5 reasons to never use wooden beams in your home
1. All beams twist and crack. As moisture leaves the wood, twisting and cracking can turn an attractive, decorative ceiling joist into a twisted monstrosity. Wood was once alive and had a very high moisture content. All wood used for house construction is kiln dried, hence names like KD Hem Fir, where KD is Kiln Dried. It is prohibitively expensive to oven dry large beams as the wood will twist and crack, at which point it will need to be plucked again. The price is usually 2 or more times that of a normal beam.
2. Beams require a structure designed to support them. When an architect builds a house, he can specify coffered ceilings, large wooden headboards, and all kinds of decorative wooden beams. To support the weight of these very heavy pieces of wood, the architect will also need to design the structure in a stronger way, to support the weight. This means bigger and more expensive trusses, as well as more wood in the walls, more bolts, etc. Many times the desired ceiling beam span cannot be achieved without the danger of roofs and trusses falling over, a very costly problem.
3. FOHC rays harm the environment. FOHC – Free Of Heart Center Beams are necessary for beams of any size as they are less prone to twisting (although they still do, only slightly less). To produce these large beams, very mature trees must be used, as the beam must be cut from the tree without the center of the heart being present. For a very common 12 “x 12” x 16 ‘beam, this requires the use of trees that are over 50 years old. These beams are often illegally harvested in the forests of South America, where the extraction of the trees, the habitat of many of the indigenous species, damages the ecosystem beyond measure. The larger the beam required, the greater the certainty that the beam was illegally harvested, in an unsustainable way and with serious environmental ramifications.
4. Mold and rot. This is a no-brainer. Even if you don’t live in an arid climate, there is great potential for the beam to be damaged. Rot and mold can appear with any lightning strike, devastating the appearance and creating mold spores that are potentially dangerous to you and your family.
5. Fire Safety – Wood beams provide fuel for any fire in your home. With enough wood located in the common areas of your home, a fire can spread with terrifying speed. Most of the building materials in your home are somewhat fire resistant, insulation, stucco, insulated wires, roofing tiles, etc. Even wood frame houses are fire blocked to help prevent fire from spreading. Many fires cannot spread fast enough to burn houses. But this calculation is dramatically altered by the presence of large pieces of wood.
Alternatives
There are several alternative solutions for decorative wooden ceiling beams. These products have not become as common as they should be due to the variety of quality and supply. Polyurethane beams are the best known and have earned a reputation for being fake in appearance. Even the best polyurethane beam never really looks like a piece of wood and is a disappointing replacement for a conventional beam.
The Box Beam is the best alternative. This is a decorative beam that has no structural purpose. It is made of 3 pieces of wood glued together. As you can imagine, this is just an option for a master craftsman, a professional carpenter who is equipped for that. This will not work for do-it-yourself, as without perfect technique the end result will look like glued pieces of wood. Done correctly, a box girder is indistinguishable from a real girder, seamless and seamless. It also contains blocking, which is one more way to prevent the risk of fire. Since it’s made from kiln-dried lumber, there’s no chance a box-beam coffered ceiling will look like a Tim Burton movie after a couple of years.