A Barn Raising...

deanocraft · Nov 9, 2015

Hey guys! I have been reading on this forum for a couple of years now. I have found it quite interesting and friendly, so Thanks! My wife and I have a place in Western NC that we purchased 2 years ago and we hope to live there someday. We have lots of projects going on there, changing the place to better suit our needs. I will need a tractor to do a whole bunch of landscaping on the property, and we have decided to buy one next spring. With that in mind, we will need a place to keep it parked...

There are two old barns on the property, and one of them is a 20' x 25' barn with a loft. It looked pretty cool, but was actually very near to collapse. The posts were logs which had rotted away at the base. As the posts had rotted, they just sank onto the cinder blocks that were placed under them and the barn was about 10" out of level across the front. The walls were all hemlock with the bottom boards pretty well rotted also. The roof is in good shape and does not appear to leak at all. It was kind of weird though, as the floor of the loft had a big sag, (approx. 3") in the center but the ridgeline looked straight. There was a post in the center of the ridge pole, so it looks like the roof was replaced on top of the sagging bottom.

Anyway, we have a lot of projects going on and did not want to spend a fortune on a barn. I figured I could save this one for a small investment by jacking it up and putting in new beams and posts. The jacking part is something I have never done before, and a bit of research showed lots of professionals using stacks of large timbers as cribbing. I calculated that the price of all that timber would be more than I was willing to spend. I somehow found a link to a FEMA document about shoring up collapsed buildings, and I decided to build some 2x4 structures to handle that. The 2x4's for the 8 structures and all the cribbing I would need only cost $400! So far we in the hole a total of $1,400, including a couple of hydraulic jacks. I was able to do all the work myself, except for Judy helping me mix concrete and put in the posts. Judy was primarily assigned to be the videographer for the project, and I put together a whole bunch of cellphone video clips into a semi coherent youtube video. You guys might enjoy it... or maybe not...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKAVbp3v1Ag

jclaudii · Nov 9, 2015

I can't wait to watch the rest. I am contemplating saving an old barn on our place but the first step seems to be the hardest and the most "unsafe" cleaning the barn. I subscribed and will watch part two when it comes out!

woodlandfarms · Nov 9, 2015

subscribed

deanocraft · Nov 9, 2015

Thank you guys for the encouragement. I have more video, but have not put it together yet.

ultrarunner · Nov 9, 2015

We have a 1860 barn that is slowing sinking... made of redwood.

Thanks for posting.

tbrooks26 · Nov 9, 2015

Welcome to the mountains! I'm in Sapphire-Lake Toxaway area. Wish I could've come looked at all the "junk" you threw out. I had to do something similar with an old pole barn of mine. It was open, so much easier. And it had twisted so far, that I could dig and pour footers under the support points and still be a foot away from the existing posts!
I used something similar to these for jacking, because I already had a bunch for work (I jack things up alot)

Bad part was as I started lifting, it started twisting back! Had to brace it off to stay over my footers.

deanocraft · Nov 10, 2015

Hey tbrooks, that is what I was afraid would happen in ours. It was also shifted over quite a bit, with all the rotted support poles leaning a good 6" to the downhill side. I did not want to die on this project, so I built those support frames. They worked perfectly!. I also learned that when you are jacking up a building, it is important to be sure the jack is on solid and level ground and that the post you are jacking is perfectly plumb. If not, there is a decent chance it will kick out on you... That can be kind of scary!

deanocraft · Nov 10, 2015

well, when I re-read my original post, I misstated something... Judy helped me with the concrete and posts, but she also pulled all the nails out of the old barn wood and stacked it up for re-use! Thank you Judy!

jclaudii · Nov 10, 2015

Our main timbers in my family's old barn have failed, as the outside edge ones rotted away, and one in the center from a hole in the roof, the good dry ones ended up taking more and more of the load until they finally splintered. My first order of business is to remove all the stored stuff up there, old vw engines, scout parts, and other junk that we have collected for years and years. But before I walk around too much up there I think I'll do a cribbing setup like you did so it is solid and i'm not walking on sponge.

deanocraft · Nov 10, 2015

Hey jclaudii, if you google FEMA MODULE 2a SHORING BASICS, you will find the .pdf I found. I might have originally found it through a post on this site, but I am not sure. I have been spending too muck time on the web... If your barn is a heavy structure, you might need to use 2x6's or larger. I used 2x4's because I thought they could handle the weight of our empty loft and roof. Mine were 2' x 4' at the bottom and 2' x 1' at the top.