Need help to restore my black beams to their natural state!

[woodman]

We have recently purchased a 16th century thatched cottage.
The beams, doors and architraves to the property are coated in some indeterminate matt black finish, not disimilar to a blackboard paint. Not sure if this is water or oil based. We want this removed back to the original oak so the place does not look like some bad 1980's pub.

Most people seem to recommend a laborious process involving kling products. Unfortunately we do not have a lot of time to do the work (young family and all!) so can anyone recommend an alternative or better still a reputable firm who can sympathetcially restore the beams and doors?

 

[Nemesis]

There is really no substitute for hard work! Stripping is labour intensive and very, very messy whoever does it. Don't think about blasting - that can ruin them.

Beams were not always left in natural wood, often they were painted. Consider giving them a coat of distemper.

If you do want to strip, contact Strippers of Sudbury and ask what they recommend.

 

[Penners]

Yes - whatever you do, don't allow your wish for haste to tempt you into sandblasting the beams. You'll ruin them.

If you haven't got time to strip them carefully with something like Klingstrip or Nitromors, then it's better if you don't strip them at all. As Nemesis suggests, paint them white. Oaks beams were frequently limewashed, so they would look authentic. And you'd be leaving the beams intact for someone else to strip carefully in the future.

Here's Lavenham Guildhall - among the finest timberframe buildings in the country - showing its limewashed timbers.

 

[skier-hughes]

Klingstrip works marvellously, but it is a very, very, very long and labourious task, including being messy unless you buy the right equipment.
You can of course get someone to come in and do it for you, something a tad smaller than Penners' picture was quoted at £9k, strippers should have names of people around and about.

Here's my work
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/testfiles/personal/kitchen/kitchenhole.htm

 

[cotegreen]

I know everybody on here will say hard work and use kling strip (which i have done), however for quickness there is no option but to sandblast them. Yes this does turn the wood a bit drift wood style, it makes a mess and you will have damage to some of the surrounding areas however it is very effective and quick.

you have to way up the pros and cons as with anything you do on your period house, such as do i lime plaster or use lime lite etc....

there is no doubt that to keep the original patina and finish you should not sand blast but if you want to see the original wood instead of lime washing or distemper and the amount of work you are talikng about is not managable with kling strip etc then there is no othere real option. There are plenty of people who have done this on both listed and non listed properties (if yours is listed check first its ok) and i am sure they are happy with the outcome.

I have done both in my property - small beams etc in kling strip and large structural beams were sand blasted. there is a difference but everyone that comes think they look great, I am happy with the finish and it would not of been manageable to klingstrip them all. if you can manage the mess by making any rooms nearby airtight, and are prepared to possibly damage surrounding plasterwork (mask as much as you can in advance heavily and speak to your blaster to ensure it is not to 'industrial') then go with it.

 

[Penners]

woodman - I do hope you will ignore that piece of advice. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the "sympathetic restoration" that you say you want to carry out.

I don't know whether your building is listed - at that age I should imagine it is. If so, then you would need LBC if you wanted to sandblast the beams, and you wouldn't get it.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I would never ever ever ever (etc) sandblast a piece of timber that was hundreds of years old. There is no excuse for not investing the time and elbow grease that a house of this vintage deserves and requires. Sadly there is no short cut in discharging our responsibilities.

We are just coming to the end of a very time-consuming period cleaning gunk from main beams and layer upon layer of whitewash from joists in our project.

SWMBO (She who must be obeyed) has done most of it, and I have to say it has been soul-destroying. But the final result will be worth it, and I'll be happy that (hopefully) generations to come will be able to appreciate the result.

I had some stonework sandblasted and didn't mask the adjacent fireplace beam properly. The result is an inch wide strip along the top of the beam that has been massacred - totally de-nuded of any character. The difference between that strip and the rest of the beams is stark.

That said, I have heard of a more gentle sand-blasting - apparently using silica sand (much finer I'm told) and low pressure blasting.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

 

[Nemesis]

You do not sandblast, not wood, not stone, and you do NOT use limelite either - which is a cement based stuff and unsuitable for historic buildings.

Terrible conservation!!!!

http://www.owdman.co.uk/joinery/notes.html#glass

Sand blasting
I recently visited an interesting old house in Derbyshire where the owners had employed an enthusiastic sand-blaster. The result was that all the woodwork, including beautiful Georgian internal shutters and panelling, had lost not only its paint but also it's surface and moulding details and looked like rough suede leather. The soft sandstone fireplaces and other masonry had had the erosion equivalent of 1000 years in the Utah Desert applied in one afternoon, and some of the window glass, including pieces of un–replaceable crown glass, was now opaque!
The owners were obviously a bit shaken but they were trying to put a brave face on it and pretending that this was just what they wanted.
This sounds unbelievable but it is true and I have seen similar damage done in other buildings.
There is no place for sand–blasting in old building renovations,

 

[ian]

I was approached a few years ago by a fellow offering SODA blasting. I seem to remember he was offering an abrasive cleaning system to remove paint etc from beams using baking/ bicarb soda instead of grit. I didn't follow it up at the time. Has anyone else heard of this or have any experience or comment.

 

[Penners]

There is no excuse for not investing the time and elbow grease that a house of this vintage deserves and requires.

I'm sorry, but I think that's a very unsympathetic and blinkered statement. There are lots of excuses for not having the time to invest in careful and sensitive beam stripping.

BUT... there are no excuses for sandblasting.

If people haven't got the time to strip the beams properly, then, as we've mentioned above, they shouldn't strip them at all. Another coat of paint isn't going to harm the already painted beams, and leaves them intact to be stripped properly by someone else in the future (if they want to).

As for blasting with silica sand, baking soda or whatever - abrasion is abrasion. It would take superhuman skill to be able to judge the abrasive effect finely enough to take off just the paint, without ever touching the wood. I simply don't believe it's possible.

 

[GK]

Didn't Toby advise against the use of Klingstrip on oak beams recently? Maybe woodman's beams aren't oak.

I did it anyway, long before he posted about it. Can't say I've really seen any untoward effects, but it was very time-consuming and I decided stripping all the joists wasn't really worth the effort. The beam pictured took 2 or 3 applications to get to this state.

But without a doubt, sandblasting would have destroyed these ancient markings.


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Penners - sorry was not trying to be unsympathetic. What I meant to say was that there are no easy short-cuts when you have old houses.

Personally I feel the responsibility of what is transiently "mine" is such that if I don't have the time/inclination to treat the property sympathetically and preserve its integrity for future generations, then I should leave it alone. That extends to not stripping beams, as you say, as opposed to a labour-saving sandblast.

I would hope we all feel the same way to a large degree. That said, there is a balance to be struck between living in a museum and living in a home.

 

[Moo]

On the other hand, there's no guarantee that the next caretaker (aka owner) of the house will be as scrupulous as you are, and may well sandblast the things to smithereens.

 

[Penners]

They'll have to get past the PPUK Police first!