old buildings

My wife and I are in the process of buying her family's 140+ year old farm or at least all the buildings and 4.5 acres.

unfortunately her grandparents didn't really do much for upkeep over the past 10-15 years. there is an old grainery that is basically built like a small barn (about 16x20 in size and 1-1/2 stories tall). no foundation to speak of and its leaning a bit in 2 directions and the floor is missing in places.

i was thinking of selling it since barn wood siding seems to be all the rage. I'm sure I could get more $ if I take it apart but I really don't have the time at all as i need to work on the barn and machine shed.

>>Have any of you guys sold a whole building like that before? and how well did it work out? I would definitely want them to sign off on they are at their own risk.

not much in the building other than an old wood grain cleaner and a few sections of silo filler pipe.

Have any of you guys sold a whole building like that before? and how well did it work out? I would definitely want them to sign off on they are at their own risk.



My friend found out his old barn siding wasn't worth anything. People wanted him to pay them to take the building down.


You may look at what the building is costing you on property taxes.
Restoring an old building and repurposing it may save you a lot of money on taxes.

It took us 2 old farts about a year to save this barn and clear 10 acres of woods for his 3 horses.

This isn't the complete restoration. I took these pics the day he brought his horses there.

It would cost mega bucks to build a pole barn this size.
We used a lot of wood from the barn to restore this place.
The major cost was wood screws, 4x4 posts and portland cement.

A neighbor did that same thing a few years ago. As I understand the contractor took down the barn for free. His 'fee' was selling the barn boards and beams. As I understood it, the deal included leveling the building site after demolition. Removing that eyesore barn really improved the appearance of the place from the road.

Yup the only way you are going to get any money out of it is if you take it down yourself, clean up the boards, sort them out, and market them.

At best a barn demolition service will take your barn down for free if they feel there is enough value in the wood. They will probably charge you.

I would be very worried about letting people come take it apart.

No matter what they sign, someone gets hurt it could cost you the property, and then some!

If you do sell it to someone, they would need to take it all, otherwise they will take the good stuff and leave you with the same problem.

The value of the boards depends on the kind, the size and the condition. Plain boards are worth more than pattern lumber such as car siding or shiplap. The wider boards are more desirable than narrow. The boards are graded by color and amount of weathering. And as in all wood work it is up to the imagination of the craftsman to how the material is used. The real trick is to find the right craftsman.

If you do sell it to someone, they would need to take it all, otherwise they will take the good stuff and leave you with the same problem.

Seen that happen before. Take the good stuff and leave you the mess.

Better to pay someone to take it. No pay if they leave you the mess.

My grandparent's old barn was just about the same shape or worse than yours. After we moved here, I decided to do something about it after a tree laid over on it. Couldn't stand to just level it off so I built it back as best I could. Used a lot of the original rafters and roofing tin. Saved some by doing that but wood is so hard you can't drive a nail in it and tin so heavy no snips going to cut it, drill & saw. Rafters are full dimension 2x4's! All new support posts inside and underlayment siding. Used the original tongue & groove siding on outside. Just hate to see old barns go if anyway not to. Save it if you can. Here's a before and an in progress. Wish you well with your plans!

In 1964, my father contracted to remove 2 large barns and a tool shed from a property being developed. No money, strictly for the materials.
He basically did most of the work alone. I came home from school on week-ends and helped him haul much of the material 10 miles to our farm.
In 1965, we built a 24x40 storage building with an upstairs, using the barn beams and lumber and covered it in steel. The remaining lumber got pushed into a pile and burned.

Brace it to keep it standing until you can dismantle it.
Use the materials to ad on to the other barn and/or machine shed. You will soon find yourself wishing they were bigger.
And buying new lumber to put more space under roof is still expensive.

Old grainery's are not really of much use if they are fixed up and kind of left the way they exist and were built for. Most have wood floors and walls sectioning off the building into rooms like a house. OK for small item storage I guess. But pretty inconvenient for heavy large item storage, or work area that needs to be spacious and open. I can see your reasoning for it to be just dismantled.
Exterior barn siding (1X12 and weathered) is what people really want and go for. Not sure if thats what you have or not. If its slatted 1X4's or 6's, or lap board, or T&G siding, nobody is really going to want that. And the rest of the lumber such as rafters, stringers, and studs are just plain old second hand lumber once salvaged, and not worth any premium dollars as (barn) wood.
I'd offer it to be torn down for half the lumber. Meaning you keep half the lumber straight down the middle. They in turn get the other half for tearing it down. If there is 2X10's or 12's for floor stringers, or long dimensional lumber in its framing construction, you should get some takers with this offer.
When tearing a house down, there is to much waste material and you earn every board you salvage. Its hard to give a house away to be torn down. But a barn or grainery that is not all rotted to heck, pays out alot better in lumber for your time invested.
Be careful about letting someone do it that is just wanting the barn board siding. Because, like others have said, they may agree to tear the whole thing down, and just take the siding off and be GONE.

the siding is 1X12 and weathered but has 20 coats of white paint on it.

the building is still on the taxes. not for much but still adds to the bill.

Yes, ideally it would be neat to have it restored but with no foundation and no maintenance other than paint for the past 40 years it probably isn't worth fooling with. there are 9 out buildings already. 2 corn cribs that were built in the 1970/80s from green treat but even they are so old now there probably isn't much value. I will take one down and/or give it to my SIL to build a small garage for himself. 1 has a concrete floor and dirt in the other (not sure how he stored corn on dirt even concrete floor isn't ideal for corn) I will probably keep the other crib with the concrete floor to keep the farm feel. neither crib is on the taxes.

interesting feedback. yeah it may not be worth anything to anyone and may cost me to take it down. I may talk to the county about taking it off the taxes since it is in pretty bad shape.

i just did a large old barn i ended up with also after buying my parents farm. i spent most my life in this barn choreing growing up. but it was past help. i sold the siding boards to fellow he took what he wanted,took out all the old windows and frames for me also. i kept all them.
he paid me 1000.00 dollars. i them pushed the barn down removed all roofing tin and put in salvage dumpster sold to them. got 400.00 for it. then we pulled out what was still unbroken beams flooring boards etc and kept them put on hayracks. i kept few for myself and sold the rest for1500.00. was 42 beams. all of the concrete foundation i used for erosion stops around the farm. all the work we did with an excavator. barns gone cleaned up and off tax roll. ground now is in cropland.

we'd like to keep the Barn up. it was built by my wife's great great grandfather in 1905.

there was a fellow that was at the auction that bought some of the old lumber (mix of OLD new boards and recycled) and he may have interest so i'll probably talk to him 1st.

it needed the roof fixed (slate) probably 5-8 years ago and the windows have rotted out too. my FIL just had some aamish fix a couple holes in the roof but i havenn't been out there in the rain to see if they got it all. it is still salvageable. I'll board up the windows to keep the rain from blowing in and then will start fixing some rotten spots in the floor. would love to see some 4h kids that need a place for a couple animals use it at some point. need to also get all the hay and straw out of the barn so when (not if) there is a leak the hay won't hold the moisture on the wood quite as bad. may help discourage critters too. there is probably 300 bales of what looks like decent straw in there but all the strings are broke. but we cannot spend a fortune on it either and someday like all of us it too will be back to dust. which is why so many of these old barns are left to rot unfortunately.

Do hope it works out well for you. There is something really special about an old family farm staying with family. Ones that want to be there and take their turn as caretaker of it, leaving it to their next generation to carry on.

Old grey weathered barn wood is of value.
Old painted white barn wood not so much by a lot.
Might as well salvage it for your own use.

I

I moved this one in a couple years ago. Its 16x24. It will be used as a grainery when I finish setting it up.