rebuilding 1800's barn

[LazySusanFarms]

Thanks

[Waldershrek]

So I went over today and took some more pics today.

Here I have just walked in the loft door and am looking up and slightly to the right. You can see the horizontal beam on top, that was rotted in spots but was good in others. What we did was just put2x6's over the length of the beam to stiffen it up. I wanted to replace the whole thing but the Amish guy said that it wasn't necessary as the roof trusses are full length and take most of the weight of the roof.


Here is a closer look at that beam. The bad spot was in the middle (roof was leaking right above it), the ends of the beam were solid.



This is the same beam but on the left side. We did the same repair to it.


Also replaced this vertical beam. the horizontal on top was still in perfect condition unlike the other side of the barn.


This main beam was good but the tenon had broke away so we pulled it back together with cable and scabbed it back together.


We have to do the same thing on this beam on the other end of the barn


Close up showing the separation

[quicksandfarmer]

**** that looks a lot like my barn on the inside. I've even done some of the same repairs on the same pieces. What sort of milling marks do you have on your beams? You can kind of date a barn by how the beams were cut, whether they were hewn with an ax, cut with a straight saw or cut with a rotary saw. My barn has even straight saw marks, which indicates they were cut by a water-powered mill, probably shortly after the Civil War. Rotary saws started appearing after the Civil War and really got popular when steam power and then electricity came along.

[Waldershrek]

There are ax marks on all the old ones. According to all the info we have the barn was built in 1870. So by that token, I'd say they got their moneys worth out of the original beams lol

[quicksandfarmer]

I'm no expert, but upstate NY, ax-hewn beams I would suspect they were salvaged from an older building.

[Waldershrek]

Could have been I suppose. No way to tell really. Now the neighbors barn which is also post and beam construction was moved from a town about seven miles away and that was documented.

Here is a couple pictures of the beams we removed. You can see the axe marks on them:


You can see how the beetles got to this one:

[Dagoof]

Jealous.

I love those old barns.

Balloon framing just isn't the same.

[Waldershrek]

I had to work really hard to convince my parents to fix it and not let it fall down. I basically told them I was going to fix the barn on my own if they didn't. Now that the project is under way though I think they are both really happy about saving the barn. I really can't wait to get the roof on this spring.

[toddol1971]

I'm happy to see you fixing it. I have an old barn that just fell down. I'm very sad. My grandpa ran into it in the 80's and knocked it off the foundation (big sandstone) then caught the back on fire somehow? He got it back on the foundation, but was never right after that. He replaced all the bad or gone burned wood with cedar posts and dimensional lumber. It needed a new roof 30 yrs ago but he was tighter than bark on a tree, so that never happened. He did the bare min to just keep it useable. Then one day about 2 yrs before he died he says to me "I want you to fix that barn up son. Don't let it fall down". I said ok, but knew that was never gonna happen. I didnt have the money to do it. I wanted to but just not worth the money. It probably wouldnt have cost much more to just build a new one and use some of the old beams and 2x's. Well good luck with the rebuild.

What kind of siding you going with? I hope its the same. Is the siding white oak or poplar?