Painting Roof Support Beams

Wow, it's really been a long time since I posted on my blog.  But then it's been a while since I did anything new around the house.

This week I tackled what I thought would be a small project.  Though I've been putting it off, and it turned into a 2 day ordeal.  I've been wanting to paint the roof support beams the same gray as my siding.  Originally they were painted with a clear urethane coating, but while I liked seeing the wood grain on the glulam beam, I didn't care for it on the posts. The last couple of winters have seriously abused these wooden posts.  Snow builds up and water has leached up from the bottoms, so the urethane turned white and was peeling off in long strips.  That was easy enough to peel off for a foot or so, but the rest had to be sanded.  And my hand sander died, so I spent a good 4 hours yesterday, sanding both of these beams.  And the ends of the glulam beam have really weathered, so I sanded both ends too.

So here is the glulam beam freshly coated with a exterior urethane coating.  The whole beam got a fresh coat, and both sanded ends got 3 coats over the course of the day.

The worst part of the whole project were the mosquitos.  I had to wear long sleeves, gloves and a bug net.  UGH.

Sanded Posts

Posts painted with primer

Posts with 2 coats of paint

Finished project

But the other wildlife was fun.  A small bull moose, maybe a 3 year old at the most, ran through the yard at one point.  Glad I was up on my ladder and he was in a hurry.  And as I'm writing this a pair of Sandhill Cranes just walked up my driveway.  They must have come up through my back yard.  I'm guessing I'll see then head back down the driveway, in an hour or 2.

So the next project is interior painting.  I finally admitted to myself I was never going to do that, and hired a painter.  She's doing a great job.  I'm hoping she gets to all my exterior doors soon.  The front door pictured above will be a bright fuchsia.  But that will be the subject of another post.