We had been looking for some beams to use on the living room and dining room ceilings and finally found some old growth beams in Seattle. The beams were originally installed in the Packard building, which was built in 1910, to house a Packard Auto dealership. From what we have learned, the building had at least two businesses occupy it during it’s 98 year life., the Packard car dealership and the Foley sign company. The building was torn down in 2008 to make way for new multi-use retail and residential building. A demolition company salvaged the lumber from the building and we were able to purchase a few of them.

As you might imagine, the beams needed a little work. We took them to Quality Solutions, a carpentry shop owned by Mike Anderson here in Olympia. Mike has the right equipment for cutting and planning large lumber like this. We started by cutting the beams down to the size we wanted, which was 8″ X 8” We then ran them through a planner to get all four sides smooth. From there we took them back to the house to finishes prepping them.

Using a hand power planner with a special curved blade, we proceeded to cut gouges into three sides of the beams. After that was completed, we sanded the beams with 60 grit and then again with 120 grit sandpaper. Then we coated them with a dark stain to contrast with the pine T&G boards we had already installed on the ceilings. After cutting the beams to fit between the walls and wedged them into place we crawled into the attic and secure them. We did this by laying 4X4’s across the top of the trusses bottom cords and then screwed ten inch long lags into the beams.

The end result is beautiful. It also fills good to know the beams have been given a new life ready to go for another 100 years.

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