Escape to the Country

[Tom Bender]

Been watching this show recently. Brits go shopping for country houses. Exposed ceiling beams painted black are in style, the more irregular the better. What I'm wondering is 'where do they get all that terrible lumber'? In the US we would have to cut it ourselves and no building inspector would approve it in any structural application.

[Lee DeRaud]

My suspicion is that those beams are either purely decorative or hand-hewn oak from (or still in) centuries-old cottages. In the second case, they're probably stronger than the stuff we consider normal structural material.

[Mark Hennebury]

Home depot

[Jim Koepke]

Just watched a shortened episode.

It wouldn't surprise me to find lumber is very different in Great Britton than here in the U.S.

The codes, if any, were likely different when these buildings were built.

Even here there are exceptions allowed to the codes for people building log cabins and such.

jtk