The first and foremost mistake that people make, is looking at a barn and referring to it as a 'building'.
A barn is not a 'building', it is a 'machine'. In the case of a typical turn-of-the-century dairy barn, it was built to provide storage, process space, and protection for dairy farming.
VERY LITTLE dairy farming is done with these types of barns anymore, the circumstances noted above, as well as a huge host of government regulations, but even worse, dairy contract requirements... have made it basically impossible to be a dairy producer without investing in a huge pile of very specific equipment, setting up very specific processes, and with unit profit percentages driven so low, there's no way to operate without running at huge volume... these heritage barns simply cannot be utilized in business-based agriculture anymore.
So barns get used for general storage. But dairy barns don't make great storage for things. Bank-barns have ceilings too low, and usually doorways too small to park tractors... the main floors are strong, but often not strong enough to withstand the concentrated load of parking anything heavy... and placing things in a hay loft is not particularly easy. Feeding chutes obstruct floor space and grant a great place to fall and get hurt...
And then there's frost. Usually, when these were built, the hand poured foundations were thick, but not very deep, and the concrete parlor floors were only an inch or two thick. Presence of cows, hay, and manure meant that even in a bitter-cold winter, the floors, and the soil around and beneath, would never freeze. Usually, heat rising through the hay's insulating layers would eventually warm the roof, melting winter snow, which ran down gutters and clay pipes into freshwater cisterns for the cattle... but after a few years without cows, frost-heaving breaks up the floor and walls. Posts in the parlors smash through the thin floors, and walls leak water and mud in. Ice strips off whatever rain-gutters were left. Unattended roof damage (especially ice) rots through, which then damages the floors, which collapse, and then the roof and walls follow.
There are SOME who extoll the desire to 'save' heritage barns... one example is the Iowa Barn Foundation... which offers matching grants for projects that they feel apply, however, they have a host of requirements and processes that, for most who live in rural setting, simply do not have the resources to handle in time, if at all. It is, in effect, just a club with a magazine, patting itself on the back while legacy barns fall down.
So the end result, is that these grand old structures vanish.
To make them really survive, they always need a serious investment, starting at the foundation, and going up... and it's not just monetary, it's bodies, hands, materials, and sweat. For one person to do, it's essentially impossible. For two, or three, it's a very difficult job. IF you have TWENTY... and all the materials and tools are organized and ready, it can happen fast.
The BEST way to go about it, once a barn has been surveyed, is to get any weak structural members replaced or shored-up, get it up on cribbing, knock out the foundation, dig and pour all new, using modern methods. There is PROBABLY a silage tower foundation against the barn, all the slimey goo there, and the foundation in it, needs to get out and away. Dig and pour stout wall and post footings below frost depth, get foundation water redirected away, and get a floor poured that is thick enough, and walls high enough, so that the parlor area can be useful for other purposes. Set the structure back down, and anchor it to the foundation accordingly. IF the exterior foundation 'look' needs an original touch, apply the original stone as a facade, but seal everything below surface.
Once down, square up the structure (cables and tensioners) and apply hurricane strapping to HOLD it square, then work on the roof and exterior as you are able. Waterproof roof is a MUST, and getting the siding, windows, and doors all tight will keep the varmints out. After that, make it the way YOU want it...
Because if you Don't USE it, you'll never be IN it, and you won't be maintaining it... MICE will... then rats, raccoons, oppossums... birds... will all take it over.
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Don(MI) wrote:
