To conceal or not conceal beam in knocked through kitchen diner

[sparkling123]

Hello, we're some fairly straight forward work done. Knocking through between the kitchen and dining room. I had just assumed we would be left with the beam visible in the ceiling along where the old wall was, and was fine with that. When I say visible I mean boxed in and plastered, etc, but jutting down. But had 2 builders come round to quote and mentioned we could have the beam put in flush with the ceiling, at an extra cost. I was wondering if anyone else had made a similar decision, what did you go for in the end and why? Does anyone have a knocked through room (could be any) and does having the beam jutting down from ceiling actually bother them?

It'll look less like you've knocked two rooms into one. I'd consider it - ask what it would entail because it might mean work upstairs.

We have a room that is actually 3 in to 1 and is a delight of beams plus a lower ceiling in one section because of a previously interesting 2 story extension. We've just knocked down a bit more wall. Hiding the beams wasn't really a choice because some were already there / they're all completely massive / budget constraints but actually they work quite well to 'zone' a multi-function space (kitchen / dining / family room). It's a reasonable size (45m2) & might possibly feel a bit echoey without the different sections (esp as in 2 areas ceilings are 2.8m high.

I also like that you can see the history of the house (1930s) & how it's been changed for different styles of living / over time. But that is a particular thing of mine.

if it can be done (is much easier if the upstairs joists run parallel to the beam, and/or there is not a brick wall on top) it will look neater.

Make sure it is included on the building control plans, and look at the plans yourself to verify that what they show correctly represents the way your house is built. I don't know what else you can do to satisfy yourself that it is correctly and safely done.

They may need to put jacks through the ceiling supporting "needles" through the upstairs wall during the work so you will have a fair amount of dust and replastering.

I wouldn’t bother. We had one in the hiuse before, we’re keeping it.
We have plastered beams in two of our bedrooms due to architect messups, I just take it as it adds character.
Mind you if I went for an all modern, flush decor I’d probably want to hide it. We kept the house’s original looks.

Thanks for the feedback, good to have some different opinions.
I'm now thinking more towards having it showing. The engineer currently doing drawings mentioned that we may need to have a pier / column on external wall, so having this stops us achieving a streamlined look anyway. We also have a waste pipe (boxed in column) next to where the pier would potentially go, so no, a streamlined look isn't really achievable now I'm thinking from that point of view. Thanks for PP for mentioning that!

@sdaisy26 I think will go down the route of using these columns / beams to create zones as they are roughly where the kitchen / dining area splits with a breakfast bar / island (undecided which yet).

@PigletJohn the beam will be perpendicular to the joists above. I think from what your saying this will make it more complex.

I'm looking to keep costs down also as we have a baby due in October, why do one thing when you can take on lots of stressful projects at same time 😂

Thanks everyone for advice 👍

Hi Sparkling. We knocked our kitchen and dining room together a few years ago and had the same thing.
We actually lowered the ceiling to conceal the beam. This also let us wire in down lights much easier. Might be worth thinking about if your room height will take it. Was cheaper and less hassle IIRC.

Thanks @Trashcanoracle, I think our ceilings are a little too low for this being a newer house, I would have gone for that in a house with higher ceilings.

I think this is fine in a kitchen diner - zones it nicely.

I can't stand them in lounge diners (but I think they're an abomination anyway).

on the subject of zoning, my previous house had a beam from the old kitchen to the living area, and my current one used to have some fixed half-height barrier walls to divide it.

But if you want to change the proportions of the different uses, a visible divider is I think an obstacle that limits your imagination, and the visual effect. You can always divide it yourself with a peninsular or something in a place of your choice.

Check that the ceiling heights are the same in each room. We couldn't have a flush beam as we have different ceiling heights.