Barn beams

Quartlow · April 08, 2005, 11:59:01 PM

Any idea what wormy chestnut is worth? I have a niece and her husband who just bought a place in PA. out in his machinery shed are about 17 wormy chestnut barn beams. Now the question is is it more valuable in beam form or do we saw it into lumber?

I measured the smallest beam and theres about 84 BF of lumber there. the other question is what type of blade to cut it with?

UNCLEBUCK · April 09, 2005, 05:24:13 AM

If you check on ebay in the building materials section I seen alot of barn beams for sale ,stacks of them and some had a price per beam . I seen one auction at 500$ per barn beam of 12x12 inch x around 30foot length . Alot of old barns dismantled and being pieced out on there too.Anyhow it a interesting place to get a rough idea of prices. Good luck .

MartyParsons · April 09, 2005, 07:37:39 AM

Call THE WOODS company 717-263-6524 They purchase Chestnut beams. Ask for Chuck. I am not sure what they get for chesnut. Some customers are getting from $5.00 bd ft to 9.00 bd /ft for antique heart pine depending on the width. Most of these companys use a 1 1/4 x.045x9 degree blade.
Marty

ARKANSAWYER · April 10, 2005, 08:30:02 AM

Most timber frame companies will buy the beams and use them as beams. If they are realy clear then they would make for good lumber. But they would need to be FOH beams. Boxed heart beams will produce low grade lumber unless very large. There are several web sites where you can place them up for sale and e-bay is not to bad a place to get contacts as well a price guide for what they are worth.
Bi metal or colbalt blades do best when resawing old timbers and I use 0.055's 10 degrees from WM on mine. The 0.055's are tuffer with the nails and cut better in the tuff stuff.
ARKANSAWYER

Kelvin · April 10, 2005, 07:56:51 PM

I wouldn't think that dismanteling a standing barn for its beams would pay off. Most farmers were frugul with their resources and used only the boxed heart as a beam, and as us sawmillers know, thats the part you want to sell as a railroad tie cause its low grade. If the barn were down or needed to come down thats another thing. I think resawn barn wood is like baseball cards. When you want to buy one they cost a lot, if you have one to sell you can't get anything really, but ebay is a good place to check thats for sure.

Sawing Logz · April 10, 2005, 08:15:11 PM

Also you might want to look in "Lumber" on the E-Bay for resawn barn wood. Chestnut has been on there in small amounts. Might give you a better view.

Jeff

Ron Wenrich · April 10, 2005, 08:32:14 PM

Guys have been tearing down barns, and sawing the beams into flooring. They get top dollar due to the texture of the old, densely grown woods. Knot size is a lot smaller in the densely grown woods. They didn't keep their limbs all that long before they pruned them. Wood was a lot different back then.

They also go after that old, wide flooring that's in the attics of old houses. 10 yrs ago they were paying $2/bf and they were removing.

There are several places to get rid of wood. Look under antique or reclaimed or recycled or vintage lumber.

tyb525 · September 19, 2009, 09:00:34 PM

I just bought some 20 beams for $50. Most were in the 10"x8'to16' range I think. We'll see how it turns out..

moonhill · September 19, 2009, 09:14:22 PM

Quote from: Kelvin on April 10, 2005, 07:56:51 PM
I wouldn't think that dismanteling a standing barn for its beams would pay off. Most farmers were frugul with their resources and used only the boxed heart as a beam, and as us sawmillers know, thats the part you want to sell as a railroad tie cause its low grade. If the barn were down or needed to come down thats another thing. I think resawn barn wood is like baseball cards. When you want to buy one they cost a lot, if you have one to sell you can't get anything really, but ebay is a good place to check thats for sure.

Spot on.

Quartlow, Good luck, you may have something in that chestnut. You will want to specify more than just the board footage, size and length will be important. You may want to post this in the Timber framing section as well.

Tim

Dave Shepard · September 19, 2009, 09:31:52 PM

I've heard in the past of people paying $7 to $12 bd/ft for resawn chestnut of good quality.

I recently sawed up two chestnut logs that we found at our quarry at work. They each had a big hole in them for a cable to go through. They had been buried as dead men since the time it was an active quarry. They would have to have been there at least 90 years, and possibly much longer. The sap wood was soft, but the heartwood was absolutely perfect. I sawed them with a Wood-Mizer 1.25" .055 10°, and they sawed like butter. 8)

tyb525 · September 19, 2009, 09:40:43 PM

I am going to try my 1.25 .045 7 deg blades on these. I think most of them are white oak. I would think a 7 deg should be used or even a 4 deg because of the hardness and dryness.

Ironwood · September 19, 2009, 10:20:13 PM

Quartlow,

We have a saying 'round these parts, "I can smell the chestnut". This was coined by a local facilities guy at a college who said to myself and a demo crew "the whole building is chestnut, I cna smell it". I have travelled around quite bit telling folks that infact their chestnut "goldmine is ,well, anything but chestnut". Sorry for the sarcasim.

It is likely your stuff is chestnut (hey your a wood guy afterall), but generally folks settle out from $2-5 a board foot if it's good. I had one guy in, well, I wont mention the state as I may be contacting him to buy some, but he had ALL kinds of chestnut for $1 foot. If it weren't so far I would have invested in some. I just sold my personal stash for $4 foot. Top quality 2x 6-8's from house framing. It varies widely, but dont believe the prices you see quotes on the net, I am not sure anyone is actually getting that, especially in this market. Many Co.'s (including the largest reclaimed flooring folks in this country) have been cutting back on the amount of inventory they are keeping AND trying to shorten their cash conversion cycles.

There is still alot of chestnut out there. I always here of "this demo guy, or owner or that developer" having some expert scientist (professor) come in to tell them how much chestnut there is in their barn, or building. They rarely believe the actual guy who knows but doesnt have several abbreviations after his name. Silly really. We just had an instance up the street, developer had to have some scientist in from WV, to tell him there was no chestnut in his barn, excavators are "recycling " the thing as I speak :

I have a ton more stories, I'll save them for when we have beer sometime. Tell the wifey hello.

Ironwood

moonhill · September 20, 2009, 07:13:10 AM

Excavators don't "recycle" well.

Tim

stonebroke · September 20, 2009, 07:19:36 AM

Yeah but they are quick.

Stonebroke

Ironwood · September 20, 2009, 07:24:50 AM

Yeah, that was the point. I did see them stacking some pieces by hand, but gerally it was splinters. :

. I tried to buy a nice little timber framed carriage shed to reuse here, but evidentally the owner thought my $150 dollar offer was not enough for a shed full of "chestnut" :

so he will put it in a constructio dumpster and pay a tipping fee :( Makes alot of sense ???

Ironwood

Dave Shepard · September 20, 2009, 08:25:21 AM

I had no trouble at all sawing the chestnut with the 10 degree band. I don't have a lot of chestnut experience, but it seems to be a softer wood. Now, old black locust wants a 4 degree band for sure. :D

Ty, are you running .055s on your mill?

tyb525 · September 20, 2009, 08:38:03 AM

Oops! That was a typo, I meant .045.

moonhill · September 20, 2009, 07:05:32 PM

It bugs me a little when someone thinks someone else might get something for nothing. There is a lot of work involved with taking a building down properly and making the fixes needed and getting it back up.

Tim