Our barn had suffered some neglect over the years before we bought it. The foundation needed major work. The floors were not level and in places they were quite squishy underfoot. One corner of the barn’s sill lay directly on ledge, but the other supports were tenuous. At one time, one corner of the barn had been attached to a tree by a steel cable. I think that was done to keep the barn from toppling off its supports. More recently three posts resting on stones had been added along the long downhill side, but the stones were lying on dirt. Two of the posts showed signs of rot.
Ideally, a boat building floor should be level. But most importantly it should be stable over time. I anticipated that my boat would take several years to build, and if the building settled during construction, the shape of the boat would be changing as it’s being built. So before doing any building the barn’s foundation needed some serious work.
My neighbor Scot Smith gave me lots of advice about how to proceed, helped me at crucial times, and loaned me some tools I needed to do the work. I spent most of my August vacation in 2006 renewing the foundation.
The barn needed to be raised by about 5″ at one corner and lesser amounts at two others, and I needed to take the weight off the old foundation so old parts could be removed and replaced as needed. Scot provided me with a hydraulic jack and a supply of cribbing to raise and support the barn. Cribbing consists of stout pieces of lumber about 24″ long that can be stacked Lincoln-log style to provide stable temporary support while the new foundation pieces are set in place.
I have found a laser level to be an indispensable tool in boatbuilding. I used a laser level inside the barn to gauge how much I’d need to raise the corners of the barn. Not surprisingly, the highest corner was the one supported directly by ledge. The lowest corner was the opposite one. The long side farthest from the ledge was the place to start lifting the barn.
Because the jack I used has a relatively short throw, we built a crib below the foundation on which to place the jack, then started lifting. Another crib was built nearby to take the load and support the building after the jack was lowered from the first crib. Cribbing and jacking points were shifted as needed.
Scot advised me to add concrete supports under the new posts that I would install. We assumed that I could dig down until I hit ledge, then pour concrete supports that would be anchored to the ledge. I’d make the concrete forms using 10″ diameter cardboard “Quik-tube,” and before pouring in the cement I’d drill holes in the ledge and put in short pieces of rebar to help lock the concrete to the ledge.
So I dug down about 18″ for my first hole and indeed hit ledge. The ledge was uneven, so I had to scribe the Quik-tube and cut the bottom edge so it closely fit against the ledge to prevent the concrete from oozing out.
Before pouring cement, I made sure the top of the Quik-tube was level. Because I planned to secure the post to the support with steel brackets made for that purpose, I embedded an appropriate size stud in the wet concrete.
I made posts of the correct length from pressure-treated 6×6 lumber. The sills were 4×6’s, so I cut notches at the top of the posts so I could secure the overlapped parts with strong fasteners.
This process was repeated five times, for a total of six posts: three along the front of the barn and three along the back. Working at the back was more awkward because the back is close to a ledge and the sill is close to ground level. Sometimes I had to work under the barn for better access.
The end of the barn under the door has a stone foundation with no mortar. Although it was in pretty good shape, it needed to be higher to match the new level of the foundation. I decided to rebuild much of it and in the process get it in contact with ledge along most of its length. I have limited experience laying stones. And some of this work needed to be done from under the barn. Nevertheless, it came out looking and functioning very well.
The barn looked great on its new foundation, but for further stability the posts I’d installed needed diagonal bracing. (Scot’s chief concern was the ability of the barn to withstand strong wind gusts.) So I cut suitable pieces of 4×4 pressure-treated lumber to make braces for the six new posts.
The barn’s floor joists run between the long sides of the barn so they are about 11′ 6″ long and had no support except at their ends. Scot recommended that I add a central beam that would run parallel to the long sides of the barn and support the joists at their midpoints. We made up two 12′ sections for the beam by fastening 2x8s face to face to make two 12′ 4×8 beams that we’d support with a center post. One end of the beam would rest on the stone wall that supports the door end of the barn, and the opposite end would be supported by a short 6×6 post that rests on ledge.
The barn is very solid on its new foundation. The floor feels very stiff underfoot. I took careful measurements inside the barn and determined that the floor level varied by no more than 5/8″ around its perimeter—a big improvement over the 5″ variation before my work commenced!
By the end of my 2006 vacation, all that remained to be done was to install lattice work over the opening under the barn. That was accomplished in 2007. In 2008, I had the barn doors replaced and that end of the barn re-sided. In the meantime, construction of Justine was underway. More about that in future posts!
