the glued joints, so that all walls in the house look absolutely identical.

9. Trim-Free Interiors

The most difficult and costly quality to achieve in a wooden house is simplicity and clean design. To achieve this, we meticulously design every detail, cut each component with precision down to hundredths of a millimeter, and carefully fit everything together on site.

One of the most important traditions at Lumi Polar is creating elegant, refined houses. This means eliminating unnecessary details, especially around joints and connections — no decorative casings, cover strips, battens, or other overlays. Anything unnecessary detracts from the aesthetics, makes the design look heavier, and clutters the overall appearance of the house.

Many companies fail to achieve perfection in the aesthetics of wooden houses for technical and economic reasons. Uneven connection points between structures — in walls, corners, floors, ceilings and other joints — are therefore covered with various battens. Such houses often look visually heavy and inconsistent.

In addition, inaccurate and irregular joints affect the quality, warmth and energy efficiency of the house because covering strips cannot protect the house from drafts, moisture penetration or freezing. Our traditional wooden houses, as well as avant-garde-style and Fachwerk houses and their interiors, look light, stylish and beautiful despite the use of massive glulam.

10. Features of Lumi Polar House Packages

Our houses are assembled from high-precision elements, including glulam structures, post-and-beam systems, windows, floor structures, roof trusses and all the necessary details accompanying the main structural elements of the house.

Our house packages include a complete set of premium European-quality fasteners and other high-strength metal components required for assembling all house structures, including bolts, tie rods, bracing tubes, plates, roof fasteners and more.

11. Energy-Efficient Finnish Windows

Premium-quality windows, available in wood or wood-aluminium versions at the client's choice, are supplied with a complete set of fittings and fixing mechanisms. Our new-generation windows are particularly popular:

• Heating windows – with heating integrated inside the glazing.

• Cooling windows – with an invisible “antisun” solar-control film that prevents interior spaces from overheating.

• Heating/cooling windows – “two-in-one” windows with two functions: they warm the house in winter and cool it in summer.

12. Energy-Efficient Finnish Doors

Any Finnish exterior door — whether energy-efficient, reinforced, solid-wood or glass — comes with special seals built into the door leaf.

Sliding exterior doors are installed across the entire wall, primarily together with large glazed façades, to create the effect of a single open space. Sliding exterior doors are suitable even for the Far North and perform excellently in Finnish houses located north of the Arctic Circle.

For interior doors, we offer a selection of high-quality contemporary Finnish door models.

13. Unique High-Complexity Projects

We constantly experiment with original solutions and push the boundaries of what is possible. We create unique structures and bring large-scale, highly complex projects to life in wood. Our largest and most complex private wooden house has an area of more than 5,000 m².

14. Personalized Technical Solutions

We are experienced and highly capable in creating personalized solutions: we connect elements of different dimensions, fundamentally change structural combinations, create original shaped elements, combine glulam with various materials and skillfully integrate glulam with Fachwerk technologies.

15. A Wide Range of Wooden House Models

We are constantly expanding our luxurious portfolio with new wooden house models. We combine striking natural wood with the art of straight lines, bringing minimalist forms to elegant perfection.

By incorporating the graphics and geometry of contemporary design, we have demonstrated to the world that houses made of glulam can combine impeccable minimalism with sophisticated simplicity.

Welcome to Lumi Polar!

We Will Build You a True Work of Art

We do not build houses whose quality is visible only at first glance. We build houses whose value will remain for hundreds of years. Our wooden houses are passed down from generation to generation and only increase in value.

We will build you a genuine Finnish house for many generations of your family — a house that will become a work of art and, centuries from now, a true masterpiece.