No, not the kind I would have liked, but something to treasure nonetheless: old oak beams.
For a couple of hours most evening the past week, and all day Saturday, the beams in one of the attic rooms have been worked on to turn them from grey, dusty-looking timbers to rich, golden-brown beams, a couple of small steps away from being oiled.
Having played with several ideas (sand-blasting was considered) and methods (wire brushes on an angle-grinder versus nylon brushes), I settled on nylon brushes. One is a pretty specialised tool, a Makita brush sander, which is fast, powerful, yet gives lovely results without gouging into timbers. Hard-to-reach places have been handled with nylon brush drill attachments.
It's a lot of work, and perhaps there are better ways, but it's nice to get a feel for each individual timber in the place while working them by hand. And the results? Well, photos don't really do it justice, but hopefully it gives an impression.
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| Before and after in one shot! |
The roof rafters will be covered in a membrane and cellulose insulation will be blown in between them, so we only cleaned those beams that will remain visible once the final plastering is done. At this level, that might take a couple of years, but I want to get all the dirty work done first, so converting the rooms later is a little easier.
How dirty? This dirty:
Great job Bar. It's looking amazing. A real labour of love. Jealous as f@$k :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rob. It's certainly a real labour, but the love waxes and wanes :D What I would really love now is for someone to insulate the walls, install our damn windows and get our new concrete floors and drainage sorted before winter comes! So don't feel jealous! ;)
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