Salvaging Barn Wood

rjsmit1 · Aug 26, 2003

During my recent looking around the county for horse property, I noticed lots of very old (probably 100 years or more) barns that I believe will be demolished due to development in the next few years. Some of them are fascinating in their construction methods. I noticed that they use pegs to hold their joints together. It's an amazing craftsmanship.

I have heard of businesses that sell remilled barn wood for flooring, and other uses or that move old barns for other purposes. Does anyone on the forum have any experience with this activity for fun or profit? Just curious if this is an opportunity...

rambler · Aug 27, 2003

While you are accomplishing something, to save the wood is back-breaking work & requires some real heavy equipment. Those barns are 30 feet or more tall, not easy to get the wood down with it & you in one pieces. Add in the insurance premiums you need to carry, and you won't be doing it for 'fun'. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Most developers will just dig a hole & bulldoze it down - takes an hour or so & no extra contracts/ delays.

--->Paul

riptides · Aug 27, 2003

Our community raised funds and labor to relocate a barn that was deemed "in the way".

Now every year people gather there at Christmas time for celebrations.

The effort was *not* an easy task.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

mrcaptainbob · Aug 27, 2003

I had the misfortune to watch a beautiful 125 year old barn and house get taken down. It was for a good cause: another new subdivision is coming in. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif Some machine the size of a semi came in and got 'unfolded'. Then the shovel just started knockin' the barn and house down and fed it ALL!!!!!!! into that giant chipper! Those giant hand hewn oaks that were all pegged together....wonderful construction. Now it's all landfill.... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

wickman · Aug 27, 2003

I'm in the process now of salvaging some oak from my father-in-laws old barn that he's renovating. I can assure you that the little that I'm doing is not easy and can be extremely dangerous. But I just couldn't stand by and see all of that oak burn up in a trash fire. I hope to use it for some furniture someday.....

wickman

Golfgar4 · Aug 28, 2003

We have a gentleman in our community that runs a business called A Piece of History . He makes a variety of clocks out of wood from buildings (and barns) from the area. For example, we had a building that for many years housed a company that manufactured firefighter clothing. When the building was renovated into apartments, he purchased a lot of the wood that would have been discarded and made clocks out of it. He includes with each clock a real nice write up about the history of the building the wood came from. We've used his clocks for service awards for our employees for years.

Unfortunately, he's decided to retire and sell his business. I know someone is interested in buying his equipment, but I'm not sure they want to buy his business. It would be a real shame to lose it, since it was a wonderful way of recycling and acknowledging some of our heritage.

sugarmaker · Aug 28, 2003

Hi Randy,

I pulled out several pickup loads of wood from a nearby collapsed barn a few years back. While it was nice not having to work up in the air, there still were plenty of hazards to a large pile (stability, nails, glass, wasps, etc.). Nevertheless, I did get enough nice beams, flooring, windows, and siding to build my sugarhouse (picture attached), and the price certainly was right (2 gal syrup).

Aside from sorting and retrieving the wood, the biggest job was pulling out nails, especially from the siding. It was unbelievable how many attachment and siding nails were in these boards! I pulled every one I could find, and still had plenty of sparks off the circular saw blade as I was building.

I'm not sure I'd ever use wood like this for living space. It's been at least 5 years since I've built it, and the whole place still oozes a certain "odeur de vache" in warm weather.

Currmudgeon · Aug 28, 2003

Some thirty years ago, our millwork rep used to tear down old New England barns as a sidelight. He would sell the siding on the West Coast, to people building restaurants. He was making $50K a year on weekends, in 1970.

There was no market for the beams, so he burned them in place. Broke his heart, but the farmers were going to burn the whole barns down, anyway.

I suspect the big timbers would be extremely valuable, now. either as timbers per se, or as saw logs for a mill.

This is a heavy equipment and heavy manual work job. You'd need a small demo crew and some machinery. I'd probably want a high-lift construction materials loader with forks and a grapple, and maybe a boom truck. You'd want a couple of flatbeds, maybe flatbed dumps, to haul the material, and a yard to store, sort, and lay out in.

Just about all the hand work can be done with bars, sledges, and chain saws, although I'd probably bring a large pickup load of tools to the site.

If you can burn the scrap on site, it will save you a lot of money. Otherwise, you'll have a large disposal bill, and still end up heating everything you own with woodstoves. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'd probably add a small sawmill to the operation, to get the most use out of the timbers.

I once tore down an old house for the wood. Most expensive wood I ever bought. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

JIMCT · Sep 3, 2003

I know of several local lumber yards in CT and MASS that sell "recycled wood". Barn boards are in big demand and beams are either reused as beams or sawn into planks for flooring. When I priced flooring for a log cabin they were getting twice as much for old planks 8" wide as they were for new White Pine up to 14" wide.
I bought a hand hewn chestnut perlin 9' long from an 1850's barn for a fireplace mantle.