Old Barn Addition

JimXJ2000 · January 15, 2015, 07:30:02 PM

Our project for the last 18 months has been adding an old barn to be more living space...here is the site before building up:

Here is the planning stage...lots of foam core test sizes:

The barn...before taking down:

The almost finished facade:

I figured out how to add pictures now. I'll add some more soon.

This forum has been a great help for the project.

JimXJ2000 · January 15, 2015, 08:35:50 PM

Pictures of the barn before it came down and some of the taking down.

Dave Shepard · January 15, 2015, 08:51:15 PM

That is a very nice frame. Definitely scribe rule. I'd like to know more about that long gunstock timber with the single tenon on the end in the pic with the pumpkin. Where was that in the frame? Why do you have to timbers with the same tag on them?

Fallguy · January 15, 2015, 10:32:04 PM

My guess is that the WX goes to the WX so that it does not get flipped.

sprucebunny · January 16, 2015, 07:57:20 AM

Great project ! Beautiful timbers !

Thanks for the pictures and welcome to the forum 8)

JimXJ2000 · January 16, 2015, 11:19:43 AM

The long timber with the pumpkin was a plate extension for an addition on the barn. Best we could figure out was it started as a 4 bay/5 bent frame. Shortly after a 3 bay extension was added. Maybe by the same builder as the work looks the same. Could have been at the same time...but the bent was framed like the other gable end - smaller hardwood posts and rafters. Holes for "studs" above the tie rather than angled struts that were used in the middle bents. It was modified over the years so hard to say. Best guess was an addition a few years after the first part was built.

That piece is the plate for one of the sides of the extension. We put up the original part of the barn, so that plate was not re-used....yet. I am planning to use it for part of the second floor. It is too nice not to use. I'll find some more pictures and ask for ideas on using it.

We had the barn taken down (I didn't do that) so the lettering system wasn't mine. But the letter system was as noted by Fallguy. Each post gets a letter. Connecting beams get the letters to match the posts. Braces would share the letters as the connecting beam.

DeerMeadowFarm · January 16, 2015, 03:43:00 PM

Now this is a cool project!

JimXJ2000 · January 16, 2015, 05:15:30 PM

More pictures from our re-used old barn project.

Foundation was "modern construction"....With hindsight stone might have been nice. Building inspector liked a "real" foundation. First floor deck was modern construction. Lot sort of falls away from front of barn, so back corner is walkout. We pulled the foundation wall in so the back corner sits on posts to give some outside storage area while preventing us from having a giant wall of concrete.

The posts for that corner are concrete footings, 4 ft stone (with a hole in the middle) about 4 feet of re-used wooded posts with a hole drilled in the middle - that wasn't fun. A threaded rod runs from the bottom of the footing to the sill of the barn.

The outside edge of the sill has a wrap around shelf or lip made out of 2X8's that will hold a 2X4 wall and insulation panels outside of the barn frame. The 2X4 wall was screwed to the barn frame so the lip doesn't carry a lot of weight, but did make it a lot easier to build.

Cleaning and de-nailing:

Getting ready for raising:

And raising day(s)

I'll add some more later.

I have a time lapse Youtube clip (teen age son's work) that I can link to...just not sure I should post links.

Holmes · January 16, 2015, 06:01:48 PM

Very impressive project and quite well done. 8) 8)

PC-Urban-Sawyer · January 16, 2015, 09:23:12 PM

Jim,

Posting a link to a YouTube video is not only allowed but highly encouraged.

Great project. Good to see younger members of the family learning how to contribute.

Herb

JimXJ2000 · January 17, 2015, 08:02:59 AM

Day one of the raising...in about 8 minutes. Some of the music was removed by youtube....some copyright thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiccH2mFnv8

and day 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XKLXe5LWu0

The kids were great helpers. and a great experience for them.

Sawyer697 · January 17, 2015, 08:37:54 AM

Very good project, lots of help from the whole family. They will never forget and will be willing to work on there own. Little surprise that you are that close to the house, around here we have to have a least 20 feet between buildings for fire protection. Can not really tell from the picture. Looks good! 8)

JimXJ2000 · January 17, 2015, 06:40:54 PM

Thanks.

The 'barn' will be living space...connected to the house. That's why it looks close. Three bedrooms, mom's office, craft/art/professional room (loft area - isolated from kids), a mud room and a great room.

Brian_Weekley · January 17, 2015, 08:13:22 PM

Nice looking frame. Nothing beats old, hand-hewn timbers and a timber frame raising! I'll tell you, I was getting mighty nervous watching that second wall go up. Seemed to be hanging there for an awfully long time--bending and flexing. Even though they had it strengthened a bit, I was afraid a joint was going to give way. Glad it went up without incident.

JimXJ2000 · January 26, 2015, 07:47:49 PM

Continuation on my project - using a relocated old barn to be used as a living space addition - pictures.

Insulation and walls took a bit of planning. We wanted to be able to see the whole frame from the inside and not be able to see any changes needed to make it have wiring and insulation. From the outside we wanted it to look like an old barn that had always been there.

I looked (a lot) into SIP panels - they have a lot of advantages. But they seemed expensive for what they are (OSB, glue and foam). Also we had a lot of unknowns in our project. No dimensions would be exact until the frame was up. We had all the windows but were still moving the locations around. Wiring and lights would change over time. Wife and I really needed to see it up to make the final design adjustments. Also we got some good advice from one of the companies that with the minor irregularities of the old frame SIPs could be a challenge - lots of shimming.

We ended up learning more about the "wrap and strap" and REMOTE systems (from this forum) and liked what we saw. A bit of luck on Craigslist got us a lot of polyisocyanurate insulation sheets. So we went with a 2X4 wall that mounted outside the timberframe and rested on a lip around the foundation at the sill. Outside the 2X4 is a layer of OSB to stiffen the frame. Then a layer of the foam insulation which is wrapped with ZIP sheathing. On top of that is a layer of strapping to provide and air space on the back of the re-used old barn board. We will fill the 2X4 cavity with fiberglass insulation before the drywall will go on. It will end up being very well insulated, very tight and be able to see the entire frame form the inside...and still look like a barn (with a lot of windows) from the outside.

The 2X4 wall sections were modular. We could make them on a table area in roughly 12X12 foot section with boxes (2X10's) for the window and door openings. Then stacked them on the sill lip and screwed them to the frame.

Overall it worked at well, but did take a bit of time. Since it is family labor it was a pretty good deal.

DeerMeadowFarm · January 27, 2015, 12:26:15 PM

Loving this thread!

stickframer · January 30, 2015, 03:25:50 PM

8)Great Thread!

For you experienced timber framers, is it acceptable not to house your joinery. I notice alot of the joinery here is not housed.

Dave Shepard · January 30, 2015, 04:46:04 PM

This barn is scribe ruled, so any housings are likely to be a diminished haunch. The more modern square ruled frames use housings on almost every joint.

Addirondack · March 05, 2015, 09:39:19 AM

Hi Jim,

Very nice project, that addition looks amazing. I've got a question for you. I like your raising method. I am thinking about using a boom forklift for our building project here in Virginia.

What's size forklift is this? What was the height of your walls?

Congratulations on your project.

Mathieu

justallan1 · March 05, 2015, 07:53:42 PM

Great build. I'll be watching this one.

JimXJ2000 · March 09, 2015, 03:33:37 PM

The take down and raising were done by a small company in NH.

The fork lift was a 56 ft. Walls are about 18 feet to the top of the plate.

It took some skill (understatement) to do the lift with the boom. But for a small project with limited budget the boom is very useful and a lot cheaper by the day compared to renting a crane and driver.

We also used the boom for placing the ties, rafters and purlins. It worked, but we did have access to three full side and half of the forth side of the barn. If you cant drive the boom lift all around it would be harder.

It was fun (and intimidating) to operate.