The Green Barn - Recycled 48' x 60' Pole Barn

GuerrillaCycles · Sep 11, 2012

After lurking here for years, I thought it time to share my adventure. Instead of a high dollar garage-mahal, we will take a decidedly different tactic. Although I love reading those build threads, and gawking at the wonders others acheive, I know there is a crowd here for all kinds of builds. The following is the story of doing what they say can't be done. Grab a drink and pull up a chair, this could get interesting... :beer:

To jump right in... I began restoring motorcycles (among other projects) in my father-in-law's garage when my wife and I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment.

Moved up to a 2-car garage, where the wife never got to park inside. After 6 years of that, she decided it was time to move somewhere with a workshop for my projects, and a garage for .... wait for it.... parking.

So after we sold the starter house, and moved into a rental while we looked for a new homestead with workshop that we could actually afford (not an easy task in our area), I rented some warehouse space for a temporary workshop. This was where I spent the next 12 months.

More to come...

GuerrillaCycles · Sep 11, 2012

After 18 months of house hunting, we realized we just couldn't afford a home with a shop in our area. We eventually settled on a 3 bedroom fixer-upper with 5 acres in a prime location. While we rehabbed the house to make it livable, the shop would have to wait a few more years. But we finally had somewhere for the shop to go.

When me moved in, the area pictured below was covered from the driveway to about 15 feet from the fence in junk. The po had collected random materials from job sites and stockpiled them there, never tending to the lawn, or using any of his collection. It took a month and a 30yd dumpster to remove all of the debris and make the yard mowable. This shot was taken 2 years after the clean up, with various items of mine and others stored about, awaiting a new home.

This would be the space for the new shop.

GuerrillaCycles · Sep 11, 2012

So while I'm trying to figure out how to build a shop on a shoe-string budget I'm browsing CL one day, and I find what is either the best deal or the worst deal ever. A storage lot about 20 miles away has a 48x60x16 Morten building that's cramping their style. I had to call in my wife, then one of my brother's to confirm my sanity. After a few long conversations with my brother (also a GJ member) to confirm his willingness to participate in this nonsense, we decided to go for it. I called the owner and talked him down from $2500 to $1500, the difference I would spend on a heavy duty trailer to haul the parts on.

The plan will be to buy the building from the current owner, take it down piece by piece, move it to my property and re-assemble. Oh... one more hiccup, the owner needs it moved in 2 weeks so his construction crew can begin on a new environmentally controlled storage building. Can't be too difficult right?

:dunno:

Here we are on Day 1, rolling up with tools, trailer, scaffolding, and a whole lot of motivation.

Interior shot with the previous tenants' trailer still present.

Flatland Dave · Sep 11, 2012

Cool! Keep the story and pics coming!

K2sno311 · Sep 11, 2012

You are a brave man for starting with a building already up and taking it apart!! Mortens are well manufactured tho, so it sounds like you made a "sane" choice

Best of luck to the continuing adventure!! keep us posted

speadphreak · Sep 11, 2012

Cool find! I think youre going to need a bigger trailer for those trusses. If you get a chance could you take some pictures of the poles? They look like laminated 2x boards treated sections at the bottom.

m_hatcher · Sep 11, 2012

Subscribed! I already like where this one is going

criby1 · Sep 11, 2012

Subscribed,, This is going to be huge :eyecrazy:

keep the pics and info coming on this one guys & gals
I Like some one who has a vision and big OO to give a project like this a go

FrankTheTank88 · Sep 11, 2012

I thought about doing the same thing.... guy offered me a 40x60 with 16ft celings for 6,000.... he told me the amish could come in and do it if i didnt want to do it... where im going from here is how they do it. All they do it cut the barn at the gound to make it shorter.. goin from 16ft to 12 ft celings still is great, and that gives u the option to cut off damaged metal. Just a thought for since i looked into the same thing

KULIWOBBY · Sep 11, 2012

Subscribed also.

graffix000 · Sep 11, 2012

Good luck. Going to need quite a bit bigger trailer then that!!

fergus · Sep 11, 2012

Ummm.... WOW. Quite an undertaking. Also, this score deserves a "you ****". You are a brave man. I thought I was the only guy adventurous (re: insane) enough to try to pull things off like this. Sub'd.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

I've been lacking in time to post, due to working on the barn, but I'm going to try to catch you guys up to the current status over the next few nights. Lots of pictures coming.

Once we got into the building, we took a lot of pictures to document the existing construction, so we might have a chance of putting it back together right.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

Next step was to pull out all the electrical. I kept all of the hardware and conduit, but I gave all the short runs of wire to a local scrapper that kept driving by eying what was going on. I also offered him the commercial steel man doors, as they were thoroughly trashed.

This thing is tall in side, so we need some serious equipment to get up and get to work.

The next big problem was, how the hell do we take it apart? The metal was attached with "pole barn nails", which are basically big ring shank nails with a sealing washer. These things don't pull out, not for anything. We tried every option, and what we found was the only way to get it apart was to use reciprocating saws and cut all the nails from the inside.

It's gonna take A LOT of blades, but it works!!!

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

And once you break the seal..... You just keep going.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

The sliding doors which measure 11'w x 16'h each, presented an interesting problem. I was trying to take things apart only as far as necessary to move them, to reduce the amount of re-assembly, and repair required.

We carefully pulled them down using the scissor lift:

And built a rig on the trailer to carry them home in one piece.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

speadphreak said:
Cool find! I think youre going to need a bigger trailer for those trusses. If you get a chance could you take some pictures of the poles? They look like laminated 2x boards treated sections at the bottom.

Spead, yeah, they are laminated 2x6's, treated on the sections that went into the ground.

Modern Jess · Oct 24, 2012

Awesome. It's a reverse build!

Subscribed.

Big-Foot · Oct 24, 2012

Wow now THAT is one heckuva project! Looking forward to watching this one... And your future bike builds!

Dragster Racer · Oct 24, 2012

This is way cool.

fergus · Oct 24, 2012

Keep it coming!

shopnut · Oct 24, 2012

GuerrillaCycles said:
Spead, yeah, they are laminated 2x6's, treated on the sections that went into the ground.

Assuming you are cutting the poles off where they come out of the ground, what is your plan for them at the new location?
Buying new ones? Or maybe these laminated type might lend themselves to being spliced to gain the length back :dunno:

Interesting project. Keep the pictures coming. Good luck with it all.

Mavawreck · Oct 24, 2012

Awesome! Did the scout come with the property?

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

shopnut said:
Assuming you are cutting the poles off where they come out of the ground, what is your plan for them at the new location?
Buying new ones? Or maybe these laminated type might lend themselves to being spliced to gain the length back

Interesting project. Keep the pictures coming. Good luck with it all.

Yeah, the poles were concreted in, so no pulling them. More details on this soon... :beer:

Sent from my Galaxy Tab using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

Mavawreck said:
Awesome! Did the scout come with the property?

I wish! No, I hauled it there myself. That is a '77 Scout II with 345 V8 and Rallye pack, originally bought new by my dad. It was one of the first cars I drove regularly. Eventual mechanical gremlins had it parked outside my parents garage for about 15 years. Now it's here, waiting for it's place in the barn, where it will get a restoration/upgrade combo.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2

Nighttrain · Oct 24, 2012

I thought I had a big job when I bought and moved a 8'x12 shed.

Mavawreck · Oct 24, 2012

GuerrillaCycles said:
I wish! No, I hauled it there myself. That is a '77 Scout II with 345 V8 and Rallye pack, originally bought new by my dad. It was one of the first cars I drove regularly. Eventual mechanical gremlins had it parked outside my parents garage for about 15 years. Now it's here, waiting for it's place in the barn, where it will get a restoration/upgrade combo.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2

Awesome! I'd like to buy a scout in the next few years. At least once the wagoneer is finished.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

Here's a quick video I shot of cutting the siding nails. This video makes it seem quick and easy, but in the end there were somewhere around 3500 nails to cut.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

Starting down the other side wall.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

And on to the front...

Notice in the next picture, the pile of metal on the trailer. Because this site was miles away from my home, in the next county, I was extremely concerned about theft of my materials when I wasn't present. So as we took each piece down, it was loaded directly onto the trailer, and the trailer hauled home each night and unloaded.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

The rear wall began the next interesting dilemma. The rear wall also acted as the fence for the storage yard, so to get to the outside, I had to go out through the gate, and around the fence, or climb over the barbed wire with my step ladder, fun times. Also, behind the building was a fairly steep slope, into a drainage ditch that served the storage lot, and the commercial parking lot to the rear. The scissor lift won't work back here, so we had to get a boom lift to get this wall down.

Edit: Interesting side note, my brother took his yearly pilgrimage to the Tail of the Dragon this week, so I got to pull the rear wall all by myself.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

With all the walls down and moved, it's time to turn our attention to the roof.

Ridge vent removed, ready to move onto to roof panels.

First two roof panels down... Giddyup!

We used the scissor lift on the outside of the building, up at the eave height for this. All the nails had been removed except the outside two on the bottom row. So as we got to each panel, I cut the two remaining nails, then began sliding the panel downward over my head. As it reached the tipping point, the 26' long panels could almost reach the ground, and my brother grabbed the bottom edge and began walking out away from the building. Once the top edge reached me, I lowered the lift, then rested the panel on the lift, climbed down, and we moved the panel to the trailer.

Annnd, one side down.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

The next day, we returned and removed the other side.

Now, this was the one time where I broke my own rule and left material on-site over night. We finished the first side of the roof so late that I didn't feel it was safe to pull the material home in the dark. The next picture, with all of the roof metal on the trailer should explain why. This is likely the most pucker inducing load I've ever towed. Over 30mph, it began an accelerating sway, which I had to slow below 20 to cancel. Luckily there are some rarely used rural roads in between, so I was able to keep myself away from the public for most of my hauling, and my brother ran chase safety car as additional precaution.

(Yes, we strapped everything down before hauling.)

NUTTSGT · Oct 24, 2012

Dude, you have one serious project going on.

BTW, the pics of your place look almost like it's right along 315.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

NUTTSGT said:
Dude, you have one serious project going on.

BTW, the pics of your place look almost like it's right along 315.

Close, Very Close.

Justanoldguy · Oct 24, 2012

Keeping an eye on this from the other side of the world.
I know the feeling.
I pulled down a 60 year old shopping complex last year.
It was 10,000 sq/ft.
Still have most of it in my yard next to my workshop. (40x80)

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 24, 2012

Here we have the start of the longest day.

This next picture was taken around 10 on a Sunday morning. We began the day trying to determine how to remove the roof purlins. They were held on with a 8" hardened spike driven straight down through the purlin into the truss at every intersection. Tried cutting the spikes, but it took approximately 8 minutes to cut each one, and with 30 rows of purlins on 9 trusses, I didn't have a day and a half to spend cutting nails.

My brother suggested I use the forks on the lift to push the purlins straight up from inside. With some gentle urging and careful boom work, it worked great. Some of the boards split, but we saved most, and the ones that split will get trimmed and used for other bits in the rebuild, or work benches when were done.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 25, 2012

When we got the purlins down, we just kept moving. We were running short of time; in fact, due to heavy rains that slowed progress, and thunderstorms that neither of us was willing to stand on the lift 20' in the air amidst, we were almost a week behind schedule. So we began removing the trusses immediately after the purlins, around 10p.m. I was too focused (nervous) as we pulled the first few to take pictures, but here we are working on number 4.

I ran the forklift, inserting the forks right up in the peak of the truss, and angled the forks just so, so that I could hold it steady while my brother went up in the scissor lift and using a circular saw, cut the top of of the posts, freeing the trusses. Once it was free, it's just a matter of maneuvering the fork gently to set the truss down without bending or over-stressing it. The trusses sit down in the center of the laminated posts, and have two 1/2" bolts, and 12 nails holding them in. Here again, cutting the nails and unbolting just wasn't an option based on time and work required, so cutting the posts was the only sensible option.

Here we are pulling the last truss as the sunlight breaks the Eastern horizon, 5:58am.

And the post frame without the trusses.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 25, 2012

After working all day and all night, I headed home for a shower and an hours sleep. I had a client meeting mid morning, but then headed back up to keep moving forward.

Using a sledge hammer, I removed and stacked the rest of the side boards.

After cutting the poles down with a chainsaw, all the lumber and tools were loaded up and moved home.

GuerrillaCycles · Oct 25, 2012

The last thing to do was move the trusses. Someone commented that I would need a bigger trailer, and that I would.

I happened across a farm service company along my route between home and the shop location that had about 10 flatbed semi trailers sitting out back. After dropping in and speaking with them for a bit, they agreed to show up with a 48' flatbed semi and haul my trusses back to my property for $500. I rented a "super boom" skid steer that luckily just managed to reach high enough to stack the trusses on the trailer for the trip home. Then I hauled the loader back with me to unload them.

The Green Barn - Recycled 48' x 60' Pole Barn

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