Front beams cracking up
Hi,
My front beams top protection did not protect so much... so my beams get water and sun that make the wood cracking on the top and also on the side.
Any good advice on what to do to fix them?
Also I'll need a new metal shield on top so if anyone knows where to get them, that would be great.
Thanks
B
here's what we did: http://redneckmodern.typepad.com/redneckmodern/2008/11/tcb-taking-care-o...
what's not visible are the 1in truss-head screws i used to fasten the 2 pieces of flashing at the top (a truss-head screw is wide head, flat screw). i fastened them together in the middle about 12in apart down the length of the beam. in the middle, the screw goes through both pieces of flashing and secures the whole mess to the beam. there's a good, good bit of flashing sealant under the flashing itself that squishes out when you drill and screw to help seal the screw penetration. not as good as a solid piece, but solid enough for me. all in all, the materials came in at under $15 and -- once the beam itself was repaired -- took little time to install.
Thank you. Nice ideas!
One other issue I have is that some of my beams are narrowers. So previous owner put two pieces of wood on each side so they get the same width that the others. Issue is that the pieces of wood do not fit well and have wide openings.
Any other good idea on how to fix this?
wildcat metals made our post covers. It took a couple of tries though for them to deliver what I asked for.
I went to a local HVAC shop several years ago and had them fabricate flashings for all my exposed beams (2) and beam ends (6). This is easy for them since they have to fabricate custom ductwork for HVAC projects. It was a couple hundred dollars and well worth it. All you need is a good set of dimensions and some sense about flashing. Paint to match and nobody will ever notice. This is assuming they're not too far gone. Ours weren't - yet.
