So I tried each solution I could find here, but neither works. So what I did was I selected each planks faces with L ( normals worked in this case), and separated them with P(by selection). Anyway, Kent will do it just a little bit further, so it won't hurt to do it. Cheers
Thanks for offering a solution that still works within the broader workflow!
I wonder why the bevels aren't working when the mesh is still attached. If you could link me to your .blend file (when it's not working) I'd be happy to take a closer look. The best way to do this is by uploading your file to Dropbox, Google Drive, Mega, or equivalent file hosting service then copy + pasting the share link here.