An Old Barn Restoration

I have recently purchased an old farmhouse property. It has an old mortise and tenon barn built in 1857. I am currently just trying to restore the roof as money is a factor and it's a big barn, 40x100. I was planning on going with steel that was a darker kind of green with the white trim. I want to do it and do it right and not really have to mess with the roof again in my lifetime.

I see when it rains, the decking underneath the old shingles and the "lath" boards undernath the decking look dark and maybe have moisture. I beleive this is from water getting into and under the shingles. I also believe it's from high humidity and maybe that air cannot escape as well. There seams to be a little bit of white mold on some boards inside.There are 3 cupolas. I also live in Wisconsin so winters are a factor too.

My questions here are:

1. What gauge of steel?

2. Steel roof, seamless or with fasteners exposed?

3. Can I just put the new roof on top of the old one if the old one is straight and the lumber is in good shape, and the new steel would allow that lumber with moisture to eventually dry?

4. A long ridge vent instead of cupolas? I want the best venting.

5. I would also want to put on new gutters.

Thanks,
Robert

Oh, man - that's a beauty! She still stands straight and proud. Congrats on your purchase.

Hope you post some "after" pics.

That's a beauty, and I applaud your efforts. You do not need to remove the old roof, but you should put 2x4s between it and the new tin. That is common practice around
here. There is an Amish crew around here that does a lot of them.

Are you sure on the date? Here in WI, they didn't build 'em that big until the late 1800's.

This is going to cost . But nice to see you want to save this barn. Do you have any
Amish/Mennonite fellas in your area, these type of buildings are their meat. And they
can do this job , and know the best way to go about it. That being said, if this were
my barn , and I was going to reroof. I would strip off all of the old roofing,
including the boards/lath that is there now. The fasteners are only as good as what
they are fastened to. So I would strap the roof frame with 2x4 lumber and screw 28
gauge galvalum steel barn roofing on . The screws have rubber washers on them to make
a good seal , and don't back out like nails will. Myself , I would stay away from
colored roofing , as the paint will fade out in a very few short years , and look
poor. If you have to repaint a steel roof, aluminum paint stays fast, where colored
paint will peel and chip off. The roof vent can be done well enough with a long ridge
vent, it will let out more heat than what you have now, but you may want to retain
the style of the old vents. I am sure you could buy new cupolas for decoration
sake.Hope I have given you some thing to chew on, but mostly I have just given you my
opinion. And we all know free advise is only worth what you paid for it. Bruce

I have messed around with several old barns. That being said, Bruce from Canada is EXACTLY CORRECT, in his assessment. Your barn is beautiful. Ellis

As long as the wood is solid underneath, I would put the steel on top of what you have. If you add 1"x or 2"x, try and screw them to the joists. I would keep the copulas and add a ridge vent. I did my barns this spring and went right on top of the shingles (no 1"x). Good painted steel is rated for 50 years and can always be re-painted in the future. My neighbor re-painted his 30 year old steel roof 4 years ago an it looks like it was done yesterday. Put the best steel you can afford up and you won't regret it.

Dont sell yourself so short Bruce it was pretty good advise. Sounded good to me anyways

Man that's a beautiful old barn Navajo.

Wow that's a beauty!!!

Here is what I did about 12 years ago. We left the old roof on and nailed the new 2 by 4 s to old roof joist

I have done a few barns and houses that were covered either with wood or composition shingles. The cost of stripping everything off makes a job excessive. I guess if you have the money and want that kind of quality stripping off would be fine. I have put down either 1 by 4's or 2 by 4's, two feet on center. People have told me not to screw directly to composition shingles without stripping it as the grit will scratch the back of the tin and cause it to rust from underneath. If you did a direct application I would put a heavy vapor barrier down to prevent contact between the shingles and tin. With 1 by 4's they were screwed into the rafters with impact drivers. Screws probably went into the rafter 3 inches. If we by chance missed the rafter the screw would "spin" out. It was then backed out and repositioned to hit the rafter. Used ring shank nails on the 2 by 4 stripped roofs. Like was mentioned earlier I believe you have to hit the dimension lumber to hold. Sheeting will not hold either the screw strips nor tin in the long term. Used 1 by 4's on good roofs and 2 by 4's on roofs that needed more support. When screwing the tin, the screws went on the flat parts of the tin, of course the edge was screwed down. I stayed away from real bright colors as I believe they will be the first to fade. I have used white and several of the gray colors.

My barn is a hip roof and I had a standing seam steel roof put on on 07 black in color they nailed 2x4's 2' on center across it over the top of 1 layer eash of wood and asphalt shingles, and there are no exposed screws showing to leak around like a menards tin roof would have and now there are many of these roofs in our area on barns costs a little more but worth it good luck on your barn oh a just a side note I had cupolas on mine and so did others and the company that did mine would not put them back up reason being was who is going to go up and repaint them when needed, hard to keep from leaking and the paint from them could begin run and wash onto your new roof staining it, sorry so long winded.

Just get the heaviest steel you can get. We get 24 gage. Then just screw it down on the old roof. I would check to see if the screws will hold first though. Then use 3 inch screws and screw it on the tops of the ribs. I have been involved with several steel roofs here on the farm and anytime they try to fasten it on the flats or in the bottom of the corrugation it leaks. On the rib tops it will not leak and will out last you. We have some steel roofs on since I was a little kid. I'm now in my late fifties.

Look up the website barn again and there
might be opportunity for financing plus
ideas on rebuild . Good luck

That is a beautiful old barn and I applaud you for wanting to keep it nice. Around here people put 1x4 or 2x4 strips down on the old roof and than attach the new roof to that. I
know that the wood is old and may have some water damage but it is probably still better than the lumber sold today. Use the heaviest gauge steel you can afford. I cannot say
anything about which fastener setup to use because I have only used exposed fasteners with great results. Good luck and please post more pics of the barn.

I have had roofs that were put on over old roofs and I would NEVER allow it to be done. Never striped and you cannot ever find a solid place to screw it down and putting those 2 x 4 on like that just makes a good place for the bees to build nests in, also mise will find a way to get in there and nest as well. And you will never get rid of the nusance problems even if you do find a way to sollidly fasten it down. That type of crap in installing would be enough to make me take a second look at buying a place that had it done. And you are going to be looking at perhaps a roof lasting 50 years that should be good for a hundred years.

Really nice barn. Metal roof will be costly but well worth it. I agree with what the other replies say about best method.
Firring strips over old roof, then the metal. Did mine 20 years ago, with no problems. Consider leaving cupalos on for "looks"

what I will say is if you want to do it right you need to remove all of the old roofing. going over the old is just a short-cut to me. I feel it is a bad idea to go over the old because now your very old barn has to support not only the old roof but all of that new furring and metal.Also you are probably going to find some rafters that need replaced/repaired if you suspect it has been leaking. lot more work but that is the right way to do it and you will know exactly what you have when you are done.