Am wanting to add decorative beams (at top of wall height) in a room with a cathedral ceiling – will use just for looks and for hanging pendant lights on one, so not load bearing. The span is 30 ft. Looking for the most cost effective method. Considered 2 x 6 or 8’s glued and nailed together with staggered end joints and then faced with hardwood, but thought the span might be too long for that to support it’s own weight. Wondered if a wood I beam construction (like a engineered floor joist of 2 x on top and bottom with osb center) then faced would work.
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Make a box beam with a 2X nailed to the roof structure and the rest should be 1X in whatever size you want.
For clarification, the beam won't be against the ceiling. This is a beam across the room at the top of the wall (9 foot above the floor) with a cathedral ceiling rising above it.
Whoops, my bad. I think your best bet would be a fake timber frame truss. My son has 3 of them in their FR for exactly the same reason and they look great but it took 2 highly skilled carpenters about a week to do each one.
It might be easier if you suspend from the ceiling. (with some narrow diameter cables)
I did this on a 16' span shed roof. I attached a 1x4 cleat to the roof. Where it was parallel with a rafter, I screwed directly in (used GRKs with a washer for extra contact). Where the cleat fell between rafters, I installed three ceiling fan mount boxes (the ends of the cleat could be fastened into structure at high and low side). I then built three sided box beams out of 1x material (we wanted about 5" height and about 5" width). I put a 45 on the edges, glued and nailed them together, then sanded, stained, polyed. Cut the right angle top/bottom and given it was humid summer, I cut them tight. They shrink about 3/16" at each end. In between top and bottom, perpendicular, I made smaller pieces so it really looks like purlins between top chords of a timber frame. It singlehandedly changed the appearance of this previously dull room, for a reasonable amount of time and money. You need a good, agile helper for the install to help. I was able to run fire sprinkler in three of the beams, too.
oops, I wrote that and took a picture, then saw your followup that you are doing something different.