Let it rain

What a weekend! We had five adults and a youngster working at the barn site.

Friday went pretty well. Two of us took off more than half of the west side roofing sheets while the others continued to move boards, pull nails, remove some of the lower nails on the roof from a ladder and pick up lots of wood pieces.

Saturday was another story. It started out pretty well, but then it rained, and rained, and rained. We had been to the site a half-dozen times without even a sprinkle, and the first rain waited until the roof was off to drench us. We were up and down the ladder again and again, removing roof panels, hiding from the rain, removing panels, hiding. Some trips to the roof netted only a panel or two before the next squall came through. (Did I mention it rained a lot?)

A tarp was nailed up to make at least one small space on the barn floor that wasn't being rained on, and folks continued dragging boards under the tarp to remove nails. Metal roofing sheets and newly nail-free boards were dragged to the storage area between the rain showers. Almost all of the straw that was piled in a few of the bays was spread around the barn where the rain and our foot traffic had made a muddy mess.

The afternoon forecast was for more of the same, so those who had not planned to stay overnight cleaned up as best they could and got an early start toward home. There were enough pauses in the rain to allow the last 10 roof panels to be taken down before dark with a bit of time left to remove the final ground floor siding from two of the corners.

Sunday, weather wise, was a repeat of Saturday, with just a bit more time before the heavy rains arrived. The sheetmetal was brought into the barn to be used to cover boards we wanted to save. All the purlins were removed from the top pitch of the west side and they were either tossed on the waste pile or brought in for nail removal depending on their quality. Instead of prying up each nail with a crowbar, it proved to be easy to pop them off with a five foot length of two-by-four.

Our "expert" arrived early Sunday morning to critique our work so far and to offer suggestions for the next steps to be taken. If possible we will take down the rafters by lowering them one at a time. If we can do this it will save hundreds of dollars of crane rental and operator time expense. We'll need a generator to saw through the nails that hold rafters together at the peak of the roof and where the two pitches come together on each side. They are held tightly by four large nails in each coupling, and they are nailed tightly to the headers. It is not possible to pry them apart, especially while standing on top of a roof, clipped onto a climbing rope. With a "saws-all" we should be able to both separate each pair from each other, and separate them from the headers on which they rest.

So... it looks like at least one more full weekend before we're ready for a crane. It was suggested today that we might be able to take the beams and posts down using a "cherry picker" like those used to repare power lines and replace street lights. This would save even more money - it should be cheaper than a crane and not require an operator. We'll check into this possibility this week.

And for those of you following the barn project who would like me to get back to discussing Raccoon Creek, stand by. We hope to have a major announcement as early as tomorrow.