RSJ boxing design feature

330d

Were currently in the middle of a double storey extension. In the two bedrooms there will be a RSJ that will be slightly below the ceiling level, roughly around 15cm. We are looking at a few ways but unfortunately cannot have it flush with the current ceiling height. We can drop the whole room ceiling level by 15cm but rather not.

So i have seen online where you can make the boxing of the RSJ into a design feature like oak cladding. What other options have i got?

- Paint the boxing same as ceiling colour
- Paint it a contrast colour
- Oak cladding (expensive)

Any other suggestions? Photos would be helpful.

Another option I have seen is oak veneered plywood. As this RSJ is on the ceiling, i dont think it makes a difference if the cladding is real oak or a veneer. https://www.atlantictimber.co.uk/crown-cut-oak-veneered-plywood-8-x-4-sheets.html

Thoughts?

grumbler

The only problem with plywood is hiding the edges

330d

grumbler said:

The only problem with plywood is hiding the edges

Yes very good point.

FreeBear

grumbler said: The only problem with plywood is hiding the edges

For those of you that remember Blue Peter... Sticky Backed Plastic a.k.a. Fablon (I'll grab my coat)

Joking aside, paint it the same colour as the ceiling. It won't be as noticeable as timber cladding (which many consider to be naff)

Doozergirl

Just plaster it and paint it.  

It's not going to make a difference to your life.  It seems like a big deal now, but it's not. I remember having a bit of a huff about not making structure disappear over 15 years ago, but it made no difference to my life at all and I've spent the next 15 years telling clients not to worry.  It's such a common feature, it isn't a feature.  Don't make it one - you wee trying to hide it before now, so let it blend in.  

We have left 3 steels exposed in our kitchen and hallway but we had to paint them with all sorts of fire retardant paint to pass building regs.   One you'd be incredibly hard pressed to differentiate from the stair 'spindles' as I designed the staircase with 95mm spindles from floor to ceiling to match it, and the other two are painted the same colour as walls and ceiling.  They're not noteable, but leaving the steel visible
in the 21st century definitely more authentic than making fake boxing some kind of feature.   Why do you want to stare at something on the ceiling? 

There should be plenty of interior design to detract the eye.  If people are staring at your steel boxing, you've missed a trick somewhere else.   

GDB2222

Unless the house has lots of oak beams, cladding the rsj in oak will just look really weird.

If the rooms have coving, I would carry that round onto the rsj.

An alternative approach is to make a sort of concealed lighting pelmet out of it, which might look a bit retro.

Jeepers_Creepers

As everything above.

Before you try and actually 'make' something of this boxing - ie make it something it isn't (like a timber beam) - you need to be 100% sure, and then some, that it'll look right and add to the overall scheme. So, unless you have an older style property, and the rest of the room is decorated sympathetically, trying to make it look like a 'timber beam', whether old or contemporary, is likely to just look wrong.

That's not to say it cannot be made into a feature, perhaps leaving it exposed (if it's a nice hunky beam) or using dramatic colours to emphasise it could work, I don't know (and don't have that imagination).

Almost certainly, tho', a plain p'board&skim cover will be the best call. And painted the ceiling colour which, of course, will be matt white  

One thing I would suggest you could consider, tho' - 'thin' boxed-in beams can look awkward, I think; they look like just what they are, a 'cover' over a skinny and unavoidable beam.

Your beam protrudes by 150mm? How wide is it? I suspect no more than 150mm too, and perhaps even less. If so, I would suggest that a 6"x6" 'box' along your ceiling would look pretty hellish

I know you are trying to make it as unobtrusive as you can, but I'd suggest that a, I dunno, 300mm wide or more? beam would look far better than a 150mm wide one.

As said before, if you are coving your room, you'll have two coved sections instead of one, and this, too, will help make it look good.

The room I'm in now used to be the attached garage, That had an exposed timber beam something like 4" wide by 8" deep/high running its length, of which around 3" still protruded after I'd insulated and boarded the ceiling. I added timber side battens to end up with a (glances upwards) 300mm wide x 75mm deep boxed-in beam, whereas the actual beam inside protrudes only 100mm x 75mm. A 4x3 boxing would have looked awful, whereas I actually like the 12x3 one.