This Old Barn

[quicksandfarmer]

I spent a little time in the barn last week, but it was just replacing more joists, which isn't very noteworthy. But I did snap a few pictures that I thought I'd share.

These show the framing of the roof. There is a big beam on each side running the length of the barn, and rafters that rest on the beams. The rafters are a mix of 2x4 and 2x6. I can't see rhyme or reason why some are 2x4 and some 2x6.

In two spots a 2x4 meets a 2x6. I can only assume that they goofed and then decided it wasn't worth fixing. Since the barn has stood for 170 years they may have been right.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

This is a shot of the framing up near the eave, where the big beam that carries the floor goes into the post that frames the side wall.

What's interesting about this is that the beams in the picture have saw marks from a circular saw, and the sheathing has straight saw marks. The lumber in the barn was not all cut on the same mill, and even when you have two beams of the same size some of it was cut on a circular saw and some on a reciprocating saw. The circular saw was invented in 1813 but didn't replace the reciprocating saw until after the Civil War. The mixture of cut types supports the construction date in the tax records of circa 1850.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

This is a shot of the framing of a section of wall in the loft. The studs that go into the diagonals are nailed, but everything else is mortise and tenon.

 

[Ken45101]

With the age the barn has, there probably has been repair work done over the decades and they may have used materials on hand, hence the mix of 2x4 and 2x6's,. etc.

Your framing looks roughly like my barn except my timbers are hand hewn and not so consistent. Also mine had been converted to a tobacco drying barn at some point with a lot of extra rails to hang from. Some of what is in my barn is in the way but I'm not sure if any of the added rails are helping structurally.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Here's another one for the construction history nerds. This is the other side from the picture I posted a few days ago. While all the beams in that picture had circular saw marks, these both have straight marks. In fact the vertical beam has round marks on one face and circular on the other. No rhyme or reason so far as I can tell.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Today was too windy and wet to do much outside so I spent most of the day in the barn, I replaced three joists, only four to go.

One of the things that interesting compared to modern construction is that there are no standard dimensions. I think that when they did framing they figured out how many joists or studs they needed and then spaced them out evenly. So the floor I'm working on has joists 21 7/8" on center, the stanchions were 36 7/16" on center and the studs on the wall next to the floor are 27 5/16" on center. So I thought it was unusual when I put in one joist and one end lined up exactly with a stanchion and the other lined up exactly with a stud on the wall. I chocked it up to coincidence. Then a few joists later, it happened again. Now I'm really scratching my head. Not only are the distances oddball, but so are the number of pieces -- in the length of the wall there are eight stanchions, fourteen joists and eleven studs. How are those lining up without any common factors?

After some thinking, I figured it out. With eleven studs, there are twelve stud bays. With fourteen joists there are fifteen joist bays, and with eight stanchions there are nine stalls. All of those are multiples of three. So five joists equals four studs equals three stanchions. Every five joists everything lines up. Makes me wonder if they planned it that way for some reason. Since both the studs and the joists are mortised into the sill they have a nifty 3-way joint and the tenon on the joist is cut to accommodate the tenon on the stud.

 

[goeduck]

Here's another one for the construction history nerds. This is the other side from the picture I posted a few days ago. While all the beams in that picture had circular saw marks, these both have straight marks. In fact the vertical beam has round marks on one face and circular on the other. No rhyme or reason so far as I can tell.

That one needs a retrofit support for sure

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I finally got some time this week to work on the barn. I finished the joists, which is a major milestone, as far as I know the framing is now done. And I put down flooring where i had replaced the joists:


That flooring was a bigger job than I thought it would be, every single piece had to be cut. There were only two pieces that weren't on an edge, but since the joists are 21" on center they had to be cut for length. All the edge pieces had to be scribed around the vertical framing pieces. I used Advantech, which I like, but the sheets are over 75 lbs each and I feel like I picked up each piece ten times getting it fitted. Plus I didn't really have anywhere to stand because I was building the floor.

The Advantech does make for a nice tight flat floor. I think it's the nicest floor this barn has ever had. Next up is to take up the plank floor in the rest of the barn and put down more Advantech.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

What I'm doing now is replacing the floor in the section where the framing didn't need work. The original floor is 2x8 rough-sawn boards. They have rotted from the top down due to exposure to manure. While they have various states of rot, I keep looking for one that has enough usable wood to make something out of and I haven't found one yet.

New England farmers are famous for being thrifty. When holes developed in the floor they were patched with whatever was available. Here, two ends from an oil drum were used to cover a hole:

This looks like a piece of firewood was nailed over a hole:


Surprisingly, while the faces of the boards are quite rotten, there is very little rot on the bottoms or the framing. Here's a shot of the backs of a few of the boards:


The floorboards are attached with a single nail in each joist. The nails are handmade, about 5" long and tapered, about 1/2" at the head and 1/4" at the tip. A better man than I drove them all in. For the most part it is impossible to get them out, the steel is very brittle and they snap off. Here is a rare one that pulled out:


I've been prying the floorboards off with a 6' prybar, the nails mostly pull through the floorboards. The fact that the nails are still so tight after all this time encourages me about the strength of the joists.

 

[Xfaxman]

Interesting. Thanks for the update :thumbsup: