hello, All.

Could I get some educated estimates on how long it might take me to dismatle this barn.

The details:

I will be working mostly alone with the part-time help of some family and friends. None of the timbers are too big to man-handle as the long dimensions are all made from scarfed sections.

Once i have the frame fully exposed, i intend to hire the help of someone like jack Sobon to oversee the actual dismantling of the frame.

It's an early/mid 1800's square rule horse barn which was converted to a store in the 1970's. so inside main floor is sheetrocked and insulated.

40'x30', 4 bent/3 bay with 4' knee wall.

standard pitched roof, no ridge beam, perlins supporting rafters at midspan the length of roof (40'). inner posts of each bent extend thru the ceiling to join the perlins.

Roofing is slate on one side, tar singles on other. Various windows (2 huge bay and 4-5 double hung). One stardard 36" door.

Sheathing is board & batten over plank walls.

I only need to take down the structure to the foundation. Foundation is not my responsibilty. I have agreed to pay for disposing of all the junk(rock, insulation, wiring, carpeting etc...) in order to get the structure, as well as windows, doors, flooring, slate, sheathing etc...

The owners other plan was to hire a wrecking crew as it is located on his buiness sight and in the way of his new additon. It is in great shape and solid as a rock. With the extras, i think worth the cost of around (4) 30 yard dumpsters (I'm guessing).

Thanks for your help!

Also, I intend to work full time (12 hour days) for two straight weeks, then must return to my normal job and will then work 5-7 hours a day. I am a experienced builder and the son of a experieced builder who will be helping me. I have dabbled in timber framing as well as all kinds of construction and destruction.

thanks again!

Shaun,

I began my full-time business restoring and moving barns a little over a year ago. I'm far from an expert, however I'll pass on some of my experience. My first dissassembly project was a barn 24'x36' 2 level, 4 bent. The roof was already removed. With 3 people and the assistance of a Lull forklift we had the structure down in a long weekend (3 days). A few more weekends and we had the bents disassembly and shipped off site. On a grander scale, we also moved a 42x76 Pennsylvania bank barn, 2 level, 6 bent, 2 granary outshots, and all the original stone. From start to finish 2 months with 6 day weeks. Same 3 people, same forklift. I spent 3 weeks of this time completely documenting and tagging every piece, about 350 in all. I would strongly recommend spending the time to document before any disassembly starts. Draw & tag every piece, even the rafters and their exact location.

Thanks you Brian,

I appreciate your input. what you descibe sounds promising for me as the owner would like to see this take no more than a month to 5 weeks. I will work alone a lot, but at times have 3-4 people helping me. Was your smaller project a pure barn, as in nothing but wood?

I do plan to do a complete 3D CAD drawing of the frame once it is fully exposed before it gets dimantled. sound advice.

I'm hoping for around 3 weeks worth of stripping down to the bare frame, then a week to document and dismantle the frame itself.

I'll have our local lumber yards truck with a boom mounted fork lift to pick everything up and haul away, but other than that it will be all man power to disassmble.

thanks again.

Shaun

Hi Shaun,

Sounds like a great adventure! One small piece of advice would be to budget for a crane for the major frame take down. Once the "bents" and walls are on the ground or deck, you can use manpower and light machinery to finish dissassembly.

These kinds of projects turn sour very quickly if someone gets hurt. The crane can be a really valuable piece of safety equipment. So can a hard hat. I have seen them both work, and I have seen what can happen when they aren't used. If I never see that again, it will be too soon.

Work safe, have fun and keep up the good work!

Rudy R. Christian

Rudy,

Thanks for the advice. Those are just the kinds of issues I've been mulling over. I took special note of the fact that the roof stucture does not use a ridge beam and the rafters are quite small (2x6's). I also noted that all plates and sills are scarfed. The longest timbers seem to be the main posts (8x8x~16'). For this reason, no very large unwieldy timbers on upper floor, i was thinking a crane may not be required. BUT, if you think I may still require a crane dispite these observations, for safety if nothing else, I would certainly take such advice.

Does this approach make sense:

First remove roofing and roof sheathing. with upper (attack) floor intact; remove rafters and purlins. Once roof structure is gone, remove attack floor. Remove outer wall sheathing. then remove main floor. now frame is fully exposed and can be dismantled (with the help of a hired TF professional at this point).

Thanks again for the advice.

Shaun

Shaun,

I agree with Rudy's advice on the crane particularly if manuverabilty is limited around the barn. We had the luxury of uninhibited flat ground access all around the structures. The bank barn reassembly required the flexibility of a crane, and we rented one. If you go the path of the crane, the rental company will most likely require to be listed as loss payee on your commercial general liability policy. One company we looked at also asked for "boom overload" coverage which most insurance companys will not underwrite for small companies. We found a rental company that did not require this coverage. Most modern cranes have computer controlled load limiting systems which make it nearly fool proof. I never operated one, and within a few hours had a bent in the air. (with a little sweat on my brow!)

When you get down to the point of frame disassembly, have plenty of long 2x4s available for "A frame" bracing of the bents. Once the rafter plates are removed, things will get pretty loose.

Brian

Shaun,

In response to your question above: Yes, our smaller barn project was all wood with the bent post resting on a ground level sill.

Brian Mulcahy

Here is a new issue i just realized after going to take another look around the barn the other day: The land owner is building a new addition to his house which comes to within about 8 feet of the old barn. This, coupled with some large trees right close in front of the barn and a steep sloping grade off the back of the barn make for virtually no flat ground around the barn for laying the bents down in an order opposite to the way they were most likely assembled. This would mean i either definitely need a crane to hoist the bents up off the sill plates and swing them to flat ground, or disassemble them timber by timber as they stand.

What do you guys think about this last option?

I make a nice discovery in that the sills and summer beams of the main floor appear to be Oak and Chestnut, all hand hewed. Nice looking stuff....

Thanks.

Shaun

Shaun,

I think that it is impractical and very dangerous to attempt disassembly of the bents while standing. The disassembly process should follow the reverse of when it was built, where bents were assembled flat and tilted into position. It sounds like a crane is your only real option.

Brian

I think you're right, Brian.

Add a crane to the budget....

thanks,

Shaun