More advice on wood choice

[Student]

As usual, I’m on the lookout for advice from the knowledgeable people on here. My son and daughter-in-law are having a new wood burning stove installed and want to have a non-structural wood lintel above the hearth to add character to the room. They’ve shown me some examples of the look they want on Google – see below - and want some idea of what wood to go for. It’s got to have a bit of character, not too dark and with a rustic look i.e. not planed all round to a perfect finish. My immediate thought was oak but has anybody got any better ideas.

http://www.stovesareus.co.uk/hillandale ... stove.html

http://www.woodburningstovesandflues.co ... 8LogBurner

http://www.qualitystoves.co.uk/product_ ... door-p-390

Thanks in anticipation.

Martin

 

[Sgian Dubh]

The last two links show what I'm pretty certain are oak lintels. The first link might be an oak lintel, but it may even be redwood that's been either sandblasted or abraded along the grain with a wire brush of some sort to scoop out some of the softer spring growth. A follow up to that could have been some light sanding and an application of a pigment stain wiped off almost immediately after application.

You can also get some interesting rusticated effects straight off the bandsaw or circular saw in most species, from softwoods to native hardwoods such as oak, chestnut, ash, elm, etc. Slainte

 

[undergroundhunter]

Could you not just buy an oak sleeper and age it accordingly, chances are it will have a few knots and cracks as it is.

Matt

 

[RobinBHM]

The first looks like softwood. The last one oak. Middle one Im not sure.

Oak is the right timber. If you dont want it to shrink and move, then you will limited to 3" or 4" kiln dried. 4" is expensive at around £90 per cbft. To achieve a rustic look it will need bandsawing to size or sand blasting. Alternatively buy an oak beam or a sleeper but even if its been air dried a long time it will move.

 

[Alexam]

This any good http://www.colwynfireplacecentre.com/pr ... -beams.php

 

[beaver]

My fireplace looks very similar to the third picture, I used an air dried oak beam 3"x9" over the last five years it has developed several cracks and twisted slightly off the brickwork one end by about 1/2", but I find it all adds to the look, and could have been there forever.

 

[undergroundhunter]

The alternative is something like a reclaimed floor joist, it should be dry and full of character.

Matt

 

[marcros]

This is a handy site which shows some of the effects that can be achieved on oak

http://www.oakbydesign.co.uk/products/i ... ms-colour/

 

[Student]

Thanks to everybody for their help - much appreciated by both myself and my "clients". They finally settled on oak, probably oiled or a clear finish, not antiqued. As the hearth has already been built, as son and daughter-in-law didn't specify they wanted a wood lintel earlier, I may be back to ask all you knowledgeable folk about the best way to fix a "false" lintel as they don't want to start dismantling the new chimney to fit a proper one.

 

[paulrockliffe]

The easiest way is resin and threaded bar. Get the rapid curing resin and you can just hold it in place for a minute and its done.

The difficulty is in ensuring it's level. The two I've just done have a pair of corbels and a board running between those that the main bit sits on. By running the board behind the corbel by a couple of inches, I could then screw it to the wall as a reference and support to make getting the rest on very easy.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you use threaded bar and resin, resin the studs into the wall first then mark the wood. That way if your holes in the stone are not level (which is likely) it won't matter. You could drill the holes in the wood slightly oversized and blind, fill them with resin, gently work the wood into position, hold for a few minutes and it's done with no holes through the front.

 

[paulrockliffe]

I marked the wall and the wood, drilled both with 11mm holes and used a 6mm bar, so enough play in each. Filled both ends of the holes, stuck the rod in the wall and lifted the mantel into place. If you do the wall first it's quite a bit harder to measure where the holes need to be on the wood for it to end up level as the ends of the bar are unlikely to be exactly perpendicular to the face of the wall.

It helped that I had the board already screwed to the wall though, as that took the weight and acted as the reference for getting everything level without trying to use a level while the resin is rapidly going solid.

What will work best depends on exactly what you're fixing to the wall though as it'll come down to how practical it is to actually get the thing on the wall.

For example, if it was a single board that was taller than it is deep it might be as easy to rout out a groove along the back to accept an inch square batton that you screw to the wall. The mantel can then be glued over the batton. I'd guess you want the support to extend between 50% and 75% of the thickness of the wood.

 

[RogerS]

Could you not just buy an oak sleeper and age it accordingly, chances are it will have a few knots and cracks as it is.

Matt

Only if you are happy to live with the smell of creosote for many, many years !

 

[Student]

Thanks again chaps.

My original thought was to go with stainless steel rods and resin but thought I ought to have a close look at the fireplace before doing any further planning.

The chimney Is made up of block work covered with dot and dab plasterboard and a 3mm approx. skim plaster coat. The current lintel seems to be a 12 cm x 4 cm stainless steel hollow box lintel over which the plasterboard extends. The fake wood lintel will probably only extend about 20 - 30 mm proud of the wall so rods and resin may not work. However, Paul R's idea of gluing to a batten looks eminently suitable as I can either screw the batten to the block work through the plasterboard or bolt it through the hollow lintel. Thanks for the idea Paul.

Martin