gearheadmb said:
Another angle of the parts barn. Race beretta for scale. It's big, and would be amazing. Unfortunately the former owners neglected it. The roof peeled back on 6 of the 8 corners, leaked, and rotted the corner posts out. It is beyond repair. It makes me sad. There are hand hewn 8x8 posts and beams 30 feet and longer in this thing. In it's time it would have been beautiful. Butter under the siding it's just shot from owners who didn't care enough to keep the water out.
Don't give up hope on it yet. Local Amish will come and give you a repair quote that's pretty fair and won't cost more than a new one. .
If you don't have Amish there are timber frame specialists all over the country ready and eager to help.
Maybe not next week but in time to save it.
I got some roof tore off the parts barn today. Maybe a ten foot wide section.
I got a late start followed by several hours of "How the hell am I gonna do this without hurting myself?" but once i got it figured out it went fairly quickly. The first two rafters aren't great because the roof was gone but past those are some really premo 16' 2x5" oak rafters that I will be glad to have. I need four for the other building and the rest will get stacked in the wood shop until i find a good use for them. I think this week I should be able to make decent progress.
Nothing important to add but I am incredibly sore today. Hopefully this project gets me back into shape. Last year I put new siding on a relative's two story house. By the time I was done I felt like I was in the best shape of my life. I guess 12 billion trips up and down ladders will do that to you.
"Parts barn" is probably the funniest thing I'll read today. Or tomorrow. Congratulations on the purchase!
In reply to gearheadmb :
Next time you do siding or work up high go rent or buy scaffolding. Not only will the job get done in about 1/4 of the time because you are walking along side the wall instead of up and down ladders.
You'll be safer since you aren't constantly moving the ladder and maybe a leg will sink in too far or slip out of place.
Another hint? Use the ladder to get up on the scaffolding. It's easier, safer, and faster than climbing up the scaffolding itself.
If you are nervous about heights scaffolding helps. You have 4 foot wide planking that will be flat and level.
Doing roof shingles, 4 foot wide scaffolding at the bottom of the eves is a big safety net.
You can use either 6 foot wide boards or 10 foot wide. Planks and X Braces determine which. The 6 footers are a little less bouncy but of course you'll need more frames. I have 16 frames and I can cover either 90 feet or 160 feet depending on if I'm using 6 or 10 footers. I used 6 footers when I was building my stone walls. But 10 footers as fall protection. 
Finally aways use the 4 foot wide stuff. not the 3 foot wide stuff meant for inside the house. I've got scaffolding up 5 levels high and it's still sturdy. That 3 foot wide starts getting tippy after just 2 levels.
I got my scaffolding 2nd hand ( or 3-4-5-7 hand ) but bought new planks ( do not use boards!!!!!!! Use OSHA approved planks )
The frames and X braces really don't wear out but planks do and if you see boards rather than OSHA planks Leave them there. ( unless you need concrete forms.) just don't stand on them 30-50 feet in the air and hope the knots hold.
There are options that allow you to hoist stuff up on a pulley system and width extensions that allow you to work over things jutting out the the building ( bow windows or other obstructions. They also have adjustable stands so you can get everything straight and level no matter how uneven the ground is.
I have a set of wheels so I can move things around without taking them down.
The first time you put scaffolding up it will probably take 3 times too long but you'll quickly learn how to do it either by yourself or with help.
I've seen scaffolding 140 feet high. But when you're working at that height there are faster and safer ways to work.
In reply to frenchyd :
Yeah the siding job took me forever with ladders. On the highest part of the house (walkout basement plus two stories plus attic) I did rent a bucket lift for the weekend. That was pretty nice.
I cleaned out the loft area where I'm doing the tear off since I will be working up there now. So. Much. Raccoon. E36 M3.
frenchyd said:
GIRTHQUAKE said:
Man, I really wanted to find a barn for my first house. I actually DID find one, but that was how I learned the hard way that Banks rarely loan money on huge renovations on things that were never originally meant to be domiciles. Just no fun.
I vote to keep it looking weathered like a sleeper barn. Keep the shop hidden!
There is a way around banks stodgy rules.
I wanted to build a house my way without all the banks BS. What I did is use my credit cards. I got interest free ones and loaded them up with the timbers, tools and etc I wanted. Then I got a home equity loan to pay off the credit cards.
I repeated that to give myself working capitol to keep building my way. Since I paid off the credit cards quickly that increased my credit score and more interest free credit cards showed up in the mail.
Every appraisal showed improvements so the value of my house kept going up. Increase in value gave me equity to pay off credit cards and repeat.
Damnit frenchyd, where were you 3 months ago
But seriously, I don't think you can transfer credit cards to home equity anymore but i'm only pretty sure.
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
You don't. You use the money you borrow from the credit cards to improve your home then get a home equity loan to pay off your credit card balances. Once they are paid off a whole new flood of credit cards appear repeat as needed.
gearheadmb said:
In reply to frenchyd :
Yeah the siding job took me forever with ladders. On the highest part of the house (walkout basement plus two stories plus attic) I did rent a bucket lift for the weekend. That was pretty nice.
I've decided to sell my scaffolding since I'm not using it and it hasn't really been used in more than 10 years. So I checked around to see what it's worth.
14 frames.*. About 35 scissor braces, 7 10 ft long planks 9&1/2 wide OSHA compliant 2 6' planks ditto
2 6 foot aluminum/ plywood platforms ( 19" wide )
12 levelers.
4 wheels.
1 pulley hoist.
* 4ft wide ladder frames normally used by masons.
Retail value for the whole lot? About $200.
Don't really expect to sell it here I just have those prices so you understand how cheap scaffolding is used.
In reply to frenchyd :
If you weren't so far away I'd probably buy it from you.
More tearoff done.
My goal yesterday was to get the rest of the roof, the rafters and the mow removed. They were calling for "some rain" in the afternoon so I knew I might not make it. It turns out "some rain" was 4.7 inches.
I didn't like leaving that wood out in the rain, but there wasn't much else I could do. So today instead of tearing the rest off I figured leaving it up would be the best possible drying conditions. So the rafters and hay mow get to stay for another day, and I tore off some of the metal siding.
There are some serious smells trapped under that metal siding. My hope is to use the old wood barn siding to make cabinets in the wood shop, but they look pretty soft. I don't know how well they will come off.
In reply to gearheadmb :
What you really need to do is show up with a big truck and I'd be so happy to get rid of my surplus wood for free I'd toss in the scaffolding.
l
In reply to frenchyd :
That's only 400 bd ft but it's all about 18-20 feet long.
frenchyd said:
In reply to gearheadmb :
What you really need to do is show up with a big truck and I'd be so happy to get rid of my surplus wood for free I'd toss in the scaffolding.
l
That actually sounds pretty tempting. I wonder what it would cost to have a truck deliver a load from Minnesota to Ohio.
In reply to gearheadmb :
Oh no. You want it you come and get it!! I ain't liften' all that!
Seriously the cost of driving up here is more than you'd pay once you find the right sawmill. Not the big mill or the little hobby mill but the guy who sells wood to the local pallet company. Railroad ties. And the odd bunker of graded wood.
Local farmers go to him for wood to fix the barn. Everything is dusty but busy.
Oh man, I'd grab all of that in a heartbeat if I could!
I've been working pretty hard and not been doing a very good job of documenting, but as of about 15 minutes the lean to is down and the wall is disassembled
Lumber somewhat organized and ready
I'm guess I'm ready to start working on the keeper barn. But not right now. Right now I am whooped.
I had another productive weekend. I started the work on the keeper barn. Do you remember this pic from page 1?
This missing roof and rotted post and beam was where I started. I tore everything off from the next post (out of frame to the left), removed the sliding door and the wall above it.
The sill plate was rotted under the next post.
No time like the present so I cut the rotted plate out and slide in a new one. The post isn't nearly as bad as it looks here. Just a little superficial rot on this side.
Next came work on the top beam. I cut it to length with a chainsaw then cut the top 3 inches off 16 inches back for the half lap joint to accept the new beam.
This was a blind mortise and the tenon doesn't extend all the way through. This means there won't be enough for me to peg the new beam, but I am thankful that there is some of the tenon protruding up for the new beam to sit on.
Here are the new used beams laid out next to the barn ready for me to start cutting them into shape.
So that was it for this weekend. I feel good about the progress I made.
You're going to have to replace the rotted wood . Find a local sawmill to cut timbers over size and you can buy a hewing axe to replicate the original timbers easily enough.
Plus it will be a lot cheaper than lumberyard wood.
If you plan on nailing things together unless you want to buy stainless steel or other non steel nails or screws don't use white oak or black walnut. While they are rot resistant, steel or iron in them will cause a reaction with the tannins developing acids which will rot the wood and the fastener.
I've been poking at the project a little in the evenings these last couple days. I got the top beam and corner post ready to go up (I think). The top beam had a half lap joint at one end which would work well to mate it to the existing beam.
That put an existing mortise about 1.5" from the end of the beam.
So I needed to put a tenon on the top of my post to match.
Not too shabby for my first time. I did a test fit on the ground and the fit was pretty good, could have been a bit snugger, but I think I'll appreciate the little bit of looseness when I have to assemble this up in the air on top of a step ladder.
One other bit of progress, the utility company came out and marked all my underground lines today so i can trench in electric and internet lines over to the building. So that will be exciting.
That's about 8000 bd ft. 
