How to paint and fill an old beam

[t45]

Hello,

Working on an old beam that was a Jacobean wood colour – it’s an old beam with some gnashes and holes and bits in – the plan to make the beam white and lovely – we have primed over it to prepare it but there are holes and gnashes purely down to facet that it is an old beam.

My questions are:

1. Could i use wood filler like Ronseal to fill these holes?
   
   
2. Should i treat the beam after the woodfiller and if so what should i use?
   
   
3. The sides of the bean are awful due to old paint stuck there an dvery difficult to erase it and don’t want to use heat lamp – have tried scraping but not goo – could i apply caulk down each side to tidy it up? If so could I then paint the caulk with whatever paint i use or would it be best to leave caulk white?
   

I SHALL ADD PICTURES OF THE BEAM HAVING PRIMED IT – MANY THANKS

 

[t45]

PICTURES OF THE PRIMED BEAM - quite trick t see as lots of white but used ACYRILLIC PRIMER

 

[t45]

SECOND IMAGE OF PRIMED BEAM

 

[lostinthelight]

I have 400 year old oak beams that look similar to yours and theres no way Id be taking away their character by filling them
litl

 

[Tigercubrider]

Yeah

Seems bonkers to me? If you just want bland boxes of white why not just fix strips to the ceilings either side and cap with mdf. Leave the original timbers alone

 

[darkan9el]

I've just done painted beams for a customer, they were gloss stain varnished in what I think was a mix of mahogany and something akin to rosewood and a right mess it was too, you could tell how they started to do it and then obviously regretted it but followed through with the gloss being very hit and miss and the stain being very patchy. It was an absolute travesty and ruined what should have been beautiful timbers. Unfortunately with time constraints and moving in dates looming a choice had to be made and the quickest option was to paint them an off-white using an oil based paint because the stain was bleeding through the emulsioned artex (I hate artex) so, now they are white with a hint of a washed effect.

It caused me professional and artistic anguish to do it but that’s the way life goes sometimes and in an ideal world I would have loved to have taken them back to original wood but realities took precedent. The customer is over the moon with how it looks but from a professional and artistic perspective it doesn't sit well with me at all. I'm going over today to paint the front door as all the moving in was done yesterday, I'll take some pics to show you how it ended up.

Your beams look like they have been painted a lot, but for what its worth you could probably use a bit of caulk, it would sink and at least retain some of the texture.

 

[t45]

many thanks very useful
the beam has been painted over using acrylic primer I think
not sure which way to go now
ref the caulk - would you try caulking the sides and fill the holes with 2 part wood filler such as ronseal?

 

[darkan9el]

Caulking the edges only Really makes sense if you need a smooth line to cut into and to fill small edge gaps (think 1-3mm) if edge gaps are larger I generally use frame sealant (not silicone), it has more body, is thicker and doesn't sink as much. You can also fill larger edge gaps by filling over several times with Caulk but you have to wait for the caulk to dry so fill one day and then the next day, I know it says drying times can be an hour but this is rarely the case and next day repeat filling is better.

I'm not generally a fan of acrylics, they have a place but I really don't like the finishes they leave, especially the gloss finish which just ends up being a very shiny silk finish. On beams that don't show stain or tannin marks, I would use a 50/50 mix of acrylic eggshell and undercoat, bear in mind this only really works on white. If you see stains Oil paint is your only real option using either a stain blocker or a good quality undercoat. Buy from a trade place like crown trade centres or Deluxe Trade centres, B&Q just doesn't cut it and get them to shake up off the shelf paints for you.

If you want a smooth finish to the beam then ronseal away, if you don't mind the aesthetics of old wood but the holes are deep caulk them and the caulk will sink in to retain some of the wood texture.

Here are some of the beams I painted...