Barn Repair after Storm of 11July2011.

The first thing needed was to determine if the barn could be saved. The east and south walls had been blown of the foundation with an 8" gap between the wall footers and the concrete. Of course the roof sagged but the central pillers were sucessful in holding up the whole barn. The two walls were sucessfully lifted with a Bobcat and repositioned on the foundation walls.
The next step was to replace the north wall blown completely down. The downed wall was chain-sawed into thee pieces and turned over with the Bobcat for salvage.
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Two men jacked up the roof that had sagged without its supporing wall, and built a new wall. One man measured and cut, the other assembled with an air nailer. haydoor.jpg
The third-story hay door had blown in. This was not supposed to happen, a haydoor such s this opens out only and is raised and lowered from a cable on the trolly shown. The hinges took the full weight of the fallen door and were deformed in the action making the door bind in its frame.
It took eight people to assemble scaffolding inside to lift the door. The work was both difficult and dangerous. The outside work was a waste of time as it got dark with a promise to come back -- some day. The door blows 12" with wind and is in the process of pounding the new inside supports apart. Conerning wind --there are two "wind farms" -- about a hundred windmills -- within sight of the Manorborn, so, yes, it is windy hereabouts.

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The barn is not really leaning this far off center, it is parallax of the camera. A loose board is leaning against the new, straight wall. But the side bay is 8 inches offset and the section of wall under the window has to be rebuilt in the spring.
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A new door was cut from sheet of plywood.

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Plywood had been bought, painted with waterproofing in anticipation of repair of corn crib. Estimate of roof repair alone was a greater cost than to build a whole new building of greater utility. so that plywood was used to reinforce the new barn wall and make a work room. Because no window or side door were included in the new wall, the first order of business was to reinstall lighting.
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A fantastic spell of warm weather allowed continued work on the barn and re-attaching loose boards. These pictures of the state of the project when suspended as winter arrived with high winds, snow, and single digit temperatures.

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Another project is that the southwest corner of raised concrete foundation had titled out int two directions. There were no corner reinforcing rods. The inside was dug out and the walls pushed back upright. Now need to frame and pour concrete walls with re-bar along 12-feet of each side.

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Hay Door Repair -- January 30, 2012

Hay door on third floor level.   It had been put back almost in place in December. It got dark and was temporarily braced in place. Note that the hinges are badly deformed from taking the fall and holding the weight of the door parallel for four months. During two wind storms, the door would blow about a foot and pound the supporting 2'x8' board a dozen times a minute.

Hay Door from Inside. Scaffolding was installed inside and out. Six men spent 4-5 hours to straighten the door. Note the wide gap along the edges and bottom. They continued and framed it from the inside.

Hay door from outside. It now sticks out a bit but it framed on the like a bay window and nicely seals out the weather.

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Raw Pictures -- to be worked on sometime.

Six men with three trudkloads of scaffolding arrived -- on a beautiful day in mid-winter Iowa. Three days before there were four inches of snow on the ground.

Inside scaffolding. At this point the door has been cut at top to stand upright on the stretched hinges.

The light around the door shows the gaps that remained.


Workmen inside and out.

Scaffolding goes to third and forth floor levels.










They even reattached some loose roofing.


Disassembly starts.


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