Lovely beams, not!

[discobarry]

I felt childish saying that! The beams in our home our very dark and we would like to lighten them somehow. I find it very confusing of what is actually best to do. I would like them to be lighter and a more natural finish. I won't sandblast that is out of the occasion, i did think of sanding them but I've read on here before that it isn't a great idea and the fiddly bits would be a nightmare. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Zebra]

They look lovely and natural. They're the same colour as mine, which haven't been treated with anything ever.

Edit: I've just been and looked specially, and mine are lighter in fact. But not much. Do you think yours have been treated with something, some sort of paint or dye? If so, you could try these people http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/ for something to remove it with.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Although I understand your feeling that the beams are dark, I, personally, think that they should be left alone. They appear to have a fairly normal colour for their age . It's not as though you have to remove a previous application of paint/varnish. Attempting to lighten them would probably not give a very pleasing finish.
Maybe somebody on here will suggest a very light cleaning method which will not be too damaging.

 

[discobarry]

How can that be the natural colour ? They are varnished/painted. You can see the wood to the right of the first pic(I think)

 

[Lime]

First off I'd try washing a small, hidden area with soapy water and wash-up brush. Then dry off with paper towel and let dry out.
See how it looks.

added brush detail

 

[discobarry]

Ok will do that. Thanks.

 

[Penners]

I think those beams are very far from their natural colour or texture. It looks to me as though they have a fairly liberal coat of something gunky.

Sandblasting is a dreadful thing to do, so I'm very glad to hear that you've ruled that out. Any other form of sanding is unlikely to have any success, because you just can't sand into all the nooks, crannies and crevices, and it will still have a deleterious effect on the look and character of the beams.

Stripping is the way to go. A lot of people on this forum have had great success using Klingstrip (me and my daughter included), which is made by Strippers of Sudbury (as mentioned by Zebra above). I would recommend buying a small test pot and trying it out, before you launch into the full scale project. Be sure to read and follow the instructions carefully.

Once you have stripped the beams and they have dried out (which can take a while), they will a much lighter and more natural-looking.

 

[skier-hughes]

Depending on the age and material of the beams, you may find that they are NOT much lighter, ours vary from a bit lighter, to a tiny bit more than a bit lighter, but are definitely better than black

 

[Penners]

Actually, I agree with Graham. Some beams do not lighten as much as others, when they've been stripped. However, I'm confident that the overall effect will be a lightening of your dark, treacly beams.