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Barn burning. (Lots of pics; dial up beware)
Aspen79se
Member Posts: 4,707
My mom wanted this old grain building destroyed years ago. I decided a few weeks ago to just knock it down, then set it on fire. It sounded plausible, even fairly straight forward, in theory.
Before:
My future brother in law, Shane, and I worked it over with demo-hammers and crowbars for a day:
This bin had thousands of empty ammonia nitrate bags in it. They were empty, but I wasn't risking the residual amount in the bags being exposed to fire.
I assumed I could simply pull out the inside supporting beams, which would collapse one side, and then do the same to the other. After ten different pulls, and busting every inside beam and crossing supports, the barn was still standing. It finally went down around pull fifteen, and then completely when we wrapped the chain around what was left of the front wall and pulled inwards.
We tossed an evergreen tree we removed from my parents windbreak that grew too big for its placement. Then, I decided to cover it with a half-gallon of highly distilled camp fuel; luckily I still have my eyebrows, but just barely.
After the initial fireball from the fuel going up, the fire died down slightly, and then built back up...and that's where the problem started. Have you ever planned something, and then a point comes when your inner voice makes the observation that you may have entered into something above your abilities? Well, that happend to me when the fire started burning the grass around it and started to spread to the pasture and towards the ditch. Not a big deal, I had it under control, until the rural fire department truck stopped pumping water. Then I started to panic. Luckily, Shane figured out the hose still worked, only without the spray head. A little while later my friend showed up with the back up truck, after speeding 100mph to go get it when the blaze grew 30ft high. He put a replacement head on the hose, and we had everything under control in ten minutes or so.
Here's what the building looked like an hour and a half later:
All that's left now is to remove the rocks, tin, and millions upon millions of nails.
Before:
My future brother in law, Shane, and I worked it over with demo-hammers and crowbars for a day:
This bin had thousands of empty ammonia nitrate bags in it. They were empty, but I wasn't risking the residual amount in the bags being exposed to fire.
I assumed I could simply pull out the inside supporting beams, which would collapse one side, and then do the same to the other. After ten different pulls, and busting every inside beam and crossing supports, the barn was still standing. It finally went down around pull fifteen, and then completely when we wrapped the chain around what was left of the front wall and pulled inwards.
We tossed an evergreen tree we removed from my parents windbreak that grew too big for its placement. Then, I decided to cover it with a half-gallon of highly distilled camp fuel; luckily I still have my eyebrows, but just barely.
After the initial fireball from the fuel going up, the fire died down slightly, and then built back up...and that's where the problem started. Have you ever planned something, and then a point comes when your inner voice makes the observation that you may have entered into something above your abilities? Well, that happend to me when the fire started burning the grass around it and started to spread to the pasture and towards the ditch. Not a big deal, I had it under control, until the rural fire department truck stopped pumping water. Then I started to panic. Luckily, Shane figured out the hose still worked, only without the spray head. A little while later my friend showed up with the back up truck, after speeding 100mph to go get it when the blaze grew 30ft high. He put a replacement head on the hose, and we had everything under control in ten minutes or so.
Here's what the building looked like an hour and a half later:
All that's left now is to remove the rocks, tin, and millions upon millions of nails.
Comments
They even come and take it down themselves.
That was only a couple thousand dollars worth of wood you burned.
I wish I had that wood for projects.
Way too dry, and too many nails. All of it splintered when we tried to pull some off to save.
Do you realize that there are people that pay top dollar for naturally aged barn wood?
They even come and take it down themselves.
That was only a couple thousand dollars worth of wood you burned.
Yeah, people were saying that for years. My mom told them, "Come and get it." No one did, so now it's gone. She wanted it gone, so I got rid of it. And now she's happy to have that ugly * decaying barn gone.
Oh, and about 75% of the boards suffered from dry rot. See the beams in the "hall" of the barn? They all were bowed 15% out of straight, and riddled with rot.
Aspen, we traveled west on I-64 through Kentucky once after a tornado had ripped through the state. Most of the old barns were still standing, but several new-looking barns were piles of rubble.
Here people actually put up huge snow fences made of wood for the winter and trade the boards out yearly.
Selling them as weathered wood, cupped and crowned and gray and ugly.
It would have been worth my time to drive out to your place and tear the place down.
Anything 2 ft and longer is worth good money! If its rough cut, the price skyrockets.
Advice for the future![;)]
"After ten different pulls, and busting every inside beam and crossing supports, the barn was still standing..."
Aspen, we traveled west on I-64 through Kentucky once after a tornado had ripped through the state. Most of the old barns were still standing, but several new-looking barns were piles of rubble.
Yeah, after a while we really wanted to know what was keeping it up. We videoed it for my little brother. We finally got to a point in the pull down where I said, "F it! Good enough." I'm glad we did, because it would've got out of hand real quick it we hadn't.
7RiverMan7: All the siding was crap. And, at least twenty guys in the area had said the same thing for years. It can't be worth that much if no one every showed up to take it.
$3,000
These are the types of kitchen I build
And vanities
Where the hell are the photos of it burning?
My mom got some of it, and Shane managed some video after the fire was under control. I was running around turning the area around it into a swamp to keep it under control.
quote:Originally posted by cartod
Where the hell are the photos of it burning?
My mom got some of it, and Shane managed some video after the fire was under control. I was running around turning the area around it into a swamp to keep it under control.
You can't just title the thread "barn burning photos" then not post any photos of it burning! I feel cheated!
quote:Originally posted by Aspen79se
quote:Originally posted by cartod
Where the hell are the photos of it burning?
My mom got some of it, and Shane managed some video after the fire was under control. I was running around turning the area around it into a swamp to keep it under control.
You can't just title the thread "barn burning photos" then not post any photos of it burning! I feel cheated!
I'll send you a refund in the mail. [:p]
great looking cabinets in the kitchen! do you build them or just face them?
nice work either way!
tom
the siding WAS dutch lap, hard to find now and incredibly expensive, and exactly what I needed for my old POS house...
have to replace some rotted, and splice in where new windows are going, and old windows are gone... anybody got a old house with that in kansas that they are going to demo, let me know PLEASE!
speedbuggy16v
7RiverMan7 that is nice.....VERY nice....
That is just gorgeous work.
Oy! That kitchen...!
I didn't build that stuff. Those are just pics of the types of things I do build.
I don't have any work right now but I am capable of those results!
Sorry for the confusion.
Most fun was taking down the chimneys. We 'd put an old car jack in the fire box and start ratcheting up. Over it went. Lotsa Brick cleaning after that. Majority crashed like dominos when they hit.Some tho were constructed using Concrete mix for mortor. When they hit they only broke into about four or five pieces. Found some real neat STUFF hidden in those old bldgs. Course if we found any weapons or ordnance they were turned into the MP's[;)][;)]. I had quite a collection of WWII era adult "ILLUSTRATED READING" material.50's too. exWife found the stuff and said WE need to burn it. you know the rest of the story[V]
high end homes in montana use that stuff for flooring, wall panels and decorative trim.
but then again, fire is cool. i would have been tempted to burn it also.
We dont need no water let the mudda fudda burn.
burn mudda fudda burn.
Captplaid, Cartod: Those pictures look similar to it. Only I'm not standing 10ft away with a dead fire hose trying to control it. [;)]
$3,000
These are the types of kitchen I build
And vanities
I like that vanity, what does something like that cost, with the sink and faucets?