Flakey Situation - Refinishing Outdoor Beams // With What??

[Svebster]

Hi,

I have a couple of beams (about 6" x 6") that hold up the side of the roof on my house and the finish on them is flaking and peeling off just like skin on a sunburn. I's some kind of laquer and it's coming off mostly on the sun faced sides. I want to refinish the beams and have 2 questions:

1. How should I strip the old finish and prepare the beams? Belt sander, plane, scraper, ... ?

2. as a finish would a natural mixture of boiled linseed oil and beeswax be good for this?

Thanks for any help!

[BobL]

No matter what type of transparent finish you use be prepared to have to repeat this every 5 years or so as no transparent finish will withstand the effect of even indirect UV. Boiled linseed and bees wax would not last very long. To get 5 years you would need to use a polyurethane or epoxy finish.
Just thank your lucky stars that you don't live in Australia where you would have to refinish every 2 years.

If you want the job to last for 15-20 years then nothing short of a quality solid colour external paint can do this.

[Svebster]

Thanks! Does anyone can help me out with what kind of technique would be pest to strip the wood?

[BobL]

Thanks! Does anyone can help me out with what kind of technique would be pest to strip the wood?

Is the timber flat or does it have curves or grooves machined into it? Photos might help

[Svebster]

Sorry, no pictures as Im not there right now but the timber is flat and square nothing else just 6x6 beams

[Christos]

As the finish is peeling you would need to scrap off as much of this as you can.

To remove the remainder of the finish there is no easy way of doing this. The belt sander will be heavy after 10 minutes of use and then the clogging of the belts will need cleaning. An electric plane will also be heavy after some time of use. A palm sander might be easier to handle but it might be very slow going.

To avoid fatigue you need to be higher then the beam where your shoulders are well above the beam. I have used a hand scraper to clean up the ceiling of our family house. I was laying flat and only needed to reach up slightly to get under the peeling paint. Very messy process.

You might want to look at paint stripper and be very careful to avoid any of this stuff getting into your eyes or even touching your skin. I have used this in the pass on pieces that were on the ground then washed them down.