{"id":4580,"date":"2008-11-24T17:49:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T17:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunterwimmer.com\/redneckmodern\/2008\/11\/24\/tcb-taking-care-of-beams\/"},"modified":"2008-11-24T17:49:35","modified_gmt":"2008-11-24T17:49:35","slug":"tcb-taking-care-of-beams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterwimmer.com\/redneckmodern\/2008\/11\/24\/tcb-taking-care-of-beams\/","title":{"rendered":"TCB (Taking Care of Beams)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the items that tops the Eichler owners&#039; to-do list is exterior beam repair\/maintenance&#8230; and with the recent rains a few weeks ago, I was reminded that it was time to get busy in the atrium.<\/p>\n<p>I was worried that our exterior beam was dry-rotten on the top from exposure and lack of maintenance, but we got lucky and it wasn&#039;t too bad &#8212; perhaps the old-growth redwood is indeed a good thing (thanks to Casie&#039;s brother Matt for the sanding). That said, there were still a good number of cracks on the sunny side and the top needed some TLC as there was a small bit of dry rot, so the products we ordered from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rotdoctor.com\/\">&quot;The Rot Doctor&quot;<\/a> were put to good use. In the time since we ordered them, I&#039;ve also seen it in several local (smaller) hardware stores, so check around locally \u2014 there are also a few brands: Smith&#039;s, Restore-it and others&#8230; all the same stuff, really (a 2-part epoxy wood sealer).<\/p>\n<p>Matt sanded the top of the beam with a random-orbital sander and the paint pretty much blew right off. On the sunny-side of the beam, however, the paint was a bit more adhered so I took out the the big guns &#8212; the angle grinder with a sanding wheel. On a friend&#039;s house, I&#039;ve also used the Wagner &quot;Paint Eater&quot; and on another a belt sander&#8230; both also worked well. The entire beam took about 20 minutes or so to sand to bare wood. It certainly takes a steady hand and it makes an epic mess&#8230; it&#039;s necessary, though. For a proper sealing and repair, all the paint needs to be gone.<\/p>\n<p>After sanding came the sealing. We used the 2-part <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rotdoctor.com\/epoxy\/woodrestoration.html\">CEPS (clear epoxy penetrating sealer<\/a>) to help seal the beam and it definitely seemed to do the trick &#8212; the beam soaked up a quart of the mixture easily (CPES is a 2-part potion). I found that mixing it in small batches in small plastic cups was successful \u2014 you don&#039;t want to mix up too much at one time as it cures quickly. The top was a pretty easy paint-on\/soak-in application, but the side took a bit of trickery. Using a brush loaded with the mix, I let it dribble into the cracks &#8212; presumably the same way water would (so sealing was indeed a good thing). After the sealer dried, some auto-shop Bondo did well to fill in most of the larger cracks and holes. A special wood-epoxy-putty is sold, but it&#039;s pretty much the same as Bondo and is unnecessarily expensive. After a final sanding and priming (Zinzer 1-2-3 is my favorite exterior primer), it was ready to cap.<\/p>\n<p>We had called several folks about a beam-cap, but no one returned our calls, so I ended up heading to Big Orange for some stock sheet metal. 3 pieces of 1inX2in roof-edge flashing did the trick (2 long pieces + 2 cut pieces) along with a generous bead of PL-brand flashing sealant. While not as ideal as a one-piece cap, the metal was less that $10 for the 3 pieces and the sealant was $5, so for $15 plus a few screws, we have a beam-cap that looks very non-obtrusive and will protect way better than the non-existent coat of paint that was up there. For extra protection, prior to the beam cap, you could run a strip of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Grace-Vycor-Plus-1Roll-75\/dp\/B000WWN2NI\/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1408718450&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=vycor\" target=\"_self\">Vycor<\/a> or other self-adhering flashing to prevent any future water issues. I didn&#039;t do this, but in hindsight, it&#039;d have been a very simple and effective fix \u2014 these self-adhesive flashings were invented after the house was built and could be useful in many places where water might be a concern (I used a lot on the deck, for instance, but it would also be useful on the framing under the window sills, around framing for through-the-wall ACs, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>[Edited Fall 2014 with updated information]<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Screen shot 2011-11-10 at 8.13.07 AM\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a00d8345166b769e201a511fb4915970c img-responsive\" src=\"\/redneckmodern\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/6a00d8345166b769e201a511fb4915970c-300wi\" style=\"width: 282px\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-11-10 at 8.13.07 AM\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the items that tops the Eichler owners&#039; to-do list is exterior beam repair\/maintenance&#8230; and with the recent rains a few weeks ago, I was reminded that it was time to get busy in the atrium. I was worried that our exterior beam was dry-rotten on the top from exposure and lack of maintenance, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renovation-transformation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>TCB (Taking Care of Beams) - Red Neck Modern<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hunterwimmer.com\/redneckmodern\/2008\/11\/24\/tcb-taking-care-of-beams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TCB (Taking Care of Beams) - Red Neck Modern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the items that tops the Eichler owners&#039; to-do list is exterior beam repair\/maintenance&#8230; and with the recent rains a few weeks ago, I was reminded that it was time to get busy in the atrium. 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