again I've been out and dug a hole (inside the barn) to try and establish how deep the footings run. I have put a photo and description on my web site (at the bottom) - I reckon they are 2' in total - I reckon this isn't enough? My structural engineer (who I haven't spoken to today) told me that underpinning (if that is what is required) is not such a bad job if you know who to ask - and needn't cost more than £3k for a project this size. Any thoughts/comments....? Thanks in advance.... Si
Hi Simon - what a nice project and well done on the pictures so far. Keep them coming please :)
The barn looks mid Victorian, with its King-post truss, secondary rafters and brick footings. There has been a little rafter spread by the look of it, and the tie bar was probably put in to arrest bulging walls, but again quite minor. There doesn't appear to be much structural damage due to foundation movement as far as I could see.
Why are you so concerned about the foundations? If you're not going to increase the loading on them at all I would say there's probably no need to do anything about them from what I can see from the pictures. But nobody here on this newsgroup can tell you whether they are adequate or not - this depends on the site conditions, e.g. soil type, its compressive and shear strength, moisture content, any trees close by, ground water level etc etc. Also, we have no idea whether you intend to increase the loading - even knocking openings can increase the loading locally. It seems you are getting excellent advice from your engineer - I would trust in what he says.
If it's of any interest, my house has even shallower footings than your barn, but as they're on solid chalk they are perfectly adequate.
Best take down all the walls if stone. Number the stones. build a nice strong foundation slab. Build a timber frame on it and the re-erect the walls. If brick or wood you have problems. Try the selfbuild list, they are the people to be with.
Hi Nick I'd planned to do just that - using some sort of insulated plasterboard - once the structure was fixed (roof included) - and electric, water and gas had been bought in. I keep hearing people talk about Celotex - am I correct in thinking this could be used to line the brick walls.....? Si
In principle, but I think you want to agree the mechanism with the BCO, and have it on the plans, and that might affect whether they want better foundations...
Yes. A barn is a large and expensive area to heat. You have the advantage of being able to have thick walls without any hindrance to the living area, and pack in insulation. Insert studs and have plasterboard over and pack between the studs and wall the insulation.
You're taking the piss, right? Do you have *any* idea how long this will take/how much it will cost? I've seen many barn conversions, but not a single one which had been taken down stone by stone, and put back in the same order.
There are some application notes which describe the different scenarios of use and exactly which material and the fixing method.
I used some with timber studding to line my single brick workshop as well as to insulate the roof. The results in terms of heat requirement are exactly as calculated.
This is a BCO discussion though, because there may be specific construction and ventilation requirements.
Maybe that's the way they do things on Planet IMM, but obviously time and money are not issues in that bizarre place. I've participated in a few barn conversions, many starting with a biulding in a worse state than the original poster's, but not one has involved removal and re-erection stone by stone in the original sequence. Not only would it take forever, but the cost would be astronomical. Utterly bonkers suggestion. From the posters website it would appear that the building has stood quite happily for at least 100 years, and has more substantial footings than my old house in Norfolk used to have. Without seeing the barn in the flesh, but based on the pictures, I'd reckon the most it would need is underpinning.
It's more than our 70 year old house has. You need to assess whether there's been any movement recently. If not, and if you're not intending to add to the load (by extending upwards for instance) then you won't need to touch the footings.
Cheaper and faster than underpinning an old barn that is for sure. SA high percentage of barns conversions are abandoned as the cost have escalated because of foundation problems.
Best way. Then you can budget properly and have the whole structure on one firm modern foundation.
If it did need to be knocked down, no one *on earth* would number all the stones and put them back in the same order. You clearly have no idea whatsoever what this would involve.
And the biggest mother "stone organiser", to store all your numbered stones in a sensible order, and a team of carrier mules to retrieve the stones for you in the correct order as you build ;-)
Look at the thread on this a week or so back. Someone doing just that. I have seen a barn built this way. basically a new build with the old walls clad around. Quite cheap and effective, and no throwing money down a deep foundation pit.
There is a whole world of difference between the two ideas you present in that statement.
The number of stones making up a 2' thick barn wall is hugely greater than the number of stones you need to clad a wall with a single layer - like 5 times greater.
If you did embark on the lunacy of manually dismantling a wall stone by stone and numbering the stones, just so that you can rebuild it in the same pattern, it would take a team of several people several weeks. Barns are just not knocked down this way, ever.
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