My parents recently sold the remainder of the farm I grew up on. It is just south of Dayton Ohio. The only remaining structure on the farm is a 5 bay English type barn (36' x 60'). I would like to dismantle and move the barn to western NC where I now live and convert it into a residence for my family. I have dreamed of doing this for many years and with the sale of the land, I now feel some urgency.

The barn is in pretty good shape. All of the beams are hand hewn and the rafters are sawn. Some of the post bottoms will need some work. The original roof appears to be wood shakes and it now has metal roofing over them. The siding is in good shape and is attached with square nails. All wood appears to be oak.

I am looking for a contractor that would be interested in moving the structure. I am planning to take a leave of absence from my job so that I can spend a considerable amount of time on the project. I have 12 months to remove the barn from the property according to the sales contract.

Does anyone have any recommendations of barn moving contractors or know where I should start in my search? Any other advise on this project would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Mark

I would check to see if there is a guild member near that would like to earn some extra money on the side or if there is a timber frame construction company nearby that has some employees that need to earn extra income on the side. He could also help replace damaged posts or repair them as necessary. And he can assist you in marking them for reassembly, packaging for shipment, and arranging shipping, if you can't find a contractor to take on the whole job as a contract. This alternative, however, does require you to be onsite and have hand-on involvement more than a contractor would.
You would also probably need to find another contractor to assemble it again, unless this person/crew is willing to come to NC and complete the job. Hope this helps.

Keith F.in Houston

Mark, you need to talk to Rudy Christian ( who is moderating this topic), to my knowledge he is The man to talk to about old barns in Ohio. He's in Burbank, wherever that is,

Mark,

As Scott knows, Burbank is at the center of the universe, which is about twelve miles North of Wooster.

My advice for anyone who is planning to relocate and/or restore a timber frame barn is to hire someone to do a thorough photographic documention as well as a complete structural analysis and survey including a complete set of drawings. This type of documentation is critical to a successful project and in the end will likely save you money. It also serves to provide provinence in the form of an historic record.

I will be speaking at the "Barn Again!" conference May 3rd in Wilmington, Ohio. If you are going to be in the area you might want to attend. Call 937-382-0901 for registration. If that's not convenient, feel free to call my office (I believe you have the number) and maybe I can help you get started.

Keith, Scott and Rudy,

Thanks so much for your replies. I do know some Guild members in the area (I used to belong myself) and may enlist their help. Sounds like I'll need all I can get!

Rudy, thanks for the info on "Barn Again!". I monitor their website (www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~barn/), but it hasn't been updated in quite some time. Would you recommend any sort of historical search before the barn is disassembled? I do want to go out of my way to perserve what I can even though the barn must be moved.

I have also contacted Glenn Harper of the Ohio Historical Society in Dayton. He is going to provide a list of contractors who specialize in barn renovation and moving.

Jim Papritan of the OSU Extension Service indicates that the Extension offices maintain lists of barn contractors. I will pursue that avenue as well.

Any idea of the costs associated with this venture? I have a 2-3 year old article from one of the commercial timberframe magazines that quotes Rudy as saying it takes about $15,000 to get one disassembled and loaded, about $1.50 per mile for transportation, and another $8,000 to reassemble. And those figures don't include repairs and trash disposal. Are those figures still fairly accurate? I also assume that additional cost would be incurred for assessing and documenting the barn.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Mark