Best/cheapest way to hid an RSJ?

dllive

Hi. I have a smallish RSJ (20cm x 10cm by 300cm) I'd like to hide. Ive seen mock-wooden beams desigend for the job, but they work out at £40 per foot. Does anyone know a cheaper place or another way to disguise it?
Thanks

happybiker

Box it in with a bit of plywood or hardboard, then roughly coat it with artex or decorators caulk. when painted, it can look just like an old beam. No need to drill the beam or anything like that, either glue to it or wedge scrap wooden blocks into the 'I' sections and fasten to those

ormus

standard way is to wedge wooden noggins into the rsj and then screw plasterboard to em. (or dot dab).
skim over with plaster and job done.

ormus

similar to this one. you can adjust the depth of the noggins to suit.

iamcornholio

Instead of paying for mock timber beams, you can make your own with something like 20mm thick timber of suitable length and width, and then mitre the edges where the three sides meet so that you don't see any side grain and it looks like a solid timber

You will need noggins as per above

ormus

some ideas.

http://www.all-wall.com/Categories/Drywall-Texture-Rollers/Texture-Roller-Tree-Bark.html

you can buy tree bark texture rollers. or make yer own with a bit of lateral thinking.
or wood grain rollers.

teneighty

Just bear in mind that steel beams often have to be boxed in to provide fire resistance which is why plasterboard is common, half hour in most domestic situations.
You should be able to find the required details if you look on the plasterboard manufacturers web sites.

dllive

Thanks guys, some useful suggestions there.

oz0707

Use mdf instead of plasterboard and you do away with the plastering, perhaps make a feature of the joints or cut then plane and paint. Is there any requirement re fire regs?

Tucker

oz0707 wrote: »

Use mdf instead of plasterboard and you do away with the plastering, perhaps make a feature of the joints or cut then plane and paint. Is there any requirement re fire regs?

Building regs requires 30 mins fire protection. Basically, double 12.5mm plasterboard is the norn.

I doubt ply would pass regs as it would burn and decrease the fire protection to the beam.

Best to check if you care about the regs or how well protected the beam is from a safety point of view.

glp

We've just done exactly what you want to do. The builder did the RSJ work and double fireboard and wire around the fireboard but I asked him not to plaster it. I then built a wooden trough to slide up snug on to the RSJ and drilled, fixed and filled the countersunk holes. I used car body filler to hide the join of the 3 pieces of wood and it is now ready to stain. The wood we used was old scaffold planks which are already distressed and looked great with a wire brushing and rough sanding. If you feel the planks would be too heavy or bulky just find a way of slicing them in half which will still leave you with two rough faces but half the weight. What gets me about the fireboard to protect the RSJ is would you really sit around in a fire until the RSJ started to bend until you decided the building was unsafe to be in anymore?