BARN RESTORATION
PART ONE AND A HALF
PULLING IN THE WALL OF THE 'NEW' BARN
AND A WONDERFUL SURPISE FIND
After installing the OSB flooring in the newly repaired loft, I knew the next task was to pull in the south wall of the 'new' barn. Then I'd be able to reinforce the corners, add sisters to the rafters and attach them to the plate, install purlins on top of the rafters, and finally put on new roofing.
It was late August and I continued to marvel at how cool the summer had been. I should have kept my mouth shut. The temperatures shot into the nineties to remind me of just how weather is not to be trusted. And though we needed rain badly (and still do in September as I write this), the lack of the same kept my new work dry. The lack of rain did not mean a lack of moisture, though; the humidity hovered in the sixty per cent zone
I also realized that all this moving around of the new barn wall might affect the old barn, whose plate, rafters and wall had moved eastward as well. So I decided to install some lights in the old barn, open it up for ventilation, and add some bracing. Though the old barn wall had moved out over time, it was quite solid and not in danger of collapse. I'd still need to keep an eye on it.
As I have written, I have no documentation on the age of the barn. The older barn has no loft. Its top plates are hewn chestnut and pine with mortise and tenon joints held by trunnels, has horizontal posts of bark-on trees and hewn corners set on stones. It's south wall is plywood but its west and north walls have older (probably original) pine and chestnut vertical sheathing; the pine is up to eight inches wide and the chestnut is up to twenty inches. I intend to keep the old sheathing and replace the south wall's plywood with remilled sheathing made from the cast-off longleaf scrap from work. I also have some other boards that have deep patina and huge circular saw marks from the Harvard Carriage House takedown (see my Architectural Vestiges blog for that). These particular boards were newer than the original sheathing on the carriage house, and so were offered to me. I'll use those to replace and repair the older wood on the north and west sides; the south side will have the longleaf scrap pictured in the last post.
My point is that I know the two barns were built at different times; the newer looks to be 1800s and the older looks to be 18th century. I had no architectural features to go by, other than the wood already described.
So when the weather heated up, I decided to open the upper door of the old barn. I needed the light as well as some ventilation. I set up the ladder on the west gable and began to remove the ancient shingles that have protected the sheathing for the past fifty or seventy years. Upon revealing the door's top hinge, I must have grinned like a lizard.
THIS is why I do restoration.
The door revealed completely. I imagine it is today as it was two hundred (or more) years ago. Note that the length of the lower hinge is greater than the upper; this hinge carries more weight and should be longer to keep the boards from sagging.
A close-up of the lower strap hinge. The strap is typical of hand-forged Colonial-era hnges, with its spade-shaped end and hand-forged nails. The pintle, though, was my greatest surprise (and joy). I'd never seen a pintle made from a horseshoe.
The nails that hold the horseshoe/pintle to the wood are tiny. I immediately knew that opening this door would probably lead to it falling off. It was far too valuable to do anything but preserve it for later repair. It's the most significant architectural feature in a building that has seen a lot of changes over the centuries, and I'll be damned if I'm going to lose it for a little air and light. Besides, it's going to cool down soon and the days are getting shorter. If I am to continue this project until the snow comes, I'd be working after dark, and this door being open wouldn't help much after work. Note the rose-head design of the nail to the left, the first nail of the hinge.
Hand forged nail. The clinched nail above the hinge is a modern wire nail; it holds the vertical board to one of the two horizontal members inside.
Upper hinge
Inside of the old barn, complete with the few pieces of decent junk I saved. Note the light coming through the newly exposed door above. This view shows the west wall and the north wall to the right. The north wall has the wide chestnut, the west wall has what I believe to be pine. These walls, as well as the roof above, are plumb and need no major repair other than corner joint reinforcement and some added interior framing to tighten the sheathing. The horizontal beam joining the north and south walls has been reinforced with steel ties. It will left in place until I have temporary jacks and scaffolding in place. I intend to join the north plate to the south plate with a large chain and use my giant come-along to pull the south wall in, but only after removing the roofing shingles, supporting the rafters, and disconnecting them from the south plate. Trust me, I'll have lots of temporary support before disconnection. That might take until next spring, but I'll add support and bracing to the old barn to handle snow loads this winter.
The interior frame is probably adequate to support the door, but the nails are not. I need to do some reinforcing if I'm to open the door. The more I think about it, the more I don't think I NEED to open it. This building is not going to be a museum restoration; it will fit my needs as a wood shop, and I'll be installing some sort of large door as well as windows. But now, it needs repair and structural reinforcement. I'll likely put plastic sheeting over it before the snow comes.
In the meantime, I had to pull in the new barn loft wall.
Preparing to move the right brace to reinforce the old barn top plate/corner post joint. I removed shingles above the ladder in order to attach a 2x12 block to the joint. Note the separating wall shingles to the right of the ladder; this is where the new barn (right) is joined to the old barn (left). In truth, neither barn is joined to the other. Even the roof sheathing is butted to separate rafters at the joint. The right brace removal was done only after tying the new barn's right corner together.
Once the brace was installed and the shingles removed, it becomes obvious that the old barn corner has moved significantly; the opposite corner of the old barn, on the left of the picture, is plumb. Keep in mind that I haven't moved the new barn wall back yet. Once this was done the space would widen significantly.
The space between the barns' corner posts as seen from inside. The rafters of the new barn have been lifted to allow the wall to be pulled back in. The horizontal member in the upper left has a deteriorated end, as does the corner post. I added the temporary supports below it before moving the wall in.
Plate and corner before repositioning. Though there was a lot of rotted wood on both (the corner was hollow to depth of eighteen inches and filled with soil and giant grubs), there was a lot of good wood to which I could attach corner blocks.
The southeast corner of the new barn after the wall was pulled in and pressure-treated 2x6 blocks were screwed in to create a reinforced corner. The 2x4s at an angle to the right were screwed to the block that previously held the outside brace (since moved to the old barn) and was used to pull in the wall, which shows just how loose it really was. It was then screwed to another 2x4 screwed to the joists below (see previous picture; oh, you already did). Once the corner was tied together, the brace was removed.
The other corner of the new barn has split as well as rotted. The hurricane brace was disconnected (it was nailed, not mortised in). The plate and end rafter are tied together with a temporary 2x4 corner. That rafter is down by almost six inches.
The whole megillah. Not the right word, but I always wanted to use it. It is a good pic of where the two barns meet. I'm considering extending the loft at least partway into the old barn to make the repair of the old barn roof/wall both easier and more secure.
After pulling in the wall (note the corner brace on the end rafter is gone). The wall is held in place by the brace on the left. After cutting out the rotted areas of the timber to accommodate a scarf repair, I had to jack the end rafter of the new barn to match the end rafter of the old barn. This rafter took more pressure to jack, as it held a bit more of the roof sheathing as well as some of the roofing of the old barn. Note the bottom of the stiffleg under the next rafter. It was sitting on the blocks below before I lifted the end rafter.
Adding a 2x6 corner and a diagonal brace to tie the horizontal timber to the corner post. Both still had quite a bit of solid wood to accept screws. The cutout for the scarf joint can be seen in better detail here. And in truth, it's not actually a scarf joint, as I'm not tying one linear timber to another (you'll see why I did it this way in the next few pics). But the offset ends to the right of the temporary angle brace is how a scarf joint is done. Sort of. The angle brace to the left is similar to the one I used to pull in the other end of the wall. I'm only pulling in the wall from the loft floor to the rafters, which is just the vertical sheathing boards and the plate, so very little effort is needed.
In addition to the corner and brace below, the timber/corner were then tied into the plate with another corner fit into the scarf joint. An additional block above ties the corner further into the timber Though the wall was pulled in, the corner post could not be moved; there is a three-inch space between it and the horizontal timber. The loft floor makes moving the corner post impossible.
The wall moved back in, the corners completed, the rafters jacked and supported, though obviously not in place. A series of 4x4s support the opposite rafters (above my head and to my back in the picture).
The space between the old and new barn posts is prodigious indeed. Moving the old post in and tying the entire old barn structure together will involve a lot more ingenuity and security bracing.
