Well, the mini blizzard that hit us last night did it's share of damage. :( Snow piled on the roof of our 105' by 45' saw building and brought it down about 3 o'clock this afternoon. Right now it is on top of our Woodmizer. Don't know how much damage to the saw, if any. Got to figure out how to get the forklift out from under this mess, clear the snow away and off the roof, and GET THAT DanG MILL OUTA THERE! Gonna be tough to do without bringing down what is left. I'll post some pictures if I can figure out how. Faron---out of business for a while.
Faron I hate to hear about your roof :o how many in. of snow did you get .
I think about 15 to 18 inches. Seems like it wanted to pile up on roofs more than normal. Bad as I hate to lose my building, it could be worse. A turkey building collapsed about a mile east of our building. 9000 birds in there and I heard they aren't going to be able to get them out til Monday. Don't know how they can feed and water them til then. And how do you get all them turkeys out from under a 2'high building?
Faron they was a lot of chicken houses that collapsed a few years ago when we had a 20'' snow in south Arkansas. They was able to safe some of the birds but most had to be buried :(
Faron, I saw in the news that Indiana had a lot of snow. I'm really sorry about your saw building roof. Snow is funny stuff. Sometimes it is so heavy, and sometimes it's not. I'm hoping things are not as bad as you think it might be. Stay strong, it's hard to keep a good sawyer down.
Best of luck Ralph
Man, sorry to hear of your roof collapsin. Sure hope the mill is OK. That won't be a fun job, getting that equipment outta the shed. BE CAREFUL. Good Luck.
Faron, if there is anything I can do to help let me know. Kirk
Faron,
Sorry to hear about your building. hope there is not too much damage to equipment. Here in central New York it warmed way up and had HEAVY rain and wind yesterday,it took what snow we had. Going back down to the single digits tonight.
We had a potato storage shed collaspe in 1997 in February from wet snow. We had to work fast to repair the roof or freeze the potatoes. We did it outta our own pocket and the very next year several storage sheds in the area lost roofs from snow load and they got government assistance. We never saw a red cent for ours. That's the way it always worked out for us, always had to pay our own way. Insurance doesn't cover snow load on buildings, up here at least.
Sorry for your loss Faron, not a very good Christmas present.
Thanks,guys. I guess if there were no problems to solve, there wouldn't be much need for me here. Middle age and experience have taught me not to get too excited about an event where nobody got hurt. I can rebuild. I'd rather be making sawdust,though!
I heard last night there are an additional EIGHT turkey houses down in nearby Dubois County. Also, a large furniture store in Jasper, IN collapsed. Sounds like our loss is the least of the lot.
First order of business today is getting the pressure off the mill. I'm taking saws and a cutting torch up there at first light. This building has 1" steel bar trusses, so there will be lots of torch work. The thing was built in 1955 or so out of 1" suck rod.
So far the edger is ok, as well as the electrical control boxes. The forktruck is ok, of course it would probably withstand a bombing run. We just have to figure out how to get it out without bringing down the whole building. I figure it might be a good idea to photograph everything I can to deal with the insurance company.
Later on I might want to see how some of you arrange your saw buildings, and what you might or might not want to do.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Sorry to hear of your mishap Faron. We had 18" of snow here. Thankfully everything seems to have weathered it ok. I can see the top of the saw barn in progress from here and it appears to be alright. I need to trudge the quarter mile over there and check it out to be sure. You are welcome to head up this way and check out my setup. I have a lot of work to do to finish it but the layout is obvious.
The weatherman is predicting temps back up in the mid 40s next week. You might want to let some of the snow melt before you start rooting around in the building. Nothing is going to go anywhere soon.
Faron,
Real sorry to hear about your shead. Just glad that nobody was hurt.
Mark
That really sucks about your building but serves to remind me about mine. We always put some extra props in just in case and I haven't done it yet. Usually the wind keeps the roof pretty clean but what can happen is we get a foot or so of nice light fluffy snow then we get rain and the snow soaks it up like a sponge and becomes super heavy. That's when buildings in this country usually cave in.
Well, on Christmas Eve we managed to shovel some of the snow off from over the saw and cut away part of the roof. When we got the snow off, we found one point where the roof was contacting the saw, no longer was. Got out the torch and cut away part of the truss resting on the sawmill motor. Quite a bit of pressure there, and the motor and mount straightened out a lot. Could be, just maybe, the sawmill head isn't bent.
I'm considering erecting some kind of temporary shelter after I remove the building, just so I have somewhere to finish the orders now in line,and to saw me out another building. Maybe I could adapt one of those aluminum carports to house the mill for a while. Also I'm looking at military surplus tents.
I think I'll salvage the steel out of the old building, and turn it into cattle feeders, just to spite old man winter. :P
Does anyone have a building layout you really like and wouldn't mind passing along? We like to utilize roller tables to move lumber and slabs around as much as possible. Faron
Swampdonkey, Man, I'm going to be ticked if the insurance adjuster shows me a clause exempting snow load. Not that my being ticked will mean much to him.
Corley5, Funny, but this was a dry snow, but still heavy. It was the most snow in a 24 hour period here since 1918, according to the weather people. Our building had 30" to 36" over most of the east side. Faron
Faron,
How about an update ?
Hey, Va Sawyer, As of today we have one end truss still standing. We got the metal off while the snow was melting, then tore the purlins (sp?) and steel trusses off in between rainstorms. We sawed enough to decide the Woodmizer wasn't hurt. I think all it will take is an adjustment and all will be well. 8) 8) 8)
Our insurance does cover snow collapse, thank goodness. Our plan is to rebuild our building just a little bigger than it was and put our woodworking shop in one end. That will get both parts of our wood business at the same location-which I think will be a big advantage.
I can buy some pine logs, Virginia pine, I think, to saw for siding. Does anyone know if that will work for that purpose, assuming I give it a good painting? We know just about nothing about pine. My plan is to plane and ship lap the siding, either pine or hardwood.
I understand a large sawmill about 10 miles east of me had part of it's building collapse as well. As I understand it the owner's son just got out before it came down. During their demolition, one of their workers contacted a hot wire somehow and was shocked pretty hard, but luckily not killed.
It has been an interesting few weeks in our area. The snowstorm in our area dumped the most snow in 24 hours since 1918 or so. Now after the melt and a week of heavy rain, we have river flooding that will approach the levels of the great flood of 1937. Several highways are closed due to high water, and low lying communities are sandbagging and worrying whether their leevies will hold. Faron
Good to here, all is coming along well. Thank goodness for snow load coverage indeed. :) I know what Virgina Pine looks like, its similar to our Jack pine or lodgepole pine. I don't know of anyone sawing jack pine, but I think they saw lodgepole pine. These species are mostly pulpwood and utility pole trees.
I saw jack pine for studs and rafters. Mostly it is good, but sometiems one will warp severly in drying, so make sure you saw a few extras.
We sawed 3000 feet of this pine for the interior of a barn earlier this winter for one of our customers. It looks real nice after it is sawed. These trees have knots all the way around the log every 3 or 4 feet. The knots are real sound and don't seem to weaken the lumber very much. Given that admittedly meager description, am I correct in thinking it is Virginia Pine? It really isn't native to this region, but quite a bit was planted on strip mine land and worn out farms in the past.
A lot of white pine was planted on those lands. Are the needles soft and long?
I'm not real sure- they didn't have needles when I got them. Thinking back, I think that might be right. I have some reference books here I probably should take out and check it out. Think that would make decent siding if it were kept well painted?
I would want to be sure it was well dried, preferably in a kiln, and the sap was set. If the sap isn't set you might have some trouble getting the paint to adhere.
I don't know about Virginia pine, but jack pine and lodgepole have bark that flakes off. White pine bark is heavily ridged, but doesn't flake. A picture of the end and side of the log would help with identification.
Minn, I will see what I can do about that picture this weekend. The camera is in Tennessee withe my wife right now. Thanks
Virginia pine is almost identical to jack pine, only the cone tips aren't curved in Virginia pine. Jack pine needles are short, as Virginia or lodgepole, and they have a slight twist. Jack pine needles are yellowish green to. They are all fast growing pine.
Ok, Let's try this.(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/front.jpg)
This is the front view of the building. Actually I'm really just trying to learn how to post these confounded pictures.
Well, that worked, suppose I can do it again?
(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/0412240010%20348X261.jpg)
side view of the trusses
(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/0412240007.JPG)
Here is the mill under the roof.
GOOD JOB!!! 8) 8) 8)
Was it hard to post those?
Sure looks like truss failure to me.
I'm also impressed that thing stood as long as it did!
Not too bad, Furby. I printed out Tom's instruction page, and tried to follow it to the letter. For some reason the link to the pictures shows up twice on my post, and I have to remove one, but otherwise, no problem.
Yep, the double image problem has been there for a while.
We shouldn't have to deal with it much longer though! ;)