Barn Project 09-10

Here is a report on dad's winter project. He decided it was time to remodel the old shop to keep the wind and snow out during the winter.

This is on the southwest side. The wall filled in the gap between the silo and the old shop. Putting this many windows in ensures enough light but made construction much more complicated, as each window had to be framed into the wall, mounted and sealed, and the siding had to be cut to fit around the windows.
The south wall got two good-sized windows. All windows were purchased at a discount. These windows came out of the Briggs house.

This picture shows the long beam that serves two functions: holding up the roof on the north side and serving as a rail for the sliding doors to run along. At the base you see a track to keep the doors aligned and drain water.

Better view of the track. It was pretty tricky to get the track aligned properly before and during the pouring of the cement.

The sliding doors from the inside. One of the most impressive aspects of the construction of the shed. These doors are strong and well built but can be moved without mechanical assistance.

A look at the roof from the inside

Building around the silo complicated the project. Here you see concrete anchors and brackets that they created to hook into the silo.

View of the west wall from inside. Plenty of storage space out of the weather. Prior to this project the work area in the shop was mostly shielded on just two of its four corners, but had some opening to the elements on all four corners. The shop is now airtight.

A narrow second floor leads to a door opening into the second floor of the silo.

Door opening into second floor of silo. This doubles the storage space in the silo. A hole had to be knocked in the silo, which was one of the only jobs hired out on this project. The other job hired out was a crane to put the steel beams in place.

A transparent cover was put on the top of the silo chute to let some light in to the second floor.

Looking from the second floor to through the windows to the east. Again, this many windows will be nice for lighting but made it tedious to put up the siding on the outside.

This is one of the technical masterpieces of the project. It is a very well functioning latch mechanism. Between Neal and Ned and their experience, there was more than enough know how to get this project done.