The barn is probably 80 years old, plus or minus a decade. The siding is mostly poplar with some oak; the structure inside is mostly oak with some poplar and some modern pine (added in an abortive attempt at repair). Some of the siding has rotted, but most of it is sound. Some of the older siding is 20 inches or more wide. The interior structure is in good shape, but leans because of an inadequate foundation.
My plan is to have the old barn dismantled and to recycle as much of the wood as possible into flooring, siding, and paneling for the cabin I plan to build. But how to get that done and who to do it?
Googling "barn wood" and "old barn" located some helpful sites, such as www.old-barn-wood.com and www.oldbarnwoodsite.com. From these I figured out that the typical business model for the industry was "I'll remove your barn for free if I get to keep the wood." That's great, but not what I wanted, since I wanted to keep most or all of the wood. I also figured out from these sites that I needed to look for someone close by to do the work.
Not surprisingly, given the number of old barns in Kentucky, there are several companies in the barn wood business nearby. After talking to several of these, I finally located a guy who offers a "soup to nuts" service: he'll dismantle the barn, clean up the site, kiln dry the wood and mill it to my specifications. He came out and took a look at the barn, we negotiated on price and terms for a day or two, and reached an agreement. He'll dismantle the barn, I'll pay him a certain price per square foot for the finished wood I use, and he'll keep the remainder to use in whatever way he pleases. Seems like a fair deal to me.
If all goes well with the project, I'll post his name and contact info for anyone who might be interested.
My hope is that the barn will begin to come down next week. I'll post pictures as it comes down!
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