I have an old barn on my property that's been looking like it will fall down for about 20 years. The roof is still intact, and the timber frame is in good shape. It's fallen off its foundation, and one of the four bents is missing. I tried pulling it down with a tractor, but only managed to rip off one end. The oak pegs are holding fast, and any attempt to knock them out has been futile. Any suggestions?

Sound like, inspite of appearances, your barn does really not want to fall down. Maybe you should consider repairing it rather than demolishing it?

If you must, the pegs can easily be removed by drilling them out. However this must be done very carefully because your barn is no longer sitting plumb and square. As a result, many of the framing members may be in the opposite state of compression/tension from their original condition. Removing a single peg at the wrong point could result in a domino like collapse of a portion of the entire structure --- much like the failure of truss roof. It's not a good idea to be inside when this happens. A better idea is to try to remove a peg and a stick at a time rather than all of them at once.

Brian is right. You definitely don't want to be in the frame when that critical piece or joint lets go. We always use come-a-longs to pull and rack frames before driving or drilling out pegs. It helps "unload" the joint the peg is in. We also always nail diagonal bracing to the bents and walls as we go to help keep things where they are as the pegs come out.

I'm not a big fan of peg drilling. The damage done to the joints is less problematic if your just demolishing a frame, but you still run the risk of leaving pieces of the peg in the joint. It's pretty astounding how strong a 1/4" sliver of peg is! A hollow pointed peg driver and a good 3 pound sledge gets the job done. Where there's a problem, like blind pegs, a drill may be the only answer. If the peg hole doesn't seem to go all the way through, look for a little hole left behind by the screw tip auger. Very often there's only a 1/8" piece of wood in the way which pops right out when you hit it with the peg driver.

Probably the most overlooked part of tearing down a frame (other than calling someone who does it for a living) is figuring out the way it was raised up. If you can determine the order in which is was assembled, you can reverse the process and save a lot of hard work. It also means a lot of the pegs can be left in until the bents are lying on the ground.

Good luck, and wear a hard hat!