Two doors along from the house with (among other items
that I have made the
coffee table )
there is a thatched house with some new owners. The faux oak beams on the South Eastern gable end had been in position
for 80 years and were rotting, especially at the point where
they all met.
This is the same house that has an
oak porch and
oak gates also featured on
this web site.
The brief was to
remove the old beams, use them as templates and replace with
new.
Photo 1 below left: Original beams on the gable end.
Photo 2 below centre: The
timbers for the new beams are being shaped. The wood is
"beam oak" and is very "green" meaning, wet and not
seasoned much or at all. I am assisted
here by a former colleague and very good friend David
Curnow. We are outside my workshop which in a previous
life was a milking shed. The old beams serve as a template.
Photo 3 below right: Getting the
biggest of the old beams down, and the replacement beams up
required a block and tackle. .
Photo 4 below left: The new beams in place . The plugs were turned
up on my lathe and disguised the beam fixings. They
were hammered in along with generous helpings of
polyurethane glue.
Photo 5 below right: View from
the road with most of the new thatch in place
Photo: 6 below left: Another view of new beams.
Photo 7
below right: Some four
months later, the thatch is beginning to darken and the
owner has painted the beams with a protective finish.
