Replacing Rotten Logs

Several of the logs in the original barn had rotted away over the years. You can see in the picture below that two logs had completely rotted away along the back of the barn.

We cut out the old logs and had to jack up the corners of the barn to slip in new logs. We cut the lap joints on each log to match existing joints on the old logs that were still intact. Some of the old logs were different sizes and lengths making the joint fitting for each log a unique joint but I think it maintains the integrity of the original structure. We will treat each of the new logs to help "age" them so they have a similar appearance to the original logs.

New foundation

We have been busy working on building a new foundation for the barn. The original barn was built directly on the soil with on four corner stones for the foundation. We have preserved the original corner stones and built the new foundation around them.

We had to temporarily support the front and back from above using some of the logs as "beams" so we could excavate and build the foundation from below without any obstructions.

The masons will come in and build a block foundation wall under the original logs to support the barn. In order to keep the barn upright and well supported we have had to build the new foundation underneath the front and back of the barn first and then (after the barn is supported on the front and back by the new foundation) we will excavate east and west side footings and build the new foundation there.