Between the beams

[Bitstreams]

Our dining room doesn't have the prettiest beams, but a lack of height and the fact that they're lower than the windows means that they have to stay.

At some point the gap between the beams has been papered with woodchip - now covered by lots of paint. I'd like to put a smoother/harder surface between the beams that'll look a bit neater and can then be painted. The gap between the beams is going to vary along its length, which means they are going to be a pain to cut - so using wood (fire retardant presumably) is going to be a right pain. I'm fairly handy but wood isn't my favourite material.

Is there something else I could use - the surface beneath the wallpaper is likely to be crumbly, so I need something firm? Have you tackled this problem successfully?



Simon

 

[kreyszig]

plaster?

 

[mims&pip]

We have/had woodchip between the ceiling beams in three of our rooms here.....grrrrrr :twisted:

Pip initially considered fitting some kind of board between the beams, but quickly decided against. So far he's plastered between the beams in the smallest of the three rooms and I've painstakingly stripped the woodchip (along with very many paint layers) in the next largest room. Cracks are currently awaiting filling.The larger of the three rooms - that also happens to have the highest ceiling - we have left for now. Plastering between was a pain in the buttocks - according to Pip - but I guess it depends on the size of your ceiling/gaps between beams and whether you'll be DIYing or not :wink:

Mims x

 

[momo292]

This thread has some useful information on this matter and is well worth a read: http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10924.

Is your property listed? If so you may wish to consult with your local conservation officer before undertaking any work. They might be able to advise usefully, perhaps on what some of your neighbours have done. If your neighbours are friendly, perhaps they'll share their own beams / solutions / tradesmen contacts with you.

Personally I love the look of the exposed boards of the floor above, but this presents practical limitations as follows: a darker ceiling and thus more light absorption rather than reflection leading to a generally darker room ambience, dirt ingress / travel between floors and of course sound travel between floors. The last item is probably of most practical importance to those of us living in old buildings of this type of construction.

If it were me, I would plaster using lime and use a tradesperson experienced in such work so they would be able to do the job thoughtfully, hiding service cables / pipes as they go in the plasterwork. I like the undulating look rather than flush and neat, which looks far too modern. The following image is the ceiling of a listed Weatherspoon's pub in Hampshire so you get a feel for what I mean, although the undulating surface looks a bit too exaggerated there for my tastes:

By the way your beams are quite fine looking and pretty enough! A pity they are painted but many have been over the years. If you were at all thinking to strip the paint, it would of course be best done before any of the between beam work you might undertake. Good luck!

 

[88v8]

Ours downstairs are done with a mixture of plasterboard and plaster infill.
Rather too flat for my taste, although our lighting is mainly downwards so I can decide not to notice.
Upstairs it's much better - plaster on the underside of the thatch that makes the Wetherspoons** look like a billiard table.

If the beams have open grain, plastering will be tricky, as one doesn't want to get plaster in the grain.

The woodchip is presumably there because the plaster is cracked. One of those jobs that could escalate.

Ivor

** is this the first ever PPF thread featuring a Wetherspoons?

 

[steveb]

I had a conversation with a plasterer once who hated plastering like that - he said it was much much harder to plaster a "olde worlde effecte" wall or ceiling and make it look natural and old, rather than exxagerated and tacky - than it was to plaster a surface perfectly smooth!

 

[Andys]

We have skimmed plasterboard between the beams in one bay, faired-in with mastic, obviously, and what sounds like 6mm plywood 'n' woodchip in the other bay. I suspect the plywood would be viewed as a rather ineffective fire barrier by a safety bureaucrat.
Either method looks hugely time-consuming and there's no way I'm re-doing any of it but if you have plaster in place I'd say keep it if you can, even if you end up putting in the odd new section of laths and patching with matching plaster. Of course it's not me getting rotator-cuff injuries doing it...

BTW the Previous Owners said that before they, ahem, restored, the house, the gaps between the beams were occupied by sailcloth slung, dunno how tightly, under the floorboards, to catch the bits and block the light presumably. I find this idea rather touching.
Andy

Edit: Actually I think what I thought was plasterboard is actually plywood too but with something skimmed over it to mostly fill the grain. At least there's no woodchip on that bit:-/

 

[xanthe]

We have a mix of things - some rooms just have the underside of the original floorboards (unpainted), some have chipboard - fire risk and will be going, some have painted plywood and there is one section of old falling down lath and plaster. Most have also got a softwood beading running along each side which I don't totally hate but not sure if I would do again when we replace.

The lath and plaster has to stay but we are looking at various solutions for replacing the rest (those parts with just boards will stay that way, but the gaps between the floorboards in the bedrooms would make it a problem to not replace them in those rooms).

My husband works for a huge chemical company that make all kinds of odd things and he is talking to their conservation team about what whizzy new materials there might be that can combine eco friendly/insulating/breathable/fire proof/light weight etc. I will report back if we find anything suitable!

My parents used plasterboard between their beams (1635 house in Sussex) which didn't look too bad.

 

[livias]

Simplest 'authentic' method is wood wool board pushed up to the floorboards and then angle screwed into the joists. Then lime plaster it

Or fix a softwood batten to the sides of the joists and fix laths to that and lime plaster. More fiddly but perhaps better sound dampening