I'm finishing the basement in my house and I'd like to cover a metal I-beam in a manner that makes the I-beam look like a long wooden beam. Depending on how I finish the rest of the basement, the span that I'd like to cover this way could be 14, 29 or even 46 feet in length. I've seen this kind of thing but I have no idea where to start. Could you point me to a good reference for this kind of work? I'm afraid I would need fairly detailed instructions.
Answer:
I've done it with 1" stock cedar. This comes in lengths up to 22 feet and I was lucky enough for the beam to be only 4" wide and 6" deep. A half inch from one edge I routed 3/4" grooves, 3/8" deep the full length (46 feet) on two 1X8s. A 1X6 then fit into these two grooves, was glued and nailed and I had a trough, the inside of which was four and three quarter inch wide and six inches deep. At the appropriate spots, I drilled the necessary holes to accommodate the jack posts and then nailed 1" strips of cedar to the tops of the two sides of the trough and was able to toe-nail the upper edges of that same trough to the bottoms of every third joist. This phase can be done in a great number of ways. If I had a a problem with depth (jack post plates, etc.)I used quarter-inch plywood plates inside the trough and was able to nail them to blocks (to suspend the whole trough) between joists rather than trying to toe-nail. In fact, the beam I made was installed in parts - the two sides I nailed in and the bottom of it I fitted in between the jack posts. Gluing and nailing was quite simple after that.
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