The sad story of an old Wisconsin Barn
A classic building that has outlived it's time.

This was a 'working' barn up until 1992 when this farm ceased to be an operating dairy farm and began it's transformation to producing forest products.

Barn as a working part of a dairy operation

Working barn

This picture was taken sometime during the 1970's or 1980's when the farm was still supporting a dairy herd. In the early 1990's my parents retired and dissolved the dairy operation and began renting the land to a neighbor for corn and bean production. In the mid 1990's we realized that the rent we were receiving barely paid for the taxes and the cropping strategies used by the neighbor were mining the soil that my parents had worked a lifetime to build into; "... some of the best corn land in this part of the state." So we explored other options and finally decided that a better strategy would be to convert the farm into the production of high-value lumber and other forest products [ see Treenut site ] .

It quickly became obvious that in order to preserve this barn we would have to invest in some fairly extensive repairs and maintenance projects. The most important and most urgent being a new roof. The current roof of asphalt shingles had been put on in the 1960's and although it had been patched over the years, it was missing shingles and had some fairly large areas where shingles were damaged and leaking. The cost of replacing the roof ranged between $8.000 and $14,000 depending on the type of roofing selected. This was much more than could be justified by any imaginable future use for the building. There are also signs of detraction in the foundation. These massive old rock and mortar foundations don't survive well in the severe winters without the cow herd to keep the building warm and dry.

Old Dairy barn that has outlived it's usefulness ...

10 years after retirement.

In 2004 - ten years after the farm was retired - we began to seriously explore our options for saving the roof, and consequently the barn. We contacted roofing companies and asked for bids. This was the middle of a nice building boom in the area housing market and there weren't many companies (or individuals) willing to even do barn roofs. Although they are simple to do - no valley's or different levels to deal with - they are high and dangerous.

Sun setting on barn.

The estimates we received were way more than we could either afford or justify by the return we would get in either use or rental of this barn. So we put on a large tarp in an attempt to delay a decision (perhaps until the building boom slackened a bit). We happened to have this tarp and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The tarp didn't last through the winter.

South view of barn and yard.

The smaller of the two silos had already been removed by 2004 - while under previous management - leaving a gaping hole in the roof of the silo room.

... but not it's appeal (click on pictures for larger view).

Hand hewn beams.

The construction of these old barns is something to be admired and preserved. Heavy hand hewn beams and wood-pegged mortise and tenon joints throughout the upper barn.

Lower barn.

The lower barn has rough half logs as floor joists and more hand hewn beams for the main support. The rafters are notched into the support beams.

Joints.

joinery.

Wood pegs holding all the joints in upper barn.

beams.

Images of the barn just before we started deconstruction.

pictures of barn

Some for nostalgia. Some to remind us why it has to come down.

Deconstruction: Stage I

Note: this web page is a work in progress. Deconstruction of this barn was begun in June 2011 and I will be documenting it's progress - on this page - as time permits.

Deconstruction begins

Removing tin siding to expose white pine barn boards. Tin in good condition and will be preserved as best as possible during this process. There are a TON of nails holding each panel.

End of Day One

Exposed north side that shows some of the bracing and buttressing that was added to strengthen and straighten the barn (sometime in the 1970's), I'm hoping this will hold the barn up while we continue to salvage the siding.

Salvaged barn boards

Nearly 30 12 foot 1X12 pine barn boards recovered on day one. (My cousin, David Coyte, who is helping during day one and day two. )

David straightening nails

Day 2:

When we started removing tin from the east side we discovered that the nails had been bent over on the inside. I can imagine this was so people weren't maimed by them when they were pitching hay around in the mow. These would have been very dangerous. I'm not sure why I didn't see this on the west side but I suspect they used smaller nails on that siding.
Anyway, each nail had to be straightened from the inside and pounded out before the siding could be removed.

End of second day

Day 2 - progress:

canvas sheeting?

Mysteries

canvas tacks

tin siding

More Mysteries

Deconstruction: Stage I (continued)

After evaluating the stability of the remaining structure (and thinking over this problem for nearly a month), I added some bracing across the beam framing and chained (with a come-along ) across the diagonal of the remaining strong framing beam section to counter any slight leaning the barn was doing. In comparing pictures of the current structure with those of the structure before we started, I could see no evidence of any change in the position of this barn.

Deconstruction continues

Contrary to the looks of this picture (goofy perspective) the barn frame is fundamentally straight and the internal bracing is sound.

However, I will be very careful to notice any evidence (sight, sound, or feel) of shifting from here on.

More progress

North section of east wall is complete.

Also removed the filled in large east door. Much of this tin was salvaged as well as the long barn boards.

End of another day

Inside work

Removing siding - a long process

Every siding nail had been bent over on the inside.
Every siding nail needs to be straightened and pounded though from the inside before the tin siding piece can be removed.

Straightening siding nail ..

This is a long and arduous process. But it's inside work and since it was raining this day it didn't bother me too much to take this time.

.. second step

Many of the nails were pounded over with some gusto and required the use of a hatchet to dig them out of the wood. Once this was done I could slide the claw of the hammer under the nail and bend it straight.

Pounding nail through

It wasn't necessary to pound the nail through but it made it much easer to pull it from the other side if it had already been started. These old nails are hard to start since they've been in the wood for so long.

Deconstruction: Stage II: Take down pull #1.

The day finally came when I decided that any further disassembly of the standing structure was either not worth the time and energy or not worth the risk of bodily injury. It was time to get the cables attached, give it a pull and see what happens.

First Pull

50 foot steel cables were attached to the barn at the east and west corner of the wall plate beam on the north side of the barn. These were then attached to the bucket of the tractor and the tractor slowly backed up. The first pull took the east corner beam out but not much else. The cable attached to the west corner came apart at the hook.

not much happened

The East corner support beam came down with part of the north wall plate beam. The rest of the structure pretty much stayed put.

still standing

I was surprised by how sturdy the barn was. I reconnected the repaired cable to the west corner beam and pulled and pulled. The barn would move a little with each pull but would settle back where it was. The tractor is a 50 horse and 4-wheel drive. It had no trouble with power but traction was a problem. It would spin and dig itself into the ground.

I tried a different tact by making a block and tackle out of the old 1 inch hay rope and two pullys. I connected this to two trees, the cable to the barn and finally to the tractor. Everything worked fine and I was getting all kinds of pulling power (no slippage). The barn was moving a little more this time but one of the pullys broke and that ended that.

I was very surprised at the stubornness of the west wall of the barn because that was the wall part of the roof that had rotted through and the internal beam had rotted and fallen away. The bottom sill beam on the west wall had rotted through and the whole section of wall was just hanging there. But the pegged joints on that corner were sound and not about to give way.

Deconstruction: Stage II: Take down pull #2.

I was about to give up when I thought I'd try one more pull. This time I moved the tractor to pull the beam to the west instead of north.

Second Pull

This pulled easily - the north wall plate beam was rotted about in the middle of the north edge and ofered little resistance. This undermined the roof support and the whole north end went down like dominos.

Still standing - not so much

The south part of the barn was expected to be pretty stable and tougher to pull down. I was afraid it would stand when the rest fell and I was right.

I decided to leave it standing rather than risk working under the colapsed sections to connect cables. Plus it will be hard enough to clean up this mess without things folded on top of each other (more than they already are.

Well head and armour

I expected the west wall to tip down pretty much intact since the bottom sill beam and the top wall plate were rotted through at the center drive through. I had prepared the well head by covering it with half an old boiler. As you can see, in the battle of the boiler and the wall, the boiler won.

The victory would be short-lived because as soon as I started removing the rubble I accidently shifted the whole thing which pulled the boiler slightly to the side enough to break the little pipe that holds the pressure switch. Opps. I speed-dialed my well guy and we worked till 9:00 that night (by the light of truck headlights) to get the water back to the house for the renters.

East wall plate beam

Some of what was still standing. This wall plate beam remained intact after the wall and roof went down. I didn't want to leave this hanging there so I hooked up to the base of the beam that was supporting it and gave a pull to the side. The whole thing came down nicely (and still intact).

center beam

The main pully for the hay rope and its supporting beam.

I remember many times, while growing up, I'd worry about this pully breaking under the load as a particularily heavy load of hay was lifted into the mow. The pully and the barn would both creak under the load but it never did break. Same as now.

Roof peak laying on the floor

the north end of the roof is now laying on the haymow floor. There will be a lot of work to tear off the old shingles (to try to salvage the roof boards) but I can deal with this height -- better than 30 feet up.

Safely standing on the peak

peek inside

A closer look at what remains standing - from a safe distance.

inside what remains standing

First clean up the mess, then pull down the rest.

There's a lot of clean up work to do here but the working conditions are a lot safer. It stikes me that tne thing that is holding the roof together so well at the peak is the old track that held the hay carrier. I wonder if I hooked a cable to it I could just pull the remaining roof down (at least). I have to remember that the carrier is still up there (on the south end of the barn) in case I were foolish enough to venture inside.