Digging out Barn

[farmerjim]

thats a lot of manure, have fun removing it. your machine should handle that job w/ ease. on a side note i would check your support columns when finished, looks like they were all wood to the ground. w/ that much manure around them for so long they may have started to rot.

 

[BTDT]

Probably could have lit a match and started over with a clean slab

 

[BarnStangz]

Yep that is one big mess. You will get many hours of seat time cleaning that up. I wonder if there is a farmer in the area that would take it off your hands to spread on his fields. You could ask around.


murph

Murph,

You are correct, I've had a lot of seat time... I think about 30 or so hours... And I did take your advice and ask some fram buddies of mine, the one guy farms 3000 acres and said that he could use it, of course there is not that much poo poo to spread in 3000 acres, but I'm sure he'll do something with it. We've gotten a nasty amount of rain these past few days, so it looks like I might have to let things air dry a little before moving it. I don't want to tear up my yard again, hehe, wife does not like that...

M.

 

[BarnStangz]

I know this would have cut into your tractoring fun but...you may have gotten Mike Rowe to do it by hand. He seems to seek these sorts of jobs out.

Oh man, I didn't even think of that, Mike is a hard worker... But there is no way that you could do this by hand... Prison labor maybe... as a punishment... Yikes!

Oh, I'll snap some new pictures!

M.

 

[BarnStangz]

No thanks Max, I have my own mountains of beautiful poooo !! Have never heard of what you guys are talking about down there. (i.e. Manure Farms ?? Maybe they were trying to patent a new type of crop). Seems like a strange way to use a barn. I normally keep my barn for my incredible Dynamo Hummm, Hay Feed, Horses, Tools & such, what a novel idea eh !!

With what came out of there, was there any room for the tractor that they must have had. Probably kept it outside. Too valuable of a cash crop inside the barn to mess things up & keep the tractor inside.....heaven forbid.

Strange people walk this Planet, that's for sure.

Vic

Vic and Harvey7,

You guys are right, There is HUGE room now. My barn looks like the size of of one barn with the size of two barns inside... That sounded weird... I still have more of the material to move... I hope to get it all out of here by next weekend.

M.

 

[BarnStangz]

thats a lot of manure, have fun removing it. your machine should handle that job w/ ease. on a side note i would check your support columns when finished, looks like they were all wood to the ground. w/ that much manure around them for so long they may have started to rot.

Good thinking with the wood rot. I've looked at most of the posts and the rot isn't too bad. I'll sand things down and maybe seal the rot and add new wood for support. I'm lucky that most the wood in this barn is Oak, she's well over 100 years old.

M.

 

[daTeacha]

Regarding the posts -- try driving a nail into the lower sections and compare that with the same size nail in an upper section. If they are about the same resistance, the posts are probably okay. If not, consider fixing one post at a time by putting in temporary posts on either side using a steel jackpost or something. Then cut the bottom off the bad post. Place a 5 gallon pail (or maybe two taped together with the bottom cut out of the top one) around the post and fill it with concrete. When the concrete hardens, you have a solid base for your post and the bonus of some protection for the post bottom from all those evil tractor implements that keep gouging chunks out of it.

The barn look like it was pretty dirty, but there are lots of them around that are worse. I worked on one where I had to bend at the waist just to move around in the bottom. The guy was too old to clean it out, so he just kept raising the gates as it filled up. It was deep enough that the adult cows couldn't walk in there any more, but from the looks of the outside it started with about 8 feet of headroom in the "basement"

 

[jimmysisson]

Um, beg to differ on the concrete. It would be fine as long as the post sits on top of the new pour, but as for pouring around the wood, that allows moisture to stay in the wood, and actually promotes rot. If you have it jacked, cut the post at the top of the bucket form(s) and slip something (evan a piece of inner tube or pond liner) so the post is not in contact with the concrete. In a barn with tractors operating inside, you'd also be well served to drill an anchor bolt (#5 or 6 rebar or some such) up into the bottom of the post so an absent minded backup turn with loader raised doesn't unseat the post and stress the timber frame. I agree the concrete up 2-3' is best for post lifespan, just keep them separated.
Jim

 

[daTeacha]

Yeah, I guess I wasn't real clear on that -- you need to cut the post back to the good wood and pour concrete to come to the post bottom after it is set back to it's original height. Shims are often used to get the height exact. Getting the rebar or whatever in place would require drilling the post from below and driving the bar in before pouring the concrete into the bucket(s) -- leave some extra depth in the hole since the bar in the concrete won't be moving as the post comes down.. It wouldn't hurt to bury a piece of steel into the existing floor prior to pouring, either.

 

[BarnStangz]

Um, beg to differ on the concrete. It would be fine as long as the post sits on top of the new pour, but as for pouring around the wood, that allows moisture to stay in the wood, and actually promotes rot. If you have it jacked, cut the post at the top of the bucket form(s) and slip something (evan a piece of inner tube or pond liner) so the post is not in contact with the concrete. In a barn with tractors operating inside, you'd also be well served to drill an anchor bolt (#5 or 6 rebar or some such) up into the bottom of the post so an absent minded backup turn with loader raised doesn't unseat the post and stress the timber frame. I agree the concrete up 2-3' is best for post lifespan, just keep them separated.
Jim

Thanks for the clarification(s) guys... I appreciate it. I'll have to grab some pictures of the barn this week some time... We've had a lot of rain and it's pretty nasty in there. I've been waiting for the sun to dry things out! I hope to have my manure gone in a few weeks, talked with some farmers and other people looking from some... This spring has been pretty wild, that's for sure!

Max