Hidden ceiling beams? Advice needed!

[Anonymous]

I was just wondered if anyone has had any experience of hidden ceiling beams.

My house dates from 1850 and I have an original fairly thick beam in my living room which goes through the centre of the room. I noticed that my neighbour has a similar beam in his adjoining cottage but he has loads of thinner beams coming from this beam at right angles.

I don't think these have been removed as there are no marks on the beam but could they be covered over by the existing ceiling? How can I check?

The problem is my house was considerably altered in 1880 so I am not sure my beam would necessarily be the same as my neighbours so there can't be a like for like comparison.

Could his smaller beams be fake, which people in the seventies were keen to do?

Any advice/experience would be much appreciated!

Peter

 

[Anonymous]

Can you lift any floor boards in the room above to check?

 

[Anonymous]

Something must be holding up the ceiling - and the floor above... it's unlikely to be one central beam only!

 

[Anonymous]

Peter,

I would expect that there would be a number of smaller timbers at right angles to the big one, supporting the floor above your living room. If you can't see them they could be concealed above your ceiling.

If the floor above your living room seems reasonable sound when you jump around on it then there probably isn't much to worry about, especially if thr last modifications were 125 years ago.

There are a number of reasons why your neighbour's ceiling looks different, including the possibility that the teh smaller beams are fake; or that they used different size timbers in his house; or his ceiling is higher than yours etc...

Regards

Toby
http://www.TALLengineers.com

 

[Anonymous]

There are almost always timber beams holding floors up, and in most cases the ceiling is a plaster layer underneath those beams. So you've got a 99% chance of having beams.

The question is what do those beams look like, and you'll only find out if you lift a floorboard or pull down a bit of plaster ceiling. If your neighbour's are pretty, theres a fairly good chance yours will be too.

NT

 

[Anonymous]

Toby - while it's really smashing that you are able and willing to answer questions, and hopefully will join our merry (at times...) little band and post regularly, forum 'rules' suggest that links to a business in every post could be construed as advertising, so it's generally not encouraged. Otherwise we have had problems in the past with people using the site to simply advertise themselves, and also then their products. These posts tend to get removed by Simon once he spots them!

What is absolutely fine, however, is to post a profile of yourself, along with any link which may be helpful, on the profiles page (see the top of the main page) in order than anyone interested can look you up... and of course there is the 'Seeking Specialists' part of the site.

<IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">

 

[Anonymous]

Apologies,

The link was not intended to be for advertorial purposes; I just included it in case someone wanted to contact me directly (although obviously a forum is a good place to have a discussion if it is relevant to a wider audience). I didn't leave an email address for this purpose to avoid spam robots etc picking it up.

Regards

Toby

 

[Anonymous]

No - e-mail links aren't good I agree for that reason! If you are happy to give free off-site advice on occasions (but be careful or it can get a bit overwhelming...) then a 'coded' e-mail which can't be picked up by trawling works. Space it out, put 'at' instead of @, that sort of thing.

In general, we try to give advice on the forum, so all can benefit. Links to other sources of info, such as websites where relevant to the post, are also useful.

However - a Profile is a good idea - have a look at some of them.

Hope this helps!

Otherwise you may be at the mercy of Grimmers and his sense of - er - humour... <IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">

 

[Anonymous]

Of course, you may also be exposing wires, pipes, and noise from the floor above...

 

[Anonymous]

So if you pay £100 advert cost you can say what you like regardless of what the thought police have to say! and drum up lots of business.

Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

At the mercy of Grimmers??

What a truly horrifying thought!

 

[Anonymous]

No, you can't - the rules re ads on the forum still apply - but how on earth do you think the site keeps going? Charitable donations?

 

[Anonymous]

And we are very, very aware of people like you, so don't bother, OK?

 

[Anonymous]

E - while it's really smashing that you are able and willing to answer questions, and hopefully will join our merry (at times...) little band and post regularly, forum 'rules' actually state that: -

"Overtly commercial messages from businesses or organisations are not permitted."

So having a link at the bottom of your post is not in breech of this rule and you really should stop being condescending to people. (What are the chances of that?)

MJ

 

[Anonymous]

well said, time someone did

 

[Anonymous]

Disagree; most spammers clog up these sites with garbage and aren't interested in any adverse effects their post's have on the site, so long as they can push their tatty wares. Anyone recall the canvas tarpaulins man? He was spamming all over the UK. Property in Bulgaria, Feng Shui and porn links? No, thanks. Someone gets paid to weed this stuff out.

However, TM's post above doesn't come anywhere near these; 3 paragraphs of good stuff and a website signature. And he had the good manners to apologise.

How about a report abuse button?

 

[Anonymous]

I used to post here a lot and got a lot of good advice and hopefully was able to pass on a bit too, but I look in no more than quarterly because it's awash with drivel, mostly posted by and revolving around a few people who are either permanently on their high horse or under the impression that they are hysterically funny.
It's shame because the gold that is here is going to waste for want of a bit of more decisive forum moderation.
Forums work best when they are seen to be policed - with postings clearly deleted and threads locked when they descend to name-calling etc and ultimately persistent offenders being banned. Without that it's like watching school-children when the teacher steps outside the classroom for 5 minutes.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thanks fo rthe advice, I only want to expose the beams if they were originally exposed. If I was to expose them they would have to be plaster between them overwise pipes etc will be exposed, as Evelyn points out. i am going to ask a few more neighbours to see what their ceilings are like and I'll keep you posted on whethe I will take this further!

Many thanks

Peter

 

[Anonymous]

Zero!

 

[Anonymous]

Do you not find it strange that when E is away the posts by Schoolmarm etc desist??