Folks:
I revisited both these barns last week and have posted small slideshows on PhotoBucket.
There is much, much to share about these two "connected girt" buildings. We're lucky in that both barns represent different classes of folks (farmers/gentlemen). And both are in the same town within 3 miles of each other here in southern Maine. Both are from the early 1800s.
"Barn 1" goes with a prominent brick house in the center of town and was/is sided w/ clapboards. It was not a common farmer's building.
"Barn 2" sits alone and
was a common farmer's building. The house is gone. Clapboards were added sometime later in the barn's history. I know this because there are still interior battens covering the joints between the vertical boarding. The battens made it weather tight originally. (
Interior battens are something I was unaware of until recently. They are quite thin...1/4 to 3/8" and are wider that you'd think...3"). I also pulled 2 nails from the vertical boarding on this barn (see slideshow). They're cut, not forged, and measure a uniform 3-5/8" long.
Roof details:
Barn 1 is 40 X 54 and has a bent spacing of about 13 feet. The major rafters are very slightly tapered towards the peak and measure about 7 X 9 at the butt. Purlins are roughly 4' O.C. and sit in a notch (dap?) cut in to the rafter. The purlins are flush with the top of the rafters. They're also pegged straight through. The run of the purlins is half the building's length, meaning they span more than one bay. They're staggered and run slightly past each other where they meet at the rafter.
Barn 2 is 40 X 50 with a bent spacing of about 10', and is overall more stoutly built. But time has not been as kind. It is far more deteriorated. Look at the exposed exterior framing at the eave on the slideshow of this barn (Barn 2). With the absence of a top wall plate, you can see what they came up with to attach the roof boards at the eaves.
the rafters are 8 X 8 and do not appear to be tapered. The purlins are notched into the major rafters like Barn 1. Some span more than one bay, some do not. Again, they're spaced about 4' O.C.
Walls:
Whats interesting is a couple of variations...
Barn 1 has the topmost connecting girt fairly close to the top of the post, about 6". And the wall boards are not uniform lengths at the top of the walls (random).
Barn 2 has the topmost girt about 12" down from the top of the post and the wall boards are nice and uniform to the roof eave.
My thinking is that the sloppy wall board length has something to do with whether the barns' exteriors are trimmed or not. Barn 1 has its soffit trimmed out, Barn 2 does not.
I'll try and answer what I can. It's been pretty interesting.
Housewright is correct: The closer you look, the more you see...
Here are the photobucket links:
Barn 1 :
http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll84/mainebarns/?action=view¤t=2af69292.pbrBarn 2:
http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll84/mainebarns/?action=view¤t=9a35a90e.pbrDon
