102 Year old Barn - Renovation

[hawby]

A week ago Thursday we started this project on my dad's barn. I am moving most of my sawmill and woodworking business into this barn and addition. The barn was built by my Great-Great Grandfather and family, circa 1902-03. As you can see it had fallen into disrepair as we stopped using it for active farming in the mid 1970's. Dad hired a team of four young Amish men to jack up the barn, build a new block foundation, and straighten it structuraly.

The East end had the most damage. The posts had fallen off the foundation, had large amount of dry rot, and powderpost infestation. A lot of progress has taken place in a week. I started installing a wood floor in the East third of the barn today. That will be the location of the woodshop. In addition, I will be adding a lean-to on the South side for a sawshed. I look forward to getting out of the elements while sawing  8)

I will add details and pics as things develop.

View the progress so far : https://forestryforum.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=428

[Furby]

 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress!
And maybe even seeing it it person before too long.  ;)

[Don P]

Looking good  8) 8)
Sure feels good when you put a building back down  .
I'm jealous, thats alot of space under roof.

[Bro. Noble]

The barn appeared to be in good shape and pretty streight in the 'before' pictures.  It was ,however, made obvious by the other pictures that it was just a matter of time till stuff began to sag and buckle-----then it would have been a bigger job or impossible to save it.  Makes me glad to see someone take care of one of these beautiful old barns and figure out a good use for it as well.  It's especially neat since it has family history for you. 8) 8)

[SwampDonkey]

That's a Great project Hawby. I don't get to see many barns get refurbished around here. They just let them go, then build pole barns. We'll all be watching your progress.    8)

[hawby]

Ya, I am really glad that we are taking it on. I watched in horror as the first one went down. At one time we had four of our barns that we filled to the top with hay. Now we own only this one, and one that I am debating about selling. It has hand hewn beams. If it had been built by one of my ancestors I would never part with it. However, I could use the type of cash that it is worth  ;)

I know that it looks straight in the pic, but there was a 4 or 5 inch drop at one of the hips. We had two broken beams. It is MUCH straighter now and we still have one cross-cable to put in. I think that will assist in raising the hip a little more, and of course will hold it there. It actualy was a design flaw  ??? (How do you have a design flaw in something 102 years old?) Well, I'll tell you. The better barns have a beam that goes across between the hip purlins. I din't know that 'til the supervisor of our Amish guys told me. Makes sense that it would keep the hips from spreading.... which is the downfall of most of the barns around here... under snowload.

Anyway... I din't get to do any work on it today.... had a bunch of pine and cherry logs to haul home... FREE ones, the best kind 

Glad you are enjoying the project. I'll keep taking pics until its done. Its getting a new roof coat and steel siding, so she'll be real perty when sh'e done.

[ARKANSAWYER]

   Would it be possible for me to stop by your place on the Piggy Roast trip to look at your barn?   I would also like to look at the one with hewed  beams.   I likes looking at how they did things before power tools and deck screws.
ARKY

[asy]

Wow, it looks great.

Big job though.

Are you going to make it red again when it's finished!?  A real barn should be red.   

asy :D :D :D

[hawby]

Arky, you bet you can stop by and look at both of 'em. If'n you want to, you can load the beams right up on yur trailer and take 'em home. Just don't furget the checkbook  ;D

Asy, the red and white steel should be here Friday. We had the roof painted last Friday. The barn will be red, except for the trim, and under the lean-to on the South side. That is where my mill will be and we felt that the white steel would reflect the available light better so I can see to saw. 

View the progress so far : https://forestryforum.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=428 Be sure to see where the painter "says" the "Nimcapoop bird" hit the roof   

[Furby]

Must have been a good sized bird!
I'd say a birdbrain would be more like it! ;)

All in all it's looking pretty DanG good Hawby!

[hawby]

This week we were busy taking logs off the woodlot, but Friday and Saturday I did manage to get the floor joists pretty much cut.

Here is what they started as:


And then we loaded them:

But then it was sprinkling on Saturday when I was sawing them, so no pics of that...but I'll take some of the finished product tomorrow. They are heavy buggers......

[Stump Jumper]

nice work shop 8)

[OneWithWood]

Hawby, sure is a nice project.  I was looking at the pics and I was wondering, on the south side double swinging doors, is that all original wood or did you build the frames?  If you built them, are the frames made of green or kiln dried wood?
I'm contemplating the building of the doors on my barn and have pretty much concluded I need to use kiln dried lumber to keep everything in line.  If you have any tips on using green or relatively green lumber I would appreciate hearing them.

[hawby]

Morning OWW!

Sorry I have not answered sooner, but lightning took out almost ALL of my electronic devices on Monday. Including our PC and my kiln controller (the second in ten days  :(  )

The doors were built with store bought KD pine  :  That was my dad's choice. I had plenty of AD pine that I think would have worked just as well. We did go with treated for the bottom boards. The KD stuff splits and warps as much as anything else does. In fact I think more, due to the fast and furious method that is used to KD pine these days.

Won't matter a lot though as they will be covered with steel real soon. That should hold them real still.

I have gotten the floor joists (RO) all in place and I am ready to start cutting the floor decking (Tulip Poplar).