Cover Up Basement Support Posts (Lally Columns)
Thursday August 10, 2006 | Permalink
A friend of mine is planning to finish his basement. He's not into the home theater scene and thats Ok, but he did mention he didn't know what to do with his support posts.
The problem with support posts (or lally columns) is that they're always located in the most inconvenient places. They're supposed to help hold up your house so the architects space them out every 8 to 10 feet along a support beam to help distribute all that weight.
The downside for home theater builders is that they always seem to end up smack dab where you'd love to put that couch.
The bad news is that there's just no easy or cheap way to move a support post so lets not even go there. For the do-it-yourselfer, the best you can hope for is to rearrange your home theater layout to something you would still like.
If you really want to move the post, you should consult a structural engineering company. One solution to removing a support post is to reinforce the existing support beam with a stronger beam made of steel or laminated veneer lumber. Another is to supplement the support beam with a second beam. Both are messy and expensive propositions.
Lets just stick to just hiding the post. Here you can do several different things.
• Build the column into a new wall.
• Wrap the column with carpetting.
• Build a box around it.
• Hide the column within a pre-manufactured product.
If you were going to build a wall near the post, consider changing your plan a bit to hide the post within the wall itself. Wrapping the column with carpetting is probably the easiest solution for most people. You can also just build a plain box around the post. Take a look at covering a support beam for how-to's to tackle these problems.
You can also use pre-finished product. One such product is called Pole Wrap. Its a semi-rigid plastic covering that looks like a real wooden column. You can buy these products at retail outlets like The Home Depot. A standard 8' tall cover can run between $100 and $200.
The problem with support posts (or lally columns) is that they're always located in the most inconvenient places. They're supposed to help hold up your house so the architects space them out every 8 to 10 feet along a support beam to help distribute all that weight.
The downside for home theater builders is that they always seem to end up smack dab where you'd love to put that couch.
The bad news is that there's just no easy or cheap way to move a support post so lets not even go there. For the do-it-yourselfer, the best you can hope for is to rearrange your home theater layout to something you would still like.
If you really want to move the post, you should consult a structural engineering company. One solution to removing a support post is to reinforce the existing support beam with a stronger beam made of steel or laminated veneer lumber. Another is to supplement the support beam with a second beam. Both are messy and expensive propositions.
Lets just stick to just hiding the post. Here you can do several different things.
• Build the column into a new wall.
• Wrap the column with carpetting.
• Build a box around it.
• Hide the column within a pre-manufactured product.
If you were going to build a wall near the post, consider changing your plan a bit to hide the post within the wall itself. Wrapping the column with carpetting is probably the easiest solution for most people. You can also just build a plain box around the post. Take a look at covering a support beam for how-to's to tackle these problems.
You can also use pre-finished product. One such product is called Pole Wrap. Its a semi-rigid plastic covering that looks like a real wooden column. You can buy these products at retail outlets like The Home Depot. A standard 8' tall cover can run between $100 and $200.
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