Cladding / covering exposed beam.

Hello folks,

I have an exposed beam in my house that I intend to clad with something more pleasing than plasterboard. I'm hoping to use 3 planks of square edged rustic oak that are as thin as possible.
I have seen the hollowed out beams designed for this purpose, but they are prohibitively expensive and I am worried about adding too much weight to this particular beam (it is pine / angle iron)

I'm facing a few problems. I've tried several internet searches, but to no avail - maybe my search terms are misleading.

1) What is the best way to join the underside plank and disguise the fact it is 3 pieces of wood? I have power planers etc, but no major woodworking tools.,

2) I'm finding it very difficult to source these planks - most places that look promising only want to deal withlarge quantities. I am in the North West (Cheshire).

3) Another option it pine and staining, but I imagine this may not look that good.... (my floor is oak).


I'd really appreciate any thoughts on the matter!

C heers

Chris

Any ideas?

thanks

If you want something which looks like a hewn oak beam then there are two alternatives, either a moulded false beam of three pieces of oak made-up into a box to go around the beam - these will need to be at least 3/4in thick to allow for an adzed finish (so it looks like hewn oak), and will therefore be heavyish. Pine can never be made to look like oak - the ring-porous structure of oak and the different growth patterns will see to that. Any half-decent joiner should be able to supply three or so 1in (nominal) oak planks at 1in thick - you'll need them all sawn square with two planed 1 face and 1 edge (for the sides) and one planed 1 face only.

BTW there's no such thing as a cheap oak substitute.

Scrit

I had the same problem and wasn't aware of commercially available hollowed beams.
Don't go down the planks with a hewed look, it never ever lloks original.

I Got a beam from ebay with dimensions that allowed 2" all around the RSJ, used a chainsaw to cut along the length (using nailed battens as guide and a homemade depth stop mech) then hollowed it out with a highly sharpened mattock and a load of back breaking but fun effort.
Then beam weighed very little in the end so we suppoeted it on sconce/escutcheon type things bolted onto the wall.
Every one comments how lucky we are to have 'original' features and then can't believe its not always been there!
Cost me 115 for the beam inc collection a few quid for bolts and a saturday of mucking around.
I have to admit I was lucky enough to have a friend around who was able to sharpen the mattock to a planer blade like sharpness (good sheffield steel, went through nails cleanly and still cuts like a dream)
Hope that helps

Thanks for the input. I think it was as expected / feared.

I realise a hollowed out oak beam is the number one solution, but how good could 3 planks look?

I am assuming butt joints with the bottom piece being adjoined on both side (i.e so joins are below beam / less visible). Will some planing around the join disguise it? I thought about using character grade oak flooring and having it trimmed to perfect square (and eliminiating the T&G).


Its is an old cottage in a conservation area (c. 1840) but with a modern open plan interior, so olde worlde is not necessarily my aim - but quality is.

I think "character grade" is a euphemism for "low quality, knotty stuff". Yes, it does have some appeal and looks interesting, but structural beams would not have had many knots, as they would have been so difficult to work.

charri421 said:

I realise a hollowed out oak beam is the number one solution, but how good could 3 planks look?

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It all depends on whether or not you want the grain to be seen, or if you are going to darken/blacken it.

charri421 said:

Its is an old cottage in a conservation area (c. 1840) but with a modern open plan interior, so olde worlde is not necessarily my aim - but quality is.

Click to expand...

There may be something to be said for the method of boxing-in which I've seen around here, i.e. box in and plane a bead where the joint is thus making a feature out of the joint. But then they don't look like structural beams. Having had a house with real beams in it (b. 1605) I can tell you that they are nowhere near straight. By the Victorian period standards were a lot better so the timber would be straight as a rod, planed not adzed and probably painted as the material would like as not be Quebec yellow pine or pitch pine.

oilman said:

I think "character grade" is a euphemism for "low quality, knotty stuff". Yes, it does have some appeal and looks interesting, but structural beams would not have had many knots, as they would have been so difficult to work

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I agree with that. This is the stuff which would have fed the stove/boiler at one time because it wasn't fit for anything else. The power of marketing, eh?

Scrit

I know this reply is probably to late to help Chris, but might help other people.

We had a big RSJ put into our entrance hall to replace a big stone pillar, and wanted a false beam to cover it with.

After investigating all the plastic/resin options, hollowed out beams, 'constructed' beams, etc. I came across Oakcast Reproduction Beams.

All I can say is that they fool everyone - even at close quarters. It takes physically touching it to realise, and even then they're still not sure.

We had our house valued recently, and the agent (the director) said in all his years of selling houses, he had *never* seen anything as convincing.

We were so delighted (and we're just happy customers, I'm not getting paid to say this!) that I wrote about it on my blog, and had Bill back to do our kitchen too.

You can read the whole story, and see pictures and videos of the beams, here:
http://www.personalitymarketing.co.uk/replica-reproduction-and-false-ceiling-beams/

Hope that helps someone, and if you want to ask me anything personally, please do!