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Paint Basements

Need some ideas for painting rough sawn beams

4 years ago

We have a 1925 bungalow and are pseudo-finishing our basement. We’ve put up walls but are leaving the ceilings exposed. I’ve already done some research on here for whitewashing rough sawn lumber, and are we’re definitely going to be doing that but my question has to do with the ceiling joists. They are rough sawn to the point where they almost look shredded. Should i try to paint them? If so, what is the best method for that? Or, should I just leave them unpainted and only paint the sub-floor?

Thanks for the help!

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Comments (3)

cat_ky
4 years ago
I would leave them, and just paint the sub floor. Paint will never look good on those. They were not meant to be exposed in a finished space.
User
4 years ago
You'd have to remove all the bracing one at a time, to get a belt sander with a 20 grit on them, then work your way up the grit ladder, to paint those at all effectively. 5 gallons of paint each, at some point later, you’d give up and they’d still look like a 80’s spiky punk haircut.

They were never ever meant to be exposed in a living space. Which is why you should do a dropped ceiling.
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Amber Gosnell
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you both! In order to do a dropped ceiling we’d have to dig into the foundation to meet the city code for ceiling height. So, we just decided to paint.

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