I've always heard that if you need something to do, get an old truck. An old barn can sure beat a truck to keep you busy. If something is difficult to fix, you can't send it off to a shop to have it worked on. You have to do it yourself, or let the barn fall apart. Last year we put in two new timbers to the left of the door, plus did a bunch of mending where those timbers tied into the rest of the structure. We rehung the siding in the center section, and now we are moving to the next things that need to be fixed.
Some timbers in the loft are off of the uprights, and in order to rig jacks to pick them up we had to start on the ground to jack up and reinforce things.
We jacked up the floor in this spot until it was straight (A relative term) and installed a timber under it so we have a good base to work from up above.
Things kind of fall apart after 100 plus years. Gravity has been pulling parts down little by little, and they do not go up again easily.
Jacks are holding up the roof as we maneuver the horizontal timber back into place.
We use a pretty good variety of jacks, levers, chains, come-alongs, and of course, hammers.
Bolting things together.
Forcing the next one back into place. There is a jack pushing the roof up from down below, a High-Lift jack pulling the timber over, and a temporary timber between the uprights to keep things from moving that we don't want moved. As soon as this spot is bolted into place we will be ready to start hanging siding again...Then more timber work.
I've always heard that if you need something to do, get an old truck. An old barn can sure beat a truck to keep you busy. If something is difficult to fix, you can't send it off to a shop to have it worked on. You have to do it yourself, or let the barn fall apart. Last year we put in two new timbers to the left of the door, plus did a bunch of mending where those timbers tied into the rest of the structure. We rehung the siding in the center section, and now we are moving to the next things that need to be fixed.
Some timbers in the loft are off of the uprights, and in order to rig jacks to pick them up we had to start on the ground to jack up and reinforce things.
We jacked up the floor in this spot until it was straight (A relative term) and installed a timber under it so we have a good base to work from up above.
Things kind of fall apart after 100 plus years. Gravity has been pulling parts down little by little, and they do not go up again easily.
Jacks are holding up the roof as we maneuver the horizontal timber back into place. 
We use a pretty good variety of jacks, levers, chains, come-alongs, and of course, hammers.
Bolting things together.
Forcing the next one back into place. There is a jack pushing the roof up from down below, a High-Lift jack pulling the timber over, and a temporary timber between the uprights to keep things from moving that we don't want moved. As soon as this spot is bolted into place we will be ready to start hanging siding again...Then more timber work.
3 comments:
...and before you know it, it will have been cheaper and less effort to put up a 3,600 sq. ft. steel shop building! You have to have the patience of a saint and the engineering savvy of an E. J. to do what you're doing, but, by golly, I'd do it too. -gsc1039
At least in this day and age we have the mechanical tools to make the job go a bit easier.Sometimes figuring things out is as hard as the actual work of shoring it up.
Sometimes I wish for a skyhook, but a High-Lift jack is a pretty good stand in for that.
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