Heritage Oak Beam — 400-Year-Old Timber, Cambridgeshire
Heritage Oak Beam — 400-Year-Old Timber, Cambridgeshire
Four layers of paint — including bitumen — removed from a 400-year-old structural oak beam without damage to the original timber grain or surface character.
What the client needed
A Cambridgeshire property owner was restoring a 400-year-old oak-framed building. A key structural beam had been painted over multiple times across its lifetime, accumulating four distinct paint types including a bitumen-based coat. Chemical stripping was ruled out due to the risk of raising the grain and damaging the aged timber. Mechanical methods risked removing the patina and surface character that gives the beam its heritage value. The client needed a method that could remove all paint layers cleanly while leaving the original oak completely intact.
How we approached it
We carried out a structured parameter test on-site before committing to full treatment. Using blue masking tape, we mapped out test zones across the beam face and trialled different laser power settings and pass speeds against each paint type — recording the optimal parameters for each layer. The testing confirmed that a 300W non-contact pass at 80 tc / 180 tc removed the upper paint layers cleanly, while a 200W point-light pass at 100W handled the bitumen coat without scorching the underlying timber. Full treatment then proceeded using the validated parameters, working systematically across the beam face.
Outcome
All four paint types removed across the full beam. Original 400-year-old oak grain fully revealed with no surface damage, no grain raising, and no loss of patina. The beam is now ready for oiling or waxing to specification. Client confirmed the result exceeded expectations and commissioned treatment of the remaining beams in the property.
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