Your collar probably fell out because the walls are spreading. I think you need to tie the walls together at the plate level. I would measure from outside of plate to outside of plate and see how much it has moved.
How wide is the barn?
If you need to bring the walls back together, you will probably need to lift the ridge while you pull the walls together. All pretty hairy stuff, unless you know what you're doing. Once the walls were back plumbish, I would install the traditional repair for spreading walls -- tie rods. All approved by an engineer, of course.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
ps I didn't see that several others have already said similar stuff before I posted.
Last edited by Gabel; 04/14/08 11:30 AM.
