Rustic Basement Thread

[-Brent-]

Nice work on that bracket. You have skill!

I'm about to delve into my DIY barn door hardware for doors to cover a window in my shop. I'm using meat vintage hook trolleys. My stops are fabbed from angle iron and I need to source some type of rubber plug as a bumper. I haven't figured what exactly but I have a few options. I have less than $50 into it (so far) and it should look dang-near identical to commercially offered kits new or vintage.

 

[383]

Nice work on that bracket. You have skill!

I'm about to delve into my DIY barn door hardware for doors to cover a window in my shop. I'm using meat vintage hook trolleys. My stops are fabbed from angle iron and I need to source some type of rubber plug as a bumper. I haven't figured what exactly but I have a few options. I have less than $50 into it (so far) and it should look dang-near identical to commercially offered kits new or vintage.

Sounds like a neat project, post some pics when you get a chance.

I was finally able to spend a day working on the basement. I spent the day on my least favorite part of the project, trying to make the new boards look old. The first picture shows the implements of torture I'm using, the second is some treated boards drying in the sun.

 

[mcmaster68]

Really, nice work. love the small details.

 

[ddurrett896]

Is this store bought lumber? What are the dimensions??? 1x?

 

[383]

Is this store bought lumber? What are the dimensions??? 1x?

We stock #2 White pine 1x12's where I work. I wanted the look of random widths, so I rip some in half to get 1x6's, and some at the quarter point to get 1x4's and 1x8's, so I have four different widths.

I'm making a ship-lap on each edge so you don't see a crack between the boards. I don't have a router table or a dado blade, so I have to run each piece on my table saw four times to make the ship-lap. That means that each 1x12 that I don't leave full width has nine passes on the table saw. Maybe I should have just used full width 1x12's.....

You can see the different widths better in this picture.

 

[383]

I built a wall closing off a 10'x14' room from the rest of the basement. This is where I'm going to install the sliding door with the hardware that I saved from an old barn. The track end cap that I made from a piece of angle isn't a perfect match to the original, but I'm happy with it.

 

[Lootenny]

Awesome work! We have harvested barn wood, and it can be an adventure! Had permission from a landowner to take some boards off an old building, and as we cut off some of the side we uncovered a homeless squatter's hooch he had built on the second floor! Glad he wasn't there at the time, he was going to be pissed when he got back! So far we have used it as accent walls.

We are going to try your procedure soon, the wife wants to use more rustic look in the master bed and bath we want to rehab, and like you said, it's gotten tough and expensive to find the "real" thing. Thanks for the information!

Looking forward to more pics!

Denny O.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Absolutely awesome attention to detail and thank you for sharing..

Regards

 

[383]

Awesome work! We have harvested barn wood, and it can be an adventure! Had permission from a landowner to take some boards off an old building, and as we cut off some of the side we uncovered a homeless squatter's hooch he had built on the second floor! Glad he wasn't there at the time, he was going to be pissed when he got back! So far we have used it as accent walls.
We are going to try your procedure soon, the wife wants to use more rustic look in the master bed and bath we want to rehab, and like you said, it's gotten tough and expensive to find the "real" thing. Thanks for the information!

Looking forward to more pics!

Denny O.

Your walls are beautiful! If you are trying to match the walls you have with the procedure I'm using, adding a stonger black tea will give it more of a gray appearance. I'm going for the look of the inside of a barn instead of the outside weathered look, so I'm trying for more brown than gray.

Absolutely awesome attention to detail and thank you for sharing..

Regards

Thank you very much.

 

[383]

I covered the beam that runs through the center of the basement, boxed in the post at the center of the room, and added posts at the ends, to match the sidewall posts. I thought about adding some LVL's and removing the post from the center of the room, but I like the look of the post there, and it gave me a place to get some receptacles in the center of the room.

 

[Terrick down Under]

That is soooo cool. It is so fantastic to see what you have done.

 

[Lee Celtic]

Many years ago while at the school of Furniture in Manchester UK (yes it's a real collage) we were asked by the National Trust to make a desk to stand in for the real Captains desk on The Cutty Sark at Greenwich. We were asked to make the desk look as original as we could while the real desk went off to be restored and worm proofed.

It was only seen from the front by tourists so the main carcass was made of MDF but the top and front were real timber.

We too had the problem of aging it to look authentic. As it was a desk we had to add ink stains and scratches but the best things we found for marking it were a small length of chain with a bunch of old keys on the end swung hard against the wood.. and for worm holes we threw had fulls of darts at the corners of certain panels (not all panels get infested depending on if it's heart wood or sap wood so holes tend to be grouped) We also had to french polish it and strip it then polish it over and over to build up grime for want of a better word in the grain.

Overall yours looks great and the workmanship is awesome. I love the look of old timber.. I have a pitch pine beam in my kitchen recovered from an old chapel that was torn down 25 years ago in our village and at least 200 years old.. All I had to do was jet wash it and bolt it over the steel that holds up the old part of the house as camouflage.. you can also see my used wine cork collection.. currently working on the ones I need for the other side..

Watching with interest as you continue..

 

[383]

Many years ago while at the school of Furniture in Manchester UK (yes it's a real collage) we were asked by the National Trust to make a desk to stand in for the real Captains desk on The Cutty Sark at Greenwich. We were asked to make the desk look as original as we could while the real desk went off to be restored and worm proofed.

It was only seen from the front by tourists so the main carcass was made of MDF but the top and front were real timber.

We too had the problem of aging it to look authentic. As it was a desk we had to add ink stains and scratches but the best things we found for marking it were a small length of chain with a bunch of old keys on the end swung hard against the wood.. and for worm holes we threw had fulls of darts at the corners of certain panels (not all panels get infested depending on if it's heart wood or sap wood so holes tend to be grouped) We also had to french polish it and strip it then polish it over and over to build up grime for want of a better word in the grain.

Overall yours looks great and the workmanship is awesome. I love the look of old timber.. I have a pitch pine beam in my kitchen recovered from an old chapel that was torn down 25 years ago in our village and at least 200 years old.. All I had to do was jet wash it and bolt it over the steel that holds up the old part of the house as camouflage.. you can also see my used wine cork collection.. currently working on the ones I need for the other side..

Watching with interest as you continue..

The desk sounds like an interesting project, would love to see pictures of it. Your beam looks great too.

One problem I'm having with distressing the wood is deciding how much time to spend on each piece. I'm going to have over 1,500 sqft to do, I can't put the same amount of detail in each piece of wood that I could if I were building a piece of furniture.

 

[Lee Celtic]

You could have a denting party.. Hand weapons out at the door as guests arrive..lol

it's also missing a few carvings.. add your initials and a date with a pen knife somewhere.. it will always be a talking point.

 

[383]

How did you secure the wood sections to your basement wall?

You mentioned that you glued the insulation. Do you glue the wood section too? Or did you screw them to the floor and ceiling?

Looking great!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It isn't fastened to the wall, only to the floor and ceiling. I'm using Simpson Titan wedge screws through the bottom plate into the floor (I painted them an oil rubbed bronze so they match the other exposed hardware), and after standing the section up, I use a 2x4 to secure top top and create a nailer for the top of the beam. It's kind of hard to explain, I'll post some pics that show the details on the next section I do.

I had to take one section of the beam cover down to pull a wire, so I took a couple of pics that show how the wall section is fastened.

In this picture of a wall section on the floor you can see that the siding boards extend about 10 inches above the horizontal 1x4. The 1x4 will be the bottom of the beam.

This picture is after the wall section is in place. The 2x4 sandwiches the siding boards against the insulation, and is fastened to the bottom of the floor joists. It also creates a nailer for the top of the beam.

The 1x10 beam facer is then fastened to the 1x4 at the bottom, and the 2x4 at the top. The hollow beam and posts create a cavity for wiring since there isn't a stud cavity.

 

[383]

You could have a denting party.. Hand weapons out at the door as guests arrive..lol

I am being fairly aggressive with a couple of sizes of chain, a hammer, and the back side of an axe creating dents, but the vinegar solution makes the wood swell, and the dents mostly disappear. It does leave discoloration where the dent was, so it still looks good. I could beat it up a little more after the stain is applied, but it doesn't look too bad the way it is. You can see the dark spots where the dents were in this picture of the door.

 

[SNH4Car]

Looks great! Very similar to my new game room. It was built by a guy who builds barns and used reclaimed barn posts to make this room. So you're doing awesome if it looks similar!

 

[383]

Looks great! Very similar to my new game room. It was built by a guy who builds barns and used reclaimed barn posts to make this room. So you're doing awesome if it looks similar!

Your game room looks great! The biggest difference I see is that my posts and beams don't have the large, deep splits that you commonly see in large timbers.

What type of flooring do you have? My floor is one thing that I am still undecided on.

 

[SNH4Car]

Your game room looks great! The biggest difference I see is that my posts and beams don't have the large, deep splits that you commonly see in large timbers.

What type of flooring do you have? My floor is one thing that I am still undecided on.

It's cheapo laminate that's popping up in some places and has dog urine residue somewhere in one of the corners lol. It's light and looks too modern. I like the look of the dark hand scraped wood tile but don't know if it will make the room look like too much old wood everywhere. I am going for an old Irish pub look when I get the chance to work on it so it might work for me.

We have really nice wide plank dark wood in a few of our rooms. I'll see if I can find a picture, they look nice.

 

[SNH4Car]

This first picture is wide plank but a little lighter than the one I was looking for. This is now our movie theater room with denim blue walls and black curtains/couch etc.

And these are the darker ones. They don't look too dark in the picture but the wood paneling on the wall is very dark so it might make them look lighter. But I love these floors, just thought I'd share!

 

[383]

I like the look of the dark hand scraped wood tile but don't know if it will make the room look like too much old wood everywhere. I am going for an old Irish pub look when I get the chance to work on it so it might work for me.

We have really nice wide plank dark wood in a few of our rooms. I'll see if I can find a picture, they look nice.

Those wide plank floors are awesome! I would love to have that look in my basement, but don't know of a cost effective (cheap) way to do it on top of my concrete floor.

I also thought about having too much wood if I have it on the walls, ceiling, and floor, but that is the way old barns are. I am going to use stone veneer on half of one wall (behind the wood stove) to break it up a little, and hopefully create the look of an old limestone foundation.

 

[Reit38]

Subd

I've been thinking of doing this to one wall in my man cave in our basement

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

 

[383]

Finally getting back to work in the basement. Got the sliding door hung, but it wanted to hang away from the wall at the bottom. To take care of this, and serve as a door stop, I cut a groove in the bottom of the door, epoxied a steel pin in the ends of the groove to act as a door stop, and bolted a bracket to the floor that runs in the groove in the door. (Photobucket is horrible, so I can't post the pics like the rest of them in this thread.)

 

[383]

I also got most of the work done on another wall, I still need to trim out the window and finish the beam. Don't pay attention to the hand-me-down furniture that was moved to the basement when we got new furniture upstairs.

 

[SilverBullitt]

This looks great. What are you going to do on the ceiling?

 

[The Cobbler]

Nice work. I have stained & urethaned 400 sqft of t&g white pine for the ceiling of my shop. I too experimented with lots of ratios , in the end I used 6 cups vinegar to 1 wool pod. after it all broke down I diluted 6to1 with water , then 3 coats of semi oil base urethane for protection . I didn't use the tea as I wanted a lighter tone to it. some pics in my build thread .

 

[cort]

Looking great!

 

[383]

This looks great. What are you going to do on the ceiling?

The ceiling will be very similar to the wood on the walls, with beams underneath approx 5' o.c.. With all of the dark wood, I'll need to be sure to have plenty of lights.

Nice work. I have stained & urethaned 400 sqft of t&g white pine for the ceiling of my shop. I too experimented with lots of ratios , in the end I used 6 cups vinegar to 1 wool pod. after it all broke down I diluted 6to1 with water , then 3 coats of semi oil base urethane for protection . I didn't use the tea as I wanted a lighter tone to it. some pics in my build thread .

Your lumber looks great! One thing that I notice with this method, there is a lot more color variation in the wood than you see with most stains, it brings out the natural colors of the wood. I tried your trick of adding soap to the solution, it seemed like it made the stain lighter in color, but I may not have waited long enough for the stain to finish darkening.

Looking great!

Thanks!

 

[Terrick down Under]

I;m no good with timber, which makes it harder to say...I like that!

 

[cybrdyke]

Any chance we can get an update on this project? I'd love to see how it looks !!
Thanks

 

[383]

Any chance we can get an update on this project? I'd love to see how it looks !!
Thanks

I am almost finished with another wall, I will try to post some pics this weekend. Thanks for checking in.

 

[The Cobbler]

......


Your lumber looks great! One thing that I notice with this method, there is a lot more color variation in the wood than you see with most stains, it brings out the natural colors of the wood. I tried your trick of adding soap to the solution, it seemed like it made the stain lighter in color, but I may not have waited long enough for the stain to finish darkening.



Thanks!

I agree that the wood has a more varied colour to it than you get with stain.
the soap may lighten it, I never thought of it, but you're onto something I think.

 

[383]

I have pretty much finished the walls, except for the section that will be covered with stone, and started on the ceiling. I wanted access to the ceiling in case I need to pull a wire, or get to a water shut-off, so I'm making most of the ceiling removable. It's hard to explain, hopefully the pictures will help.

I started by fastening 2x4 blocks to the bottom of the floor joists to give some room above the ceiling boards.

I attached two rows of 1x12s to the blocks toward each end of the ceiling, and mounted my lights in these rows, then fastened a block at the location of the ceiling beams. The ceiling beams are made from 1x12's so they are hollow, and slip over the blocks attached to the ceiling.

 

[383]

After the beams are installed the rest of the ceiling boards just lay on top of the beams so they can be lifted out if I need access. In the pictures you can see that one row of the ceiling boards isn't laying flat. When I spaced the permanent rows I set them about a half an inch narrow to allow for the boards shrinking when I crank up the wood stove. If they don't shrink enough to lay flat, I'll rip whatever is needed on the table saw.

 

[The Cobbler]

so essentially you have a lay in ceiling where the boards rest on top of the beams and can be removed for access above .
good idea, thanks for sharing

 

[383]

so essentially you have a lay in ceiling where the boards rest on top of the beams and can be removed for access above .
good idea, thanks for sharing

Thanks for explaining it better than I did.

 

[cybrdyke]

Keep the updates coming 383!
Good stuff!
CD

 

[383]

After making several gallons of the vinegar stain, I finally have a recipe to get to the color I want. To make one gallon, I start by pouring enough vinegar to make a full 12 cup pot into the coffee maker (this also is a great way to clean the coffee maker). I put two family size tea bags and two 0000 steel wool pads into the pot of hot vinegar (an old pot, not the one I use for coffee). After it soaks for a week, I use a piece of landscape fabric to strain it, then pour it back in to the remaining gallon of vinegar.

Even when I do it exactly the same, the color varies from one batch to the next. I try to make a batch while I still have a half gallon or so left, and mix the two batches together.

 

[383]

Yesterday I made six beams for the other half of the ceiling. I'm making them out of the same 1x12 white pine lumber that I used for walls. I can make a 3 1/2"x5 1/2" beam from each 1x12.



I'm putting them together with GRK trim screws every couple of feet, and then adding 1 1/4" finish nails between the screws.







I then use an axe to make the corners uneven, and a block plane to round them off.





After sanding, they are ready for stain.

 

[Rudyjr]

Wow I love looking at this thread! I have done quite a few basements but have never done anything that came close to this. Great information and tips and tricks in this build. Thanks