Anyone demolished a barn before???

[Dell Moore]

Anyone done any demolishion for the purpose odf wood recovery? There's an old barn on my neighbors property, and he cares nothing about it and gave me the OK to demolish it for the wood. It's OLD, but the majority of the wood is just ripe for resawing. Plus there's a bunch of 1x4's just piled up in it.

This thing is a little bigger than a large backyard shed, but it's two stories tall. I'd guess 15x10 or a little bigger.

Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this? I think the potenial wood reward is worth it.

Thanks,

Dell

[Scott T Smith]

Dell, I've demo'd barns before, and I would think real seriously before doing it again just for wood recovery.

The problem is that the wood is full of metal and dirt, two things which wreak havoc on the sawmill (and increase costs). It's usually only worthwhile if the barn has a special meaning (such as something that your grandfather built but now has to be removed).

It's a dirty, nasty job and often times you will need some good help and equipment to dismantle it safely.

[Brian D Anderson]

Having recently bought reclaimed chestnut . . . If it is chestnut . . . take it down and sell it! Man that stuff is expensive.

-Brian

[Mike Wilkins]

I have done a little tear-out of old barn/shed wood and been given some old timbers from a 200 year old bldg. There is going to be some dirt/grit simply due to age. The following tips apply:
1. Use a stiff brush to rid the surface of grit, dirt, bird crap, etc.
2. Be diligent in finding metal; nails, screws, spikes, etc. They can ruin an expensive
bandsaw blade or table saw blade faster than you can blink.
3. Make sure to look for signs of bug activity; I would hate to have the
excitement ruined after I went through the trouble of demolishing a bldg.
for the wood, just to find carpenter ants or termites made a meal of it.
And not to mention taking it back to your existing stash and making a mess
of it too.
4. As for the actual demolition, start on the inside with the easy to remove
items, move to the windows/doors, trim, then on to the roof, exterior walls
before tackling the framing.
Be careful, don't take crazy chances, and get help if you can.

[Bob Slater]

Get an Old Beater, put a brick on the gas pedal and aim it at the Barn. That ought to be fun at least!!

I'd make sure I liked the wood and had a specific use for it before starting this one.

[Dell Moore]

You know, I'm not exactly sure what kind of wood this is. I'm for the deep south (Pine, Oak and Poplar). It could very well BE chestnut. It's certainly the region for it (Eastern Tennessee).

Parts of the barn are an unusual red/orange color. Of course, this could be stain.

VERY few knots in the wood. Can some describe chestnut for me?

Thanks,

Dell

[keith ouellette]

I have no experience with it at all but I saw a tv show (forget who hosted it) and They did part of the show on a guy who reclaimed lumber from old buildings and barns. He had purchased the rights to a number of old barns in a couple of states.

There must be something worth while in it.

one thing i do know is any time i see norm using reclaimed lumber he passes a metal detector over it.

[Josiah Bartlett]

Make sure that when you are taking things off that your body weight is supported by something other than the barn, so if it lets go you don't get taken down with it. I would rent a boom lift or get a lot of help if I was doing it. Take it apart in the reverse order that it was built, don't be afraid to brace things, and get somebody to help you if you can.

[Chris Kennedy]

We demo'd an old shed/barn structure at my grandmother-in-laws, and I would suggest being very methodical about it. Determine what is load bearing and what isn't -- gut everything that you can without compromising the structure, and then think about bringing the structure down. The wood I got out of it appears to be good cedar with 12"-18" wide boards.

Whereabouts in East Tennessee? My wife is from Oak Ridge, TN and Oak Ridge was built by the Army. They used was what was available, which was, well, oak. Truly a case of the right way, the wrong way, and the way the Army does it. Her parents house is solid (why use a 2 by 6 when you have a perfectly good and stronger 4 by 10), but having helped with renovations and additions, hammering a nail into 60 year old seasoned oak is an experience. Your barn predates that era, but oak is plentiful in the region, so you may have oak.

Cheers,

Chris

[Matt Meiser]

When I was a kid, a guy down the road from us decided to pull down an old barn before it collapsed which appeared imminent. They hooked a one end of a big chain to a big tractor and pulled...and nothing happened. I believe they ended up bringing in a large excavator and tearing it down that way. On the other hand, a well preserved barn in our area collapsed during high winds crushing a bunch of equipment stored inside. You never know.

[Mark Elmer]

About nine years ago we helped some friends of ours tear down an out building and kept some of the wood. It set outside in a pile for a while as I didn't want to bring potential pests into my basement woodshop.

We decided to build a couple of small wall shelf units and a large quilt rack. I sorted through the boards until I found ones close to the width that I needed and tried to design it so fresh cut ends of the boards would no show when the rack was assembled. I used a wire brush to remove dirt and other nasties.

The large quilt rack is set off by the wall behind it being painted barn red.

We have received many nice complements

I would not run any of this through my planer for reasons mentioned in previous posts.

[Stephen Edwards]

I know of an old barn here in middle Tennessee, probably 100 years old or more. I did some repair work on it. The whole barn is sided with black walnut! It must have been plentiful back then.

The 100+ year old barn on my place, part of which is now my shop was covered with lumber sawed off the farm. I've salvaged a lot of it as I remodeled the side that is now my shop. They used a mix of species, just whatever they had. There's some beautiful hard maple from it.

I used a set of dinged up knives in my planer to plane it down past the weathering. Once the boards are smooth I finished the planing with some really sharp knives. The side exposed to the weather has beautiful hairline weathering "grain effect". I'm glad I salvaged it and have built several small projects using this material.

You might consider removing just a few boards to begin with. Check them out and see what you have. It's difficult to know what it is until you get past the gray. OPs suggestion of a metal detector is a great idea. I suggest not using expensive blades and knives until you get it cleaned up and know what you have.

[Trace Beard]

I've taken down over 200 garages ranging in age 60 to 100 years old and here is how we approach most of them. Remove the shingles and sheathing, if it has any. Remove the siding as long as it's not integral to the structural integrity of the building, i.e. their are stud walls inside. Start removing the rafters and work your way down. Once your down to the skeleton you may want to push it over since it's a two story building.

I save old pine 2 x material and it's absolutely beautiful once it's cleaned up.

Your in for a lot of hard work but your reward will be more than the wood you take out of it.

[Kevin Arceneaux]

It is a big deal here in SW LA. Cypress was the wood of choice to build them and it is well worth the time to tear it down and clean the wood up.

[Brad Townsend]

Use caution! The guys who tore down my dad's 70-year-old dairy barn removed all of the siding first. Apparently, the frame was compromised enough that it could not support the roof on its own. Without warning, the roof pancaked straight down with their flatbed truck parked underneath. Fortunately, no one was under it and the truck only suffered minor damage.

As soon as they freed the truck from the rubble, they left. A short time later, we went to town and saw the truck parked in front of the local bar. I'm sure they needed that drink.:D

[Dell Moore]

I'll certainly have to be careful, but I think the benefit will be worth it. It's made from some WIDE 12"+ boards, and I plan o geting a metal detector for nail and whatnot.

Thanks for the advice!

Dell

[Brian D Anderson]

You know, I'm not exactly sure what kind of wood this is. I'm for the deep south (Pine, Oak and Poplar). It could very well BE chestnut. It's certainly the region for it (Eastern Tennessee).

Parts of the barn are an unusual red/orange color. Of course, this could be stain.

VERY few knots in the wood. Can some describe chestnut for me?

Thanks,

Dell

For lots of pictures of chestnut . . . http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/chestnut.htm

The boards I got were fairly light. It's not as heavy as oak but resembles it somewhat in my opinion. It's an open grained wood.

-Brian

[jason mowery]

I tore down a 40x20' corncrib/equipment shed on my property and had the lumber milled into oak flooring for my living room and hallway. We're partial to the "rustic" look, and it was important to me to retain some of the farm's history (but not the eyesore building per se). The flooring looks great, with the oxidized nailholes and everything. I tackled it with a reciprocating saw, cutting all the horizontal slats that made up the sides from the posts at the extreme ends of each slat, and then a crowbar, nail pullers, etc to free the nails from the board where they were attached to a post someplace other than an end. Once that was all done, I hooked a series of chains around the rest that I wasn't interested in salvaging, and drug it down with the tractor. Loaded up all the lumber, took it a local mill, and had it all milled into tongue and groove flooring for around $1200. Can't remember how many lineal feet it was, but for what I got, it was very reasonable.

Best wishes!