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I’ve got a customer with a 100 year old barn that’s just in too bad a shape to fix. He wants it torn down and has gotten a price of around 30K to tear it down and remove it.
He asked if I knew anything about a market for the old barn material and if there’s anybody in the South Jersey area that tears them down for the salvage material.
I said I didn’t know but I would investigate. So here I am investigating.
There’s some nice, hand hewn beams and other nice material but I wouldn’t know what to do with the stuff after I tore it out.
Can you direct me to someone who does this.
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My mom is a landscape photographer who makes her living selling photographs of old barns and such. She is constantly complaining that they are rapidly disappearing because people are buying the old barns and dismantling them for the siding. I don't know whether it is still the fad, but a couple of years ago people were paneling rooms with old barn siding.
I have a few picture frames made from the old barn on my grandparents' homestead and I have seen some recently made tables from 1X lumber having the silvery patina of old barn siding. I have an old garage on my place that is about to fall down and had a guy stop by and offer to buy the lumber from it. Didn't talk about a price as I wasn't interested in selling it.
Out here in Oregon I have looked at a lot of barns but I have never seen one made with timbers. Even the oldest seem to be stick built with 2X lumber framing and 1x siding (although often with rusty "tin" roofing tacked on top...) Would love to get some of the timbers. The timber framing magazines have featured a number of houses using recycled barn timbers and usually say that they cost more than new timbers, but don't give specific prices.
*Ryan,A few years ago I checked out a wood flooring company over on the Eastern shore of Maryland in the town of Queen Ann off of rt. 404. If I recall correctly it was right behind the post office. The rep. said that they got a lot of their material from old barns. Sorry I can't remember their name, I'll try to dig it out of an old FHB I saw it in.Mike
*Ryan -b The New Jersey Barn CompanyElric Endersby - (609) 924-8480Jeff
*Got our start Ryan, tearing em down and salvaging. Boy there was some work. Had every post cut but one in the middle and that sob stayed up. We drew straws to see who was gonna wrap the chain around that last post. If you find a buyer, you'll be lucky. Not much used anymore except the occassional mantle. It's a shame. Anymore, local vol. fire depts. use em for target practice. 30K to get it outta there.....man, it's tempting. What does a highrise cost to destroy? hundred million?
*In my area, they either burn them or bulldoze them. There just really isn't a market around here for this type of activity because of the high labor cost. Perhaps you could tear it down, the owner could salvage and then try to sell it through a classified. I've taken down four barns for the wood for my own use, and have found I get roughly 25% of the wood that is usable after removing the nails (actually I cut out those parts), rot, bugs, and crappy wood.
*Try http://www.mountainlumber.com.This is what they do - salvaging old buildings. I don't know if they'd be interested in anything this small - but they might.They're located in the Blue Ridge Mountains (That *is* heaven, btw) of Virginia. If they're not interested in harvesting the wood, I'm sure they could give you a name of someone more in your neck of the woods.New Jersey scares me. I've heard freakish stories about youz' guys. Are they true?Rose.
*i New Jersey scares me. I've heard freakish stories about youz' guys. Are they true? Of course - New Jersey is a horrible sewer - do NOT move here.(Just perpetuating the myth, trying to reduce the number of new 'Staten-Island style' housing developments). The place has just gone downhill since Andy left ...Jeff