Barn Demo, A Stone Wall, & a Shooting Backstop in the Making
Posted: December 2nd, 2018, 2:36 pm
The Barn Demo
When I 1st bought my place in Ohio, the barn needed some work. It is a 2 story banked barn
with a grainery & a hay mow in the upper part. The roof had different sections blown up over
the years during heavy winds. I spent several thousand doing repairs but it seemed that year
in & year out, more things needed fixing & the barn was not worth the cost to repair. I have
had a lot of offers to buy the barn & all but 1 was ludicrous. One guy offered me $2k but I
would have to do all the clean-up. It would have cost me more to get the site cleaned-up then
he was willing to pay. The last offer satisfied me & they would do all the clean-up. I did a little
investigating & the company has done a lot of barn demos in the area & all reports were good
so I accepted his offer.
There was a lot of scrape metal & 8 large rolls of old hog fence in the barn. I had a dumpster
dropped off and, when all was said & done, I had 4240 ponds of scrap metal & about 250 pounds
of copper & electrical wire which resulted in a nice chunk of change.
They were going to start in about 2 weeks but there was a delay in getting some of their
equipment moved to the next job & a storm was forecast for the afternoon so they came
over yesterday, 08/29/2018, to get a start.
This has been a learning experience. Each “type” of wood goes into separate stacks & is
used for different things. All nails have to be removed as well as the ends squared off. The
pile with the short boards is grainery wood & the other pile is floor boards as well as other
“brown” wood. Each piece will be pressure washed & then ran through a planer. Most of
the wood will be going out west to be used to build houses or do remodeling. The 4’x4’
pieces will be turned & used for table legs. My barn has a lot of beech, maple, & some oak.
It doesn’t look like there is any walnut or wormy chestnut, both high dollar woods. Also,
some of the beams/uprights are hand hewn but most appear to be saw, Hand hewn are
more desirable & bring more $$s. They estimate that the barn was built some time around
1910 which is when portable sawmills started being used when buildings were put up.
Once they get the barn down & everything cleaned-up, I’ll start seriously shopping for someone
to put up a new building. It won’t be on the same spot as the old barn. I’m thinking about
putting in a garden there next spring. I can’t wait to get everything done.
I will be saving some of the scrape beams/studs to build a new shooting range.
The work has been ongoing since 08/29/2018 with some stoppages due to weather & other
jobs the crew had in progress.
We have been getting a lot of rain so the area that needs final grading is nothing more than
a big mud bog. On Friday, 11/30/18, they came & got the skid steer they will use to finish up.
It will probably be spring before they can finish, DANG IT!!!!
I know that some people have really short attention spans & are easily bored, so rather than
go into a day-by-day written document, I’ll let the pics describe the work being done & I’ll
post a minimum of pics.
When I 1st bought my place in Ohio, the barn needed some work. It is a 2 story banked barn
with a grainery & a hay mow in the upper part. The roof had different sections blown up over
the years during heavy winds. I spent several thousand doing repairs but it seemed that year
in & year out, more things needed fixing & the barn was not worth the cost to repair. I have
had a lot of offers to buy the barn & all but 1 was ludicrous. One guy offered me $2k but I
would have to do all the clean-up. It would have cost me more to get the site cleaned-up then
he was willing to pay. The last offer satisfied me & they would do all the clean-up. I did a little
investigating & the company has done a lot of barn demos in the area & all reports were good
so I accepted his offer.
There was a lot of scrape metal & 8 large rolls of old hog fence in the barn. I had a dumpster
dropped off and, when all was said & done, I had 4240 ponds of scrap metal & about 250 pounds
of copper & electrical wire which resulted in a nice chunk of change.
They were going to start in about 2 weeks but there was a delay in getting some of their
equipment moved to the next job & a storm was forecast for the afternoon so they came
over yesterday, 08/29/2018, to get a start.
This has been a learning experience. Each “type” of wood goes into separate stacks & is
used for different things. All nails have to be removed as well as the ends squared off. The
pile with the short boards is grainery wood & the other pile is floor boards as well as other
“brown” wood. Each piece will be pressure washed & then ran through a planer. Most of
the wood will be going out west to be used to build houses or do remodeling. The 4’x4’
pieces will be turned & used for table legs. My barn has a lot of beech, maple, & some oak.
It doesn’t look like there is any walnut or wormy chestnut, both high dollar woods. Also,
some of the beams/uprights are hand hewn but most appear to be saw, Hand hewn are
more desirable & bring more $$s. They estimate that the barn was built some time around
1910 which is when portable sawmills started being used when buildings were put up.
Once they get the barn down & everything cleaned-up, I’ll start seriously shopping for someone
to put up a new building. It won’t be on the same spot as the old barn. I’m thinking about
putting in a garden there next spring. I can’t wait to get everything done.
I will be saving some of the scrape beams/studs to build a new shooting range.
The work has been ongoing since 08/29/2018 with some stoppages due to weather & other
jobs the crew had in progress.
We have been getting a lot of rain so the area that needs final grading is nothing more than
a big mud bog. On Friday, 11/30/18, they came & got the skid steer they will use to finish up.
It will probably be spring before they can finish, DANG IT!!!!
I know that some people have really short attention spans & are easily bored, so rather than
go into a day-by-day written document, I’ll let the pics describe the work being done & I’ll
post a minimum of pics.