So I have this old pole barn...

[Big_Charlie]

...and I'm not really sure what I should do with it to fix it up.

It's pretty big to me at 65' deep by 45' wide plus a 65' x 25' lean to. The floor is some mix of dirt, straw, gravel, and nearly fossilized horse manure. It's full of old lumber, windows, siding, a few rusty old bicycles, carpet, pallets, an old 240v rotisserie, 5 cats, and a couple of pigeons. The doors on one side of it are gone and the doors on the other side are being held up by a metal pole braced against the ground. There are currently no utilities run to it but it looks as though there was electric service to it at one time running a single light bulb. As you can see by the picture, it's a low barn with no hay loft.

My plan is to have a couple of horses on the property with a couple of horse stalls to match. I'll need a place to store some hay, horse gear, etc. I will also have a CUT and associated implements to store. I don't have any sort of workshop right now either, so it could possibly go out in the barn or could be a separate building.

I'm looking for thoughts and ideas from this experienced group of how I can best refurbish and use this big building to it's fullest potential. So...hit me with your best shot...

 

[Big_Charlie]

Inside the junkpile...

 

[Big_Charlie]

The side that I think used to have horse stalls.

 

[Big_Charlie]

Closeup of the lean-to.

 

[Big_Charlie]

Anybody want a rotisserie??

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Actually, it looks to be in pretty good shape. The two things I'd look at first are the poles and the roof. Whack each pole at the base with a hammer -- not too hard -- and see if the wood sounds good. If it does, then decide if the roof needs replaced. That can be costly, but the rafters and such look solid from the pics. From the looks of the barn, I'd clean it out, paint it and rehang the doors.

Not sure exactly what you want opinions on, but I think that's a pretty nice barn.

If you want a workshop, you can cut out a section inside and put down some concrete without doing the whole thing.

Cliff

 

[LarryD]

Don't be too quick to discard that kitchen equipment. The commercial grade stuff has good value as long as it's not to beat up, an ebay search might give you an idea of what you have. At least it may not cost you anything to dispose of it.

An awl or screwdriver is also a good way to test wood, neither one should penetrate more than an 1/8" is good wood. If the structural members are solid and the roof doesn't have too many leaks, it's a keeper. How to restore it depends on how much you want to spend and if you want air tight or just rainproof.

 

[EddieWalker]

I didn't notice an sags in the pictures. In fact, I was impressed by how nice it looked. Is it dry in there? A new roof could be price, by metal roofs patch pretty easily, just not pretty.

First thing I'd do is check every single post in the ground. This is your anchor point and the most likely to have rot and decay.

The hammer is a good tip. Hit them hard!! Don't be shy. I also like to have a long, skinny tipped screw driver and see if I can penitrate the wood by stabing it.

Look aroud on the ground for sawdust. This could mean bugs!!! Look for dirt tubes going up the posts. Especially at the base. Termite build tunnels to get to the wood when the come out of the ground.

Especially look extra close at those posts outside in the lean to. They look like cedar, but what ever they are, they don't look like they have been treate.

Look up and down each post. Look to make sure it's straight and the perlins are solid. Look for gaps in the siding.

Do this at every post. Develop a routine to do the exact same thing in the exact same order for every post.

Carry a notepad and something to mark what needs fixing. Don't rely on your memory. Too easy to forget something. Especially if you find a list of issues.

After you do your inspection, either fix it, or post what you found and maybe somebody here will have a simple solution that you might not have heard of before.

It's a good looking barn that has allot of potential.

Eddie

 

[dubba]

I think it's great. Looks better than the 1 weekend special I put up 10 years ago "temporarily".

Paint, Patch & Prosper. That's my 2 cents...

-Dubba

 

[riptides]

I'd keep it, IF the majority of your poles are up to it. It sounds like you have plenty of space. Section it off accordingly. Work a section at a time. For inspiration I direct you to my own saga. We are almost done with the inside, and while the work will be tough, history cannot be replaced.

I say restore it and enjoy doing it!

-Mike Z.
Dairy Barn Project

 

[TwinWillows]

While looks can be decieving from just a photo, it appears that with a little work you have something worth saving/repairing. Our place came w/an old barn that'd been used for cows & horses & apparently NEVER mucked out. We got after it with crow bars, hammers & shovels to do a lot of demo & when we had it finally opened up we worked all weekend in it with a skid steer loader mucking. We had a huge burn pile w/all the trash & bad hay! We're using it temporarly until we get our new barn finished & then the whole thing is coming down.

 

[Big_Charlie]

So I went out and checked out the poles and roof supports. With one or two exceptions, the poles seem to be in good shape. The ones in the lean-to are all old telephone poles that look like they were treated with creosote or some other dark brown substance. A couple of posts on the other side of the barn have been replaced in the past, one not too far in the past as it is a 6x6 pressure treated piece with asphalt shingles wrapped around the bottom.

The roof supports are another story. While most of them are sound, there are probably a dozen or so that have obvious insect damage, some of it severe. What's really interesting to me is that most of the scrap lumber sitting on or near the ground is untouched by bugs. The good news though is that I could probably salvage a lot of the scrap lumber to repair the bug eaten pieces. Is there some kind of paint that I could spray or brush over the exposed wood to protect it from insects in the future?

 

[Big_Charlie]

While old churches may have bats in their belfries, I have bugs in my rafters...

 

[Big_Charlie]

Some sizeable critter has dug a home for itself...

 

[slowzuki]

Looks like with a bit of work you could have a nice barn. The insect damage, you should call a local treatment company, barns have more options than houses for insecticides.

The outside corner looks like rot to me, common for untreated lumber near the ground.

 

[KentT]

Looks like bugs in the rafters that then got eaten by woodpeckers...

 

[Big_Charlie]

So what should I do with the floor? Obviously I'll empty the place of all of the junk, dig out the old manure, straw, and level it. What I'm not sure about doing is whether I should pour concrete around the whole inside, spread crushed stone, or just leave it dirt.

The more I look at it, the more I'm starting to realize that this could become a really nice multi-purpose building. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[ByronBob]

Like any project. Water is the first killer. If water is not leaking then anything can be fixed. This looks more solid then you let on to begin with. Cleaning it up might lead you to discover more about it's condition.

Do the posts go into the ground or is there concrete bases poured?

 

[Big_Charlie]

It's definitely solid, no doubt about it, and it certainly doesn't appear to leak. The dirt inside is so dry that it puffs up in little dust whisps when you walk around. When I referred to the junkpile, I was talking about the accumulation of garbage left by those who owned the property before me, not about the barn itself.

I guess what I started this post for was to get ideas from people about what to do with it once it's cleaned out, painted, and has working doors again. If you had this blank canvas to work with, what would you do with it?

 

[dooleysm]

I've never known anyone that regretted putting a concrete floor in their barn. It's not cheap, but it sure is nice.