On Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:20:22 -0500, dpb wrote:

Jules wrote:
On Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:39:54 -0500, dpb wrote:
...

Given the overall cost and effort, I'll reiterate don't sell short the
"find a cheap lift for the duration" option.

Yeah, that may well be the way to go. I still think a standard cherry
picker won't reach, but something a bit more heavy-duty might. Due to the
curve of the roof, it's the middle section each side that's probably the
harder bit; the bottom I can reach with ladders, the top's reasonably
'flat' if I can find a way up there - but the middle third's at quite
an angle.

There's always a way--but the thing is that the amount of time you'll
take rigging up jacks or anything else will make you wish you'd spent
the money for something different! Not to mention what the effort
of lugging all the material and so on is as compared to being able to
simply pick up and put it where wanted. The telehandler somebody
mention is another option.

Funnily enough (and I don't think I mentioned this already - I started
typing the other day then things got busy) I spotted a truck with a
telescopic cherry-picker style boom sitting in the back-yard of a neighbor
to one of my son's friends on Friday evening. It looks like it possibly
isn't in active use any more. I've made a mental note to go round there
sometime and ask if they still use it, or rent it out, or want to sell it
etc.

As far as the curvature, don't believe it'll be an issue in the reach --
ours is a gambrel w/ 1:1 lower/1:2 upper pitch and even w/ the straight
boom simply back up a little gives access to the upper above the break.
Your situation is little different just a gradual change in pitch
instead of sudden.

Yeah, someone had called it a gambrel roof before, but I think technically
it's a "barrel-top" (gambrel being two straight slopes of different pitch
on each side).

Given that I know I'll have wood that needs replacing up there it's not
a quick job; I can see myself needing something for a week, and rental
for cherry pickers seems to be about $300/day around here. Buying then
selling (or talking myself into keeping is probably a good plan.

That was my conclusion -- there was no way the amount of effort required
was going to be able to be done within a very few days so that the cash
outlay was easily a choice vs renting. Even w/ a full-time hand,
six-day weeks essentially full-time we were about 3 months from
beginning the cleanup/tear-off of the roof until had last shingle on the
cupola and the ridge cap down.

Yep. Plus I won't know how much work I need to do lumber-wise until I get
up there, so it's not like it's a straight siding job. I know for
sure it'll need a new 6"-wide run all the way along the top on the south
side, and a good 2' on the north, and that's just from what I can
see from inside. After pulling shingles, it'll probably turn out to
be much worse ;-)

There
was one that I wouldn't have taken a chance on then but knowing what I
now know I'd probably seriously consider for about $2K that needs a
starter button and the dual-speed throttle controller.

Sure. I'm happy doing mechanical stuff so long as it's not something
ultra-rare that I can't easily get parts for.

How large is yours -- this is 38x66 ground all 2x6 frame construction of
virgin-growth SYP--gorgeous stuff.

Ours is *tiny* - I just measured and it's near-as 30' on all four sides,
so even smaller than I'd estimated elsewhere in this thread. I'm yet to
see another barn in that style that's so short (and it sits on a slight
hill, so it's not like they were ever planning to extend it or anything,
at least not without some major landscaping). It's about 11' up to the
base of the roof, and 9' inside up to the hayloft floor.

Has 3-1/4" horizontal siding

I'm not sure what ours is, without going back out to measure - I think
it's more than that though, around 4" (and the various other
out-buildings we have are done with the same stuff). It's like that on
three walls, but the fourth wall (end wall opposite end to the hayloft
door) is all just rough-cut planks which has all gradually warped and
shrunk over the years - lots of inch-wide gaps between the ends! Beautiful
aged wood, but it'll all have to come down and be replaced on that side.

A fair amount of it needed replacing
and had to have it milled as well as nobody could _quite_ closely enough
match the old profile.

I'm torn between keeping it as original as possible and just replacing
with whatever works. Part of the issue is that there's little consistency
in the original anyway - they built with whatever they could lay their
hands on (even the lumber for the hayloft floor isn't all of one single
width).

Another aspect is that I've no intention of using it as a dairy barn any
more (all the land that was part of the farm was parceled up and sold
off), which might impact what I do to it (e.g. better insulation on the
walls, and there's plenty of vertical space for another floor in the
hayloft). It'd make nice workshop / storage / office space.

IIRC, there were about 70 sq shakes @ $95/sq -- $7k and the millwork
altogether was about another $4k or so. I remember the paint/primer was
almost $8k alone.

Ouch. Ours seems to be traditional "give it a whitewash once in a while"
- which was last done who-knows-when. I would like to paint it
"properly" - having just painted the house (which ate about 7 gallons) I
think it could be done in about 12 gallons each of primer / top-coat, so
not too bad (and our neighbor has scaffolding I can borrow to do the end
walls - with a ladder on top it'd reach, it's just not useful for doing
the roof work).

I'd guess another $5k in just all the other "stuff".

It's very much a mid or long-term project for me. The roof's really the
urgent thing (although to be honest it's not doing anything other than
rotting the boards on the hayloft floor, and those are easy to replace),
then further down the line the end-wall, underlying wall framework and a
fresh coat of paint, then after that I can just peck away at it
(cosmetic things, rewiring, interior changes, windows etc.)


As for the design, the large haymow door is of the vertical design
rather than the hinged drop down. It's in a pair of tracks built up of
2x in an L shape and hung on a pair of block and tackles. It's 10-ft
wide and about 12-ft to the peak that follows the roof line to the gable
where the hayrack rail is mounted that extends out the front.

Interesting. I was misrembering ours and thought the smaller vertical
hayloft door was built into the larger horizontal one, but it's actually
lower down. D'oh!

I took the liberty of sending a picture of the front as it was about the
time first finished the bulk of the painting side-by-side of one taken
sometime in the early 20s...

Those are awesome! Really nice to have a 'period' photo, too. I should see
if I could get some similar old photos of ours - some of the family who
grew up on our property are still in the area.

I just braved the pigeons and took some photos of ours - I'll see if I can
upload them somewhere later today.

cheers

Jules