CANTON, MO - "The Barn," as we have come to know it, is the building
we are currently demolishing for salvageable materials. It is white
in color, timber frame constructed, and at least 125 years old. It
sits on the edge of the Mississippi River bottom and overlooks the
bottom lands from its hillside perch. A dozen blooming apple trees
and four draft horses keep us company while we work. The barn is "old
school" and built in the old way with hand hewn beams and whittled
pegs. The design is more New England than midwestern, but the design
and materials have stood the test of time taking the abuse of a
thousand thunder storms and countless blizzards. Tearing it down
wasn't easy and it may have been able to take the elements for several
more decades.
Salvaging materials is one of the very best ways to obtain
building materials. Salvaging not only comes under the heading of
"re-use" and "re-cycle", but also "reduces" by limiting land fill
space needed or in this case limits the burning that the barn owner
would do to get rid of the unwanted structure. We also get lumber
that we could never afford otherwise, such as 16 foot 2x4's made of
oak with out a single knot in them. This lumber would not only be
expensive, but almost impossible to find. We would first have to find
200-300 year old oak trees and then have them custom milled. It's
true that the used 2x4's are full of nails and maybe a little bowed or
crowned on occasion, but brand new lumber is not without its twists
and bends either. The antique timber is at least thoroughly dry and
done warping.
Salvaging also teaches the carpenter. By looking at the spots that
didn't hold up to the test of time one can see which construction
techniques work and which ones don't. I am in the early stages of
learning timber frame joinery. Many of the joints I have found in
books are very complicated. I learned from "The Barn" that many of
them can be simplified and still be effective for over a century.
Barn salvage can produce all the lumber a new house needs. This
barn is yielding 1x12 siding, the 2x4 already mentioned, 4x4 used in
the framing along with 12x12 posts, 16x16 joist beams, and a plethora
of random lumber that doesn't readily accept description. Galvanized
steel roofing is in abundance on this particular barn, not to mention
the antique goodies such as pulleys, old grinding stones. and hay
forks. Making the old materials usable again will take some effort.
Paint will have to be scraped. Several thousand nails will have to be
pulled. Metal roofing will have to be beaten back into shape. Some of
the hardest but most interesting work will come with cleaning up the
giant old beams. Insect and fungal colonies have damaged the surface.
New beams with this problem could be run through a planer, but used
barn materials are full of broken off nails and hidden pieces of wire
that eat planer blades for breakfast or perhaps brunch (depending on
the time of morning and if croissants are served). So to clean up the
old beams we have looked back to an older method: the broad axe and
adze. These time honored tools can take the abuse dished out by this
sort of job, require no electricity, and require more time than money.
This solution fits us like a pair of ninety dollar boots.
Doing this work is aesthetically pleasing too. The blue sky
coming in through the rafters, the weight in my hand of the old oak
pegs used to pin the beams together, the lines a timber frame creates,
and the grain of the ancient wood all add up to make a dirty, tiring
job one of my favorite things to do.
And of course, the most pleasing part of the whole operation is
that it is the first step in building an ecologically responsible and
sustainable home. I would like to keep writing these short updates
about building at Dancing Rabbit and I want to thank everyone who
responded with advice and ideas about sustainable roofing. If anyone
wants to talk about the subject of sustainable building you can just
drop a line via e-mail or postal mail in care of Aaron.
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