sealing oak beams

[chris hall 8079]

Have recently treated oak beams with a paste recommended by palace chemicals,the paste marks have now disappeared and i would like to stop the beams crumbling/dusting..am i better to wire brush them all,vacuum and then was thinking of trying a small area with linseed oil..unless anybody has experince otherwise or recommendations

 

[Penners]

Hello Chris

The extent to which friable areas of your beams are able to be rescued depends very much on just how crumbly they are. If the wood has been reduced almost to dust, then it's probably not worth trying to rescue it - particularly if we're talking about a relatively modest amount of the total cross-section of the beam. In this case, it may be best to scrape or wire brush the crumbly stuff off, and tidy up the beam carefully with a draw-knife.

Soaking the wood with linseed oil will do little to add to its strength.

If, however, you have areas of beam which are a bit worm-eaten but otherwise sound, then for cosmetic improvement you may need to do no more than apply a generous coating of wax to fill the wormholes. (I'm assuming that your stripping treatment has killed any infestation).

In between these two extremes, you may want to consider using a stabiliser to strengthen damaged wood. You'll need a low viscosity liquid resin that will soak into the wood and harden it. Bencon 20 (http://www.benring.co.uk/our-products.html) appears to satisfy this spec (although I haven't used it myself), and others on this forum have mentioned Cascamite glue in this context. Be aware that this treatment may change the colour of the wood a little.

 

[chris hall 8079]

thanks for taking the time out to reply,indeed the beams,or the greater majority of them are sound,although i do think we overreact in this country with regard to worm..95% would require a sledge hammer to get a nail into them !!

The beams are everywhere and i mean everywhere on the top floor bedrooms, so much so that you either have to straddle or limbo underneath them,the problem is that if you are dressed in anything other than overalls or working gear you cannot avoid catching/rubbing them,no i not a tree whisperer !

Regards,Chris