Bought Land, Tractor and then got Stupid

[Ridgewalker]

Add me to the list of those who will be watching for more pix. Great project! That is going to be one tank of a building when you're done.

I have this wild idea of cutting a few blackoaks, sawmilling them up and building an old shanty shack on my place. I just don't have the time. How do you do it?

 

[denmansoft]

I second Rox's suggestion on the scaffolding. On the water side of my garage we had scaffolds up the whole time. it lets us easily get at anything on the wall and onto the roof.
I think we are done with them now, but they will probably stay there over the winter.

 

[bbowman]

cmmac,

As others, I have been following this thread with great interest. I also bought some acreage (45 acres) 4 years ago, and had no building experience. Fortunately, our farm was already classified as 'Greenbelt', and we kept it that way.

I built, single-handedly, a 32 X 40 shop building modelled after many of the old gambrel-roofed red barns I've seen dotting the countryside over the years. Took me two years...HARD work, but what satisfaction!

The only codes I had to pass were: electrical, and I wired it myself (first time ever doing this kind of work); and the septic system (hired it out)

I'll post some pics if I can figure out how...?

 

[cmmac]

bbowman -

That sounds awsome. I would love to see some pictures if you get a chance.

I will admit there are some days when I ask myself - "Why don't you just pay somebody to do this?" But, when you step back and look at what you are doing or just did - the personal satisfaction is what it is all about (and getting the chance to buy some new tools during the process)

To the rest of the board: I agree that scaffold is going to be needed for my next set of tasks on the build. I do have a question about it (I have never used any before) -

I have seen the type that has wheels, but I don't think this will work with the grade on the sides of my project. Do they have base scaffold that has leveling/adjustable feet? In some cases, I will need almost a two foot difference between the left and right feet.

 

[bbowman]

The framing lumber and boxing all came from the farm after timber cutting and paying a friend to mill some white pine and poplar into 2X6's and assorted 1X's.

If I were doing it over, I would have used a stone veneer on the foundation to look more "old," but I'm pleased overall with the way it turned out.

Here's the finished, painted project:

cbbowman - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

(I'm new to this, hope it works!)

 

[denmansoft]

Start by looking at what is available for rent at your local equipment rental place and how it all works. Usually has levelling feet.

I lucked out and picked up 6 boat scaffold stands and 4 12' 2x12's. These look like a wide step ladder (4' wide) and you slide the 2x12's between two of the stands.

I'll need something taller for siding the ends of my garage...
Our Hardware store on the island has some for rent so I'll probably go that route.

 

[bbowman]

Denman,

I completely overlooked your scaffolding suggestion. I can only wholeheartedly second it!

My mistake was waiting to get some scaffolding until I got to boxing and trimming the gable ends. This beat the ladders I was using for the rest of the building by a long shot!

bb

 

[bbowman]

cmmac,

I have a slope similar to yours, and blocked the scaffolding to accomodate. I attached a picture of the way I used it, anyway.

Since using it, I found out that I should have attached it to the building instead of using it FREESTANDING (what a dummy). You can see that I used concrete blocks along with rebar (to keep it from sliding around). I'm sure there's a better way than the way I did it!

An acquaintance's two-man crew recently was using some scaffolding, and they decided to add a ladder on top for a little more "reach." Well, the scaffolding was not attached to the building, and the ladder pushed the 20' high rig away from the building, killing one and causing head injuries to the other.

Work safely.

 

[kthompson]

cmmac, sad the loss of the old barns. There is a old farm site being built here (near Myrtle Beach) with old tobacco barn on it.

Some tobacco barns here did use blocks as your building and of course some were logs from the ground up. But most barns built from my guess mid 60's on had blocks. You should be able to find some acid wash that will age your blocks. If you make it to look like a tobacco barn, how are you going to hid the windows? Never seen any in a tobacco barn.

Understand the comment mistake by your wife. Ran into that when I went to build my "barn". As has been stated in South Carolina "barns" don't have the same requirement but then building codes vary so much from county to county. It turns out a work shop is not a barn.

If you get it to look like a real tobacco barn, you probably will find it showing up in local newspaper. Ought to see how much interest a non working old fashion out house got.

FYI, I have seen house the same size and yes people call it a tobacco barn house.

If you really want to make it look real, put up shed on door side, make you some wooden drags and park around the shed (1 or 2). Don't miss the bottle opener nailed to a post to pop open the drink and have a box of moon pies there.

You need to check on all impacts of having your farm reclassified. It may help you on taxes and then may lower the value it the state decided they needed it for road or such. Have hit that here. My mother in laws land is prefer route for road cause it is classed as farm but the hay field next door which make more sense is zoned as residential.

 

[cmmac]

Bbowman -

Thanks for the pictures! That is a really nice looking barn (not to mention, some really nice looking land that surrounds it.

Using the blocking on the scaffold makes sense. I will have to do something similar. Agree that attaching it to the building is the way to go. I try to be pretty 'smart' when it comes to working at a height.

Since my farm is fairly remote, I always worry about taking a fall/getting hurt. Remote property has its pro's and con's. Con's would be access to medical if needed <gg>

Thanks again for the pictures.