Disaster at the Barn - It is down

North end of the barn.

 
 Over this past weekend, the barn suffered massive failure and collapse. The back wall pulled itself down over the last two months and ripped the rest of the barn down with it. It effectively clam-shelled open along the roof line as the rear wall fell downward, then continued to collapse inward towards the gap left by removal of the wall.





     Two walls are left standing for now, but barely, and the inside of the barn is a total loss. Some of the main beams snapped in two during the collapse, a few are still largely intact. We will update more shortly, the main push now is the keep the standing walls standing or force them to collapse inward; if they were to collapse outward, further damage to properties and belongings could occur. This is a tenuous, fairly dangerous time.

Back of barn looking West. The wall on the far left of the photo is still mostly standing. 

Inside of ground level, on the South side, facing East.

Ground level, facing South. Our shoring held impeccably, even taking the
brunt of a collapse and the shock forces associated with that.

Ground level, facing South.

Facing North, this is the South end of the Barn.

Is this bicycle holding the barn up? They built those vintage road bikes strong.

Motorcycle frame still in place on its custom pulley mount.

Inside the woodworking portion of the barn. The wood stacks were nice and neat.

The wall is down, and some surprises.

This update is a little late in posting, but the crumbling back wall has been removed and will be completely in place this week. As of this update, the footer is poured (3ft into the hill, 10 inch wall, 2-3 inches inside barn) and the wall will be poured on Wednesday. The tearout was a great success with a few large surprises.

The top of the well we uncovered.

The first major surprise was that there was an old, stone lined well right in the middle of the wall, just to the inside of it. In retrospect, this of course makes sense. It must have been incredibly convenient to have a source of water right next to the cows and horses. The well was mostly filled in with crud, so it was not savable. The well was filled it with stone and declared done, to be revisited at a later date, likely.


The second surprise was just how large some of the stones used to construct the wall really were. Many of the large ones were as big or bigger than the excavator bucket used to remove them. And there was one boulder so large, at the base of the wall, that it was left in place and poured over. If it hasn't moved in 100 years, and it's that enormous, it should make a good foundation for the wall.

The wall, at about 2/3 down. The shoring held quite nicely once the weight was fully on it. 

It was a tense moment when the wall really started coming down, knowing that the bulk of the weight would be resting on the shoring that was put up. It was good, meticulous work on our part, but there is always the fear that some unexpected shift will happen. The wall has been out a week now and everything seems fine, so I am no longer worried.

A shot down the length of the wall, with about 2/3 of the wall removed. Look at that rot...

 In this last picture you can see the amount of work that needs to be done on the main structural beams on this side of the barn. Most are simply rotted away at the ends, and the main "sill-plate" beam is gone gone gone. This will be a large part of the work once the wall is done.

Historical pictures of the barns, from Carol

We received some pictures from a former resident of the property we live on now. I'm not sure of the dates of any of the pictures, but the last few were taken in the late 1950's or early 1960's. I've put them here in what I think is chronological order.

Before the front barn was added. That silo is long gone, the front wall was largely rebuild with cinder block on the bottom.

A shot of the house from across the creek. There are now 4 shop buildings across the street from the house, this picture would no longer be possible.

That white pine is now fully matured, about 80 feet tall.

A great shot of the back barn. The end wall was partially rebuilt with cinderblock, the silo is gone now, and the two front wooden buildings are gone.

These silos were taken down when we purchased the property, lest they fall in to the barns. The little outbuilding in the foreground was gone before we moved in.

Some construction shots of the quonset barn in the front. 1950's?