It's Paint and Caulk—or Else! - Page 2

"Everytime I looked at them [in the past], it drove me crazy," the contractor admits. Consequently, "I have them custom-made for the Eichlers."

A metal-working friend fabricates end caps from galvanized sheet metal for Larson that are pre-fit to the size of Eichler beams. "These caps, because their edges are rolled, they don't dent," Larson says. "They're just a lot better."

A wood beam can lose up to 20 percent of its material and still be repairable before it needs replacing, but "sometimes they'll fool you. You don't know until you actually clean them out how far [rot] goes," he explained. "Oftentimes you can't tell how bad it is [without more scrutiny]."

Beam repair and replacement is a job best left to the professionals, especially with the risk to expensive walls of glass when putting large, heavy beams in place.

"There's a certain amount of finesse that goes with the difficulty," the 30-year contractor said of "choreographing" beam placement. "Knock on wood, I haven't broken any glass in all this time."

Homeowners can certainly do their own initial assessment of beam condition though.

"If you touch it and it feels like a saltine cracker, all crackly, that's dry rot. Anything that's sucked-in, that's dry rot," Larson advised. "You can only go so far before it's a replacement [project]."

When that's the case, Larson has a line on aged, architectural-grade Douglas fir beams, he said, noting, "It's all special-ordered. It's not something that you can get off the shelf."

For load-bearing beams, Larson will sometimes use a product called glulam that is even stronger, as it is made of several boards glued together and laminated.

"It carries more load [because] it's an engineered beam, and they're glued together," he said enthusiastically. "It has a pre-built crown, which also helps it hold more weight than standard beams. It has a real slight arch to it."

Larson said beam replacement can cost anywhere between $2,500 and $6,500 depending on the difficulty of the job.

But sometimes replacement isn't needed despite appearances otherwise. "There's nothing to support it, so it ‘wanders,'" he said of beams that appear to be listing. "I get a lot of calls on that."

"Homeowners think their beams are going to fall over. There's no way to fix it [short of actual replacement]," Larson said. "It's unsightly, but not unsafe.

"If it hasn't fallen over in 65 years, it's not going to!"

• For additional exploration into the world of beam damage and maintenance—including tips from a Streng contractor's perspective too—don't miss our archived story 'Those Dirty Rotten Beams.'

• For an Eichler Network preferred contractor to inspect and repair your home's beams, click here.