Above 1200 Sq/FT Chesnut Acres 1926 Dairy Barn (36x126)

[tj675]

Long time lurker here and I figured it was finally time to jump in. I’m hoping to use this space to document the restoration of our 1926 dairy barn.

Just over 3 years ago we started looking for a new home, first casually and then in earnest. We wanted a place that had character, barn/storage, and property (20 acres). This house was one of the first places that we saw, and after looking at a number of other homes, we just couldn’t find something that checked more boxes. We closed on the house in late 2018 and moved in 30 days later.

The property was originally a 300+ acre dairy farm in the late 1800s. This original barn and Victorian home burned in 1925.

Mr. Chesnut went to work right away rebuilding the home and barn. The new barn was designed by Michigan State College of Agriculture (now Michigan State University) to show what could be done with new building processes. The structure is all done with 2x8’s and not post and beam. The first floor featured a dairy parlor that was 36ft x 85ft, 5 large stalls, a grain room, and a room for the milk tanks. The 2nd floor was all hayloft and a grand hayloft it is.

Here is a picture from shortly after the new barn was built. Take a look at the small trees in the foreground.

Mr. Chesnut sold the farm in the 30’s to an attorney in Detroit. The daughters mentioned in this article stopped by the farm in the early 90’s and provided these pictures.

The barn and silo from the late 40’s

Here is a shot of how the barn looks today. The maple and elm trees sure have grown.

 

[Unruh]

Wow! This is one I’ll pay attention to! What are your plans for the spaces?

 

[jollygreengiant]

Yeah I'll be subscribing to this one. Can't wait to see more!

 

[MacTexas]

This looks like a project I need to follow.

 

[tj675]

Wow! This is one I’ll pay attention to! What are your plans for the spaces?

A good portion of the first floor will be my wood shop. We are going to keep the 5 original stalls for animals.

Yeah I'll be subscribing to this one. Can't wait to see more!

I’ve been following your Schoolhouse.

This looks like a project I need to follow.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[tj675]

We gave the previous owners until spring to remove their "stuff" from the barn and we boarded their horses until the end of October. They were downsizing and we wanted to take our time putting a plan/priority list together, it worked out for both of us.

As soon as things started to warm up, in March/April, it was time to get started. There is definitely some character in a 95 year old barn as well as a long list of things to address. Top of the priority list and the most pressing was electrical. There had been a small 100 amp panel added sometime in the 80/90's but nothing looked safe or anywhere near code. The fabric covered romex running throughout the barn (inside and out) was still being used. The farm originally had a Delco Light Plant (think hit and miss generator that charged a battery bank) that provided lighting in the 20's, however the only thing remaining there is the exterior hookup where power came into the building and the slab that it sat on.

This was the panel from the 80's and the original cut off that was still in use.

Before we started running emt and pulling wires we needed the previous owner to move his belongings out and the 50+ years of grim, cow manure, and dust needed to be cleaned from the walls.
This is how things looked in the main portion of the dairy parlor. Behind the blue wall is another 30 ft of dairy parlor that had been turned into horse stalls. The floor has integrated concrete troughs, concrete gutters (covered by boards), and elevated walkways on each side below the hay drops. The stanchions are pretty much gone, but the holes in the floor remain.

Step 1 was spraying the walls with concrobium mold control. After letting it sit, step 2 was using a stiff bristle brush to loosened up the debris. Step 3 was to wipe the debris from the walls.

The walls looked much better with a good scrub.

 

[BUGTHUG]

That’s looking really nice. Going to be some work, but the juice is worth the squeeze. What a difference some soap and water makes. You taking out the floor gutters?

 

[tj675]

That’s looking really nice. Going to be some work, but the juice is worth the squeeze. What a difference some soap and water makes. You taking out the floor gutters?

I really struggled to make a decision on the floor. On one hand I wanted to blow out the entire floor and start fresh, however that would kill my budget. I decided to try and build a platform over the troughs, hoping it would give me enough floor space to run machines along the walls.

 

[tj675]

After cleaning up the walls it was time to make room for the electrical panels. The grain bin under the current panel was filled to the top with mason jars left by the previous owners. I moved the jars, got the saws out, and with a couple quick cuts things cleaned up nicely.

I mentioned the hayloft previously but had not included a picture. Time to fix that.

We’ve had a number of people mention, your barn would be a great place to do weddings. The previous owners were doing just that at $5000 a pop, however they failed to get approval from the township, so that ended abruptly. This is one case where begging forgiveness instead of asking for permission didn’t work out. We can use the barn for family weddings, parties etc, but no commercial gatherings.

We are on 20 acres however the property is surround by homes on 2-5 acre lots. The noise from a wedding every weekend probably would have driven me crazy as well.

It had been at least a year (guessing 2-3) since the fields had a good mow. The autumn olives were getting out of control in areas so it was time to get the brush hog out and get to work.

 

[BUGTHUG]

Man that barn is AWESOME. I could see myself living up there. Love this barn

 

[tj675]

Man that barn is AWESOME. I could see myself living up there. Love this barn

Thank You! It has needed it’s fair share of work, but man has it been fun so far.

 

[sublime68charger]

Love old barns!

So much storage!

Love the hayloft design as well that's a big clear span!

 

[tj675]

Love old barns!

So much storage!

Love the hayloft design as well that's a big clear span!

Thank you stopping by! We went from a 10x16 shed to this barn and man does it feel good to finally have some room to move around.

 

[tj675]

Next up was running all the emt and pulling wires. This is one area of the restoration/upgrade that I didn’t do a very good documenting and also one area that went way over budget. We ended up with (40) 20 amp duplex outlets, (2) 20 amp, 220 circuits (3) 30 amp 220 circuits, (17) 8ft led strip lights, (6) 4 ft led strip lights, RPC with (3) 25 amp 3 phase circuits and countless other boxes/lights/fixtures. My much better half was not pleased with my spending that month.

I thought there was no way I would fill this panel. As of today there is 1 open spot, so for the time being I can say was right, lol.

Lots and lots of bending and boxes.

The led strip lights that we used were Metalux from HD and so far I’ve been pleased with their performance.

 

[jollygreengiant]

I love that hayloft!

I might have missed it but what are you going to use the barn for once it's restored?

How deep are the gutters? Is the floor on either side of them the same height? If it is I'd look at pouring concrete in the gutters, or cutting out just the gutters and pouring concrete to fill the gap. Provided you have enough headroom with the current floor.

 

[tj675]

I love that hayloft!

I might have missed it but what are you going to use the barn for once it's restored?

How deep are the gutters? Is the floor on either side of them the same height? If it is I'd look at pouring concrete in the gutters, or cutting out just the gutters and pouring concrete to fill the gap. Provided you have enough headroom with the current floor.

I am turning quite a bit of the old dairy parlor into my wood shop. We have close to 8 feet of ceiling height in the center and about 7ft on the edges The troughs you see in this picture are about 12” deep (gutters line the center section and are already covered in wood.

 

[Craig Balzer]

I agree -- thsat is an AMAZING hayloft. It's a shame you can't host weddings, receptions, meeting in it. What is the issue?

It's not clear if the US flag is still hung on the high wall. If it is, it is hung backwards. When attached to a wall the blue field is always in the upper left.

Craig
LTC (RET)
US Army

 

[tj675]

I agree -- thsat is an AMAZING hayloft. It's a shame you can't host weddings, receptions, meeting in it. What is the issue?

It's not clear if the US flag is still hung on the high wall. If it is, it is hung backwards. When attached to a wall the blue field is always in the upper left.

Craig
LTC (RET)
US Army

The township requires a permit to hold commercial gatherings, and the previous owner did not apply. A couple of the neighbors weren’t fans of the noise and traffic and I can’t blame them.

The flag was left for us and that picture was from a week after we moved in. It was corrected as soon as I had the nerve to climb the ladder. I don’t mind heights for the most part, however I needed to build trust in 95 year old Boards and nails. Thank You for your service!

 

[tj675]

Next up on the priority list was to put a new coating on the roof. The steel panels are in decent shape, however there were a number of leaks in a heavy rain. A tornado came through town about 15 years ago which lifted a number of panels. The previous owner had a good insurance policy that paid to have all the panels screwed into place while replacing the old nails.

I rented an 80 ft articulating boom lift to help speed up this project.

I used an airless sprayer to apply a coat of Ames super primer and then followed that with Ames maximum stretch roof coating.

The primer goes on in an iridescent shade of blue and dries clear.

This shows the difference between the new coating and the old.

Overall it turned out pretty decent. There are still a few leaks but I would say we cut them down by at least half.

 

[danfromsyr]

very nice barn and property
makes my 36x50ft barn look like a shed..

 

[wout]

Awesome property and barn! Some have all the luck

Wout

 

[Shoester]

What a beautiful barn, and a testament to the folks that built it. I often wonder what it would cost to build something like that in today's dollars. I sure seems like barns built today lack the character of these oldschool structures.

 

[tj675]

very nice barn and property
makes my 36x50ft barn look like a shed..

Thank You! Our last place had a 10x16 shed, so I am thankful everyday for this place.

Awesome property and barn! Some have all the luck

Wout

Thank You!

 

[tj675]

What a beautiful barn, and a testament to the folks that built it. I often wonder what it would cost to build something like that in today's dollars. I sure seems like barns built today lack the character of these oldschool structures.

I am pretty sure the lumber would cost more than we paid for the entire property. The first floor has 2x8 studs, the inside walls are 1x4 tongue and groove bead board with the beads facing the stud cavity. The outside sheeting is horizontal 1x6 tongue and groove, tar paper, and then vertical 1x6 tongue and groove siding.

This is what the backside of the interior walls look like.

 

[Farmall450]

They sure knew how to build a stiff building back then!

 

[joey1320]

Amazing barn.

 

[LutzTD]

very cool, will be watching this!

 

[lieutenant]

I'm in for sure! Love this barn.

 

[tj675]

They sure knew how to build a stiff building back then!

There is no doubt about that.

Amazing barn.

Thank You

very cool, will be watching this!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm in for sure! Love this barn.

Thank You

 

[loganb]

First thank you for respecting such an awesome barn. Grew up on a farm and seeing barns like this, that have been well cared for continuing on is awesome. The history you get on it is an added bonus

And 2nd, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to enjoying the ride on this one and seeing how you adapt it to its new purposed....and the fact you put in an RPC makes me excited to see what moves in

Sent from The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[tj675]

We finally had lights out front. We went back and forth on the light placement, this is where we settled.

As soon as my mom saw the barn she started planting the seed with my wife that we needed a “Barn Quilt”. I guess one of her senior tours was a Quilt Trail in Amish country where they went from farm to farm touring the barns and checking out their barn quilts. My wife and mom picked out a pattern and decided it should be a 5ft x 5ft square.

Here is a very rough drawing of the pattern

I used 2x6 cedar for the frame and marine grade plywood for the canvas. Front and back received 2 coats of oil based stain and the color was done with an acrylic.

This is before everything was screwed and glued together.

I attached a french cleat to the barn and quilt with headlok fasteners and once it was hanging I ran two more through the face of the quilt into barn.

Final product didn’t turn too bad and the most important thing is that the wife is happy.

 

[LutzTD]

that looks so nice you might have to add a light for that so you can enjoy it 24/7!

 

[XJSuperman]

Some barn quilts have special meanings in the designs. At least they used to. Does anything in your design have a meaning to it, or is it just something you both liked? It looks great up on the barn.

 

[Jayman17]

The pucker factor would have been high if it was me mounting that so high up. Did you use a lift? Looks good though.

Jay

 

[tj675]

that looks so nice you might have to add a light for that so you can enjoy it 24/7!

Thank You

Some barn quilts have special meanings in the designs. At least they used to. Does anything in your design have a meaning to it, or is it just something you both liked? It looks great up on the barn.

My mom’s hobby is quilting and this is one of her favorite patterns. The colors are my wife’s favorites. Thanks for stopping by!

The pucker factor would have been high if it was me mounting that so high up. Did you use a lift? Looks good though.

Jay

We still had the boom lift from sealing the roof, otherwise I don’t think this would have been possible. I looped a strap around the bottom of the quilt and the front of the basket to hold it in place while I went up. The french cleat made mounting it much easier.

 

[tj675]

First thank you for respecting such an awesome barn. Grew up on a farm and seeing barns like this, that have been well cared for continuing on is awesome. The history you get on it is an added bonus

And 2nd, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to enjoying the ride on this one and seeing how you adapt it to its new purposed....and the fact you put in an RPC makes me excited to see what moves in

Sent from The Garage Journal mobile app

Thanks for stopping by! I will freely admit that I spend too much time on marketplace and craigslist looking for old woodworking tools. That has lead to a few heavy old beasts that need 3 phase.

 

[loganb]

Thanks for stopping by! I will freely admit that I spend too much time on marketplace and craigslist looking for old woodworking tools. That has lead to a few heavy old beasts that need 3 phase.

Nice! I'm guilty of the same addiction....you're in good company around here. My haul this week(documented in the thread in my sig) was all single phase....but 220/240V and my subpanel isn't wired up yet so still can't use it anyway!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Old barns have a cool factor that you can't beat.

On the flip side of the coin, at $5K a pop, I think I'd be checking out what it would take to get approval. When it's approved and the cash starts rolling in, use that for a brand new shop build and leave the "barn" as a money maker.

 

[tj675]

Ok next on the list was seeing what I could to fix a section of floor that was sagging a few inches because a ground hog thought it would be cool to build a home there back in the 80’s. The previous owner evicted the squatter but never did anything to address the floor. I had nothing to lose here because if I couldn’t get this fixed it gave me a reason to get quotes on having the floor redone. If I could fix the floor myself it gives me more money for tools.

There is a large crack that I thought I could use to my advantage. Step 1 was to use a rotary hammer to clean up and widen the crack just enough for 1/2” all thread. Step 2 was to slide the all thread with large washer and nut from the edge of the slab to about a third of the way out. I then slid the all thread through a 6x6 and secured it with nut and washer. Step 3 was to get the floor jack in place and to see if we could get some movement.

To my surprise it worked and the slab moved about 3” to almost level. Well that’s all great but what do I do now? I’ve watched a few cool videos of people using spray foam to lift slabs with 2 part closed cell, would the small cans work to hold the slab up? The short answer is yes but it took 8 cans. This area is going to home to a 10 ft bench so I wasn’t super worried about a heavy machine causing issues down the road.

A few feet away a very small section of slab was missing. I mixed up a couple of bags of fiber reinforced cement and filled in that hole.

 

[tj675]

The sagging floor held so now we needed to see if we could cover the troughs. If this works it will make the upper section of flooring much more usable. I decided to work on a 10 ft section on the south side of the barn. The curb making up one side of the trough was 3” lower than the upper floor, so that needed to raised 2.25”, if we were using 1x6 or 1x8 for the decking. On the edge of the trough itself we had roughly a 60 degree angle which means a 30 degree bevel on a support should give us a level base.

A 2x6 topped with a 1x6 gave me the correct height on the curb and a 30 degree bevel on a 2x4 gave us support on the opposite side of the trough. Everything was held in place with construction adhesive and a few ramsets. The 2x4 happens to sit perfectly on what was left of the metal stanchion mounts for added support.

This is what’s left of an old stanchion mount

First few decking boards in place