Barn beams and boards wood types

ryanwheelock · Jan 25, 2012

What type of wood were barn beams and boards made out of in the northern states like michigan. Gotta be a hardwood I"m thinkin. the wood was pulled off the farm property in the 1890"s to make the barn. Want to make a lean-too for some tractors and my dozer out of the same materials, been there more than a 100 years and still holding up good. I just got a alaskan sawmill and a beam machine to play with.
Thanks
Ryan in northern michigan

GeneMO · Jan 25, 2012

Cant comment on up there, but here in MO. it is white oak. Sycamore works good for sheeting and interior things.

Gene

Anonymous-0 · Jan 25, 2012

We took down a bank barn on my folks place in the late 60's early 70"s. The barn was framed with 12" x12" hand hewed beams that were held together by wooden pegs. The majority of the beams were poplar and several were black walnut. Dad sold all the beams for fireplace mantals.The flooring and siding was poplar except for what had been used to replace damage spots in barn over yearsof use. We salvaged the good lumber from the siding. This barn was located in northern Indiana.

Leroy · Jan 25, 2012

Framing pretty much any of the hardwoods that were avaible and for siding if cotton wood was avaible that is what was used and cotton wood if outside but not hitting the ground will last about forever but it is not a hardwood but a softwood but in a tree the type of the oaks. They used any and all the timber they had as they did not have that much to waste, Ohio

wijim · Jan 25, 2012

Some of the barns in NE WI have alot of tamrack in them.

Deano · Jan 25, 2012

Around here ( NW Ohio ), they used pretty much what was on the property. Lot of oak, elm, maple. And man that stuff is hard as a rock. Nail gun with 75PSI on it has a hard time driving into it. Go with what you've got or if there's an old farm building sagging around your area might be able to make a deal and get the wood in it free for taking it down. A lot of the old wood corn cribs here aren't being used for anything but storing junk. That size building would have enough lumber for a nice lean to

Stephen Newell · Jan 25, 2012

Shave some of the off. If it has a very tight grain and the color runs from white to green it might be poplar. I've seen a lot of it used in Illinois in 100 year old buildings.

Fordfarmer · Jan 25, 2012

I'm in n/w WI and have a 100 year old barn. Mine was also made from what was growing on the property... beams are elm, haymow floor is maple. Can't say for sure about the roof or wall boards.

49716 · Jan 25, 2012

check what's in the neighborhood, however a lot of elm was used in our area,and it's no longer with us. alot of local barns have a mix of hardwoods for beams and hemlock for sheeting. ash,basswood,or soft maple is common. hard maple doesn't work that well and has better uses.
-john-

wisbaker · Jan 25, 2012

Older buildings were native timber, I have seen Oak, Black Walnut, Elm, Chestnut, popular, tamarack, cedar and White Pine.

John Harmon · Jan 25, 2012

I"m from LaSalle County Illinois and I"ve seen every thing from white pine to black walnut used for old barn beams.most beam pegs were Osage Orange[Hedgeapple}harder than iron it seems.I have some salvaged 8"X8" walnut beam peices I hauled out here to Az. when we moved out in the shop.figured i would make something out of them some day,maybe-maybe not.

big fred · Jan 25, 2012

Actually, cottonwood is a hardwood. As is balsa. A hardwood is simply the wood of a flowering tree. A softwood is the wood of a conifer tree. Some hardwoods are much softer than some softwoods, but the hardest hardwoods are harder than the hardest softwood.

chevytaHOE5674 · Jan 25, 2012

Michigan had a lot of large White Pine many years ago. Lots of old buildings are built from them, but also just about every other tree that grew.

Jim in Ma. · Jan 25, 2012

Here in New England we have a lot of old barns, nearing 300 years old. Most have white oak frames with pine siding.
Sadly we are loseing many of them.

CenTex Farmall · Jan 25, 2012

What helped a lot is that those trees were "Old Growth" timber which grew slowly and was off undisturbed land. Like others have said it has a tighter grain structure and is more rot resistant.
I don't know if there's anymore of that left in the U.S. Are earliest big export was lumber going to England and the commonwealth when we were still colonies.

Zachary Hoyt · Jan 25, 2012

In some parts of the country chestnut was common for barns from what I have read, but of course it has not been available for many years now.
Zach

TimV · Jan 25, 2012

Ryan: For an interesting read, the ebook below is of a pioneer family in northern Michigan at the turn of the century. At that time, the Michigan pine forests were being cut down for lumber, and tens of thousands of barns and other structures were built with it. Of course, pine was not the only, and perhaps not even the most common, of the woods used, but it was certainly a huge player in that time and place. According to the author, who grew up in that era, there were only two major employment opportunities--iron mining and pine logging, and most of the rest of the jobs were in support of those. There's a lot of other period literature available online that also point to pine as being a major contributor to the buildings of that time and place. Don't know if this really answers your question, as white pine wouldn't be my first choice for a structural wood, but it's certainly period-correct.
Between the Iron and the Pine

ryanwheelock · Jan 25, 2012

thanks for the info guys!!!!

RayP(MI) · Jan 25, 2012

Probably pine, oak, elm. Common old growth timber in Michigan at the time.

Leroy · Jan 25, 2012

"Some hardwoods are much softer thansome softwoods", That is what I was saying and even tho it is softer than some of the softwoods it is the other type of tree.

Roy rrcrain@msn.com · Jan 25, 2012

John, I to live in Az. and 30 or so years ago when replacing a natural gas line we ran across a fella that 100's of black walnut stacked over the line that needed to be replaced. Seems to me they were rough maybe 3"x12". That wouldn't have been you by any chance?

Josh in Pa · Jan 25, 2012

In Pa framing was usually oak or sometimes chestnut. Siding was often white pine. I burned some old growth oak that I demod out of my house (200 years old). It would burn hotter and longer, and the grain was visibly tighter than oak I cut myself.
Josh

greygoat · Jan 26, 2012

Our Wisconsin barn had Walnut,10 x 10"s,6 x 6"s

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