Advice on rebuilding old stone and wood buildings, please

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Hubby and I are considering bidding on a place that has several old buildings, most of which the realtor said "need a match", but had lots of usable lumber in them. My questions are: there is a small stone building, which looks to be where butchering may have been done way back when. Next to an old well, with a pipe going into it, emptying into a bench-type table with drain at the other end. The south-east corner of the building has separated and pulled out just a bit, enought that you couldn't just fill the crack. Would it be best to (1) take down all the stones and rebuild the entire thing, (2) take off the roof, and remove the south wall and rebuild it, then re-roof it? (the roof needs to be redone, anyway) OR, ?? Second, there is a large wooden barn, with a sagging roof. Walls and supporting uprights seem to be sturdy and not leaning, but is it more economical and feasible to remove the roof and retruss and roof it, or just tear the thing down and start over? I'm so excited, I can't wait until this place goes up for auction in a couple weeks. The house is great and there is a usable, metal barn that will suffice until we get something else built or rebuilt. Thanks for any help you can give! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 24, 2000

Answers

If it is sound, LEAVE IT! We bought a house over 3 years ago, and are still having problems getting to all of the stuff that needs to get done. It is much easier to rebuild part of a building if part is still sound. And by that I mean, no dry rot, no obvious leaning, no water damage, etc, etc, etc. A good building inspector should be able to list everything that is wrong with that type of building, after all it sounds like there is no interior walls like in a house that can hide all sorts of nasty surprises. What you really have to decide is what amount of time and money you can put into the building. We found out the hard way that the inspector did not do a good job of inspecting our house, and my husband works so much that most of the heavy work has to be done on weekends. I also have small children, and can't do alot of the things I want to do just yet. All that said, sounds great!!! I would probably take the second option on the stone building, which sounds kind of like a dairy building to me. I would also reroof the barn, BUT ONLY IF IT MEETS YOUR NEEDS!!!!!! If you need something different, then use the barn for building supplies. GL, annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), April 24, 2000.

You mantioned retrussing the roof. Is it a truss roof, or an old post and beam? Trusses would be fairly simple to replace (although you would need some help getting them up there); post and beam would require expert help -- but in general is so sturdy as to be worth saving if possible. There is a barn up the road from us that was in horrible condition; a couple of years ago the new owner (elderly) and a friend (also elderly) tore off the old roof, did the structural repairs that were necessary, re-roofed, and replaced quite a bit of the siding. The old barn has a new lease on life. Of course, you'd better check the sills, before you make any decisions -- if they are rotten it might be too much to tackle.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 25, 2000.

I'll leave the building work to be answered by someone else. However, the water filled bench that you mention is a form of refrigeration. Cool water is pumped into it from the well, and objects such as milk cans, are placed into the water for cooling. The incoming water temperature will have to be determined to see just how much cooling is available. Sounds like a neat property. I hope you get it if you decide that you really want it.

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), April 25, 2000.

As soon as I read your description I knew you had a "milkhouse". That's the way the old ones around here were built. Greenbeanman beat me to it. As far as fixing it, maybe you can find someone in your area who knows about stonework and pick their brain?

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 25, 2000.

You're right! I believe it is a milkhouse. Just didn't think of anything else after the realtor/auctioneer said he believed they had used the building years ago for butchering. It is a neat building, and even my husband, who doesn't get to interested in such things, thought it was a great building. There is a wonderful old stove in it, which they are going to put on the sale separately, but I sure would love to have it. Now, I just need to win the lottery! I begged the auctioneer not to throw anything away when he was cleaning out the buildings. There are just tons of great old things! Thanks for the ideas. Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 25, 2000.


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