End of summer project is over....

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
I try to tackle something major every year late in the summer when things are slow. This year I decided it was time to start rebuilding the old dairy barn up by the road. It succumbed to an electrical fire many years ago. Close to 30 Holsteins were still inside. One of the surviving sons of the original homesteading family stops by from time to time to visit. He went in the east end of the barn and released all the cows along the south wall. Fire was too intense to get the ones on the north wall. They are buried just outside where I put the large opening. He said his dad was frantic...thought he burned with the cows. Only the milk house survived along with the north and south block walls. Those walls collapsed over several years...they had no rebar or grout in them...leaving only a stub of a wall headed south and west from the back of the milk house. The milk house was renovated by an interim owner and is now a sauna. I am rebuilding the 60 x 36 barn to use for small storage and shop shop space. The smaller tractors will go in there. I have a larger shed in the back where I store equipment. Took me 3 months of spare time to lay all those block. Just grouted the last row yesterday. Sits on a really good footing. I drilled in rebar and did bond beams horizontally and vertically as required. Steel lintels on doors and windows are part of the last bond beam. Don't know how many block total yet. I know there were 14 pallets of 8x8x16 alone and a lot of half block were used around doors and windows as well as 4x8x16 hollow core for the pilasters (added for visual effect because the original barn had them). Going to timber frame the rest and put a gambrel roof on the top. Pictures of the original were used to design it. Very popular project with people driving by. Original barn had paintings of the cows on the block. Most common question passersby ask is "will you paint the cows back on it?"
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That's pretty neat. Glad you have time, energy, and resources to restore the barn. Block is hard work. Timber frame is hard work. ...what do you do for a "normal" job? lol
Enhanced your photo a bit for my eyes sake.

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Looks like you did nice work and I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but would you consider 1 or 2 more courses. If my count is right you have 11 courses to put the ceiling at 7'-4". Just seen to many homeowners that wished they had gone 1 or 2 courses more on the basement.
 
(quoted from post at 12:43:57 11/15/17) Looks like you did nice work and I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but would you consider 1 or 2 more courses. If my count is right you have 11 courses to put the ceiling at 7'-4". Just seen to many homeowners that wished they had gone 1 or 2 courses more on the basement.
My parents basement is that way. Just enough room to hit your head. A few more rows and it could've been made into livable space. Maybe someday I will lift it up.
Nice looking project so far.
 
Just make it strong enough for any snow load and also use hurricane clips for possible heavy wind gusts. Found out the hard way!!! Looking good so far. Like the idea of going a little higher . Measure how tall your favoite tractor is at the stack and then add a couple of inches.
 
I have thought about it some. 11 rows is the original height. Ties into the rear wall of milk house. The timber frame raises it another 8" but may lose some of that depending on how second floor joists are set. I still have a lot of options. Gonna try to find an engineer who timber frames to help with design and load caculations.
 
if I may ask, what is you'r total cost of a 36 x 60 material so far? ( blocks, mortar, steel ) My thoughts have been if I was going to put up a building I would diffidently consider a block building with a loft. I already have a 24 x 34 poured basement bank barn with a Gothic style roof that was a dairy/cattle barn , doors are only 5 foot wide and just not large enough for anything useful, currently using just for storage.
 
Looks better than I would do at laying block. Now you might as well just make it at least 16 feet high so more things will fit in there. Then you could use it for a heated winter shop. As the equipment gets bigger it will be to low fast enough at 16 feet.
 
That option crossed my mind as I replied. There are framing options to get some head room. The blacksmith group at Junkshow is doing a timber frame building. They have a member whose uncle had planted some White Pine and is to the point where it needed thinning. They started 2 winters ago felling trees and hauling them back to the site to be cut. A couple members had portable bandsaws and spent the mild winter and spring cutting beams. They stacked and dried it for about a year and now are starting to pre cut pieces. I would think in your area there would be some experienced post and beam builders that could help you out cheaper then a full blown engineer.
 
(quoted from post at 16:20:12 11/15/17) I have thought about it some. 11 rows is the original height.

More than likely the original owner was 5' tall.
Now people are over 6'tall.
 
I'm gonna give you an estimate, cause that is all I got. My account at the store topped out just under $2000. Keep in mind, there was already a deep, solid 60+ year old footing there. I did a 60' block retaining wall last year, cost of footing was about $1400 just for footing...had it trenched and paid for concrete delivered. So the money on the account, plus some special items from other stores, maybe $2000 for block, mortar (I buy the good stuff), rebar (some bought at garage sales), cement, sand, pea stone, grout stop mesh. Not included is about $600 in doors I need and inexpensive barn sash windows totalling about $7-800.

I should also mention I bought an excellent used Bosch rotary hammer on ebay and some bits, scaling chisel, etc. I was able to clean up the footing and drill in the rebar in about a half hour. Well worth the money.
 
Nowadays, between forums and YouTube, the average guy can learn to do a lot of stuff. I made a few mistakes on the retaining wall last summer, learned a lot. Back then a big day was 20 block. Now I can lay 60 in an afternoon and only be off 1/4" side to side. Masonry is good work. You build some good upper body muscles too. 😉
 
Looks great I count ll blocks high could go to 12 and make it eight ft give you enough room for an 8ft roll up door. I fit a case 831 with 34" tires in an 8ft.
 
A number of years ago a tornado went through our county. It took the top part off a bank stantion dairy barn. The put a pole barn back on top. Looked neat.
 
I will, but I am done for the year. Time to pick corn then get ready for tax season.
I will spend a lot of time over winter sourcing timbers and other lumber.
 
It definitely takes practice. I watched the layers for years and didn?t pick up on the subtleties of it. One afternoon working alongside a seasoned layer showed me a lot. I can hold my own, but can?t say I?m good at it.
 
I've seen it happen, but those walls have multiple bond beams. Horizontal and verticals. Entire building is wrapped in steel tied into a deep footing. I would hate to see the wind that could move them.
 
I know. Cannot beat a 16' wall height. If you look at the picture you can see something red thru the window. That is my equipment shed. Has 16' walls and 20' of head room front to back. The big stuff is in there. This building up front is a restoration and will likely be rented out 15 years from now to a landscaper or similar. Good access to the road. The farm is, sadly, in the path of development. This barn will add value to the parcel the farmhouse is on and will provide some retirement income for me. The larger barn in back is about all I am likely to need for equipment. I am afraid the farm is not likely to grow given current circumstances. Will be a nice building though for a shop or smaller equipment.
 
Thanks! I am in better shape now than I was when I was 18. I hate doing the bond beams because it involves a shovel. Shovels and I do not get along. Tuesday almost 900 shovels full of pea stone, sand and cement went into the old mixer. I can lift block all day long but shoveling aggregate wears me out fast. :)
 

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