Home Improvement : Fake Beams Can Hide Cracks, Other Defects

Looking for a way to hide a persistent ceiling crack? Want to hide those ugly steel posts in your basement? Like to give ordinary drywall a post-and-beam Tudor look?

You can accomplish all these goals and more with fake beams. Although most lumberyards sell realistic-looking beams made of plastic, I prefer to make my own, using ordinary 1-inch lumber.

A good all-around size is 1-by-6. They give you a finished beam 5 1/2 inches wide, that looks about right in most cases. 1-by-4s look a little bit skimpy, and 1-by-8s, a little large.

If you can find rough-cut cedar, by all means use it. This will automatically give your beams a rustic look. You can also use ordinary pine and rough it up a bit after it’s assembled to give it that hand-hewn, rustic look.

Let’s make a ceiling beam first. Here is the basic beam-building technique. To start, buy three 1-by-6s at least as long as your intended beam.

When you get them home, cut each of these to length. Next, bevel both edges of one piece to a 45-degree angle. This will be the bottom of the beam. Then bevel one edge of each of the other two pieces. These will be the sides of the beam. You can cut your bevels with a table saw, radial arm or a portable circular saw.

Now glue and nail these three pieces together as shown in the sketch. Use ordinary white or yellow glue, and six-penny (2-inch) finishing nails. Let the glue dry for an hour and then the beam is ready to install.

To do this, cut some scrap lumber to a width that will fit snugly inside the open top of your beam. Any old scraps of 1-inch pine or 3/4-inch plywood will do. Now take these scraps and fasten them to the ceiling, along the line you want your beam to follow. If you are using your beam to hide a crack, you can simply nail these scraps in place. There will be a ceiling joist directly over the crack.

Now you can slip the beam up over this line of scraps and secure it to them with finishing nails. If you want to finish the beam--maybe staining it to look old and dark--you should do so before hanging it. This way you won’t have to worry about getting any finish on the ceiling.

You can use this same technique for installing “antique” posts on your wall. This is an easy way to cover the joints between sheets of dry wall and thus eliminate the job of taping. Let’s say you want to finish off a basement. Do the walls with gypsum board.

Instead of taping and carefully covering all the nail heads, just smear on a rough coat of wallboard compound with a trowel to get that rustic, hand-plastered look. Then cover all the joints between sheets with posts and you have a Tudor basement. As a bonus, you can also use these posts to hide plumbing or new electrical runs.

Hiding Posts. To cover up those ugly steel posts in your basement, you’ll have to modify your technique somewhat.

Instead of making a three-piece beam, you need to use four pieces. And you’ll have to bevel all four corners. Glue and nail three of the four pieces together and slip the beam around your post.

Then glue and nail on the fourth side to complete the job.