tumbling down the barn

The question had been, should we cut the ell from the barn or the barn from the ell.  I chose the latter, which meant that the common wall between the barn and the ell would remain; it would not be pretty but we would not have to build a new exterior wall to the ell.  This would save us hundreds of dollars.

I began by drilling holes through the barn wall, above the roof line of the ell. (upper left photo).  I wanted to mark a line along which to cut, while being sure not to cut into the Ell roof.

Then I took the trusty sawz-all and cut with abandon.  The wood crumbled rather than cut, and my certainty increased that tearing down the barn was the right course.  Restoration of the barn was not only cost prohibitive, it was not possible.  The wood was rotted through.

My cuts were not pretty.  I chunked out pieces, cutting a wide swath, to ensure the barn would fall freely away from the ell.  We could not risk losing the ell along with the barn.

It didn’t take long – maybe two hours – to separate the two structures.  It took half that time to bring the barn down.

Our friend Russ brought over his excavator and chowed through the barn, the jaws of his machine chomping and ripping boards free.

Regretably, I had to leave to run an errand, and within an hour I returned to a void, where the barn had been.  I missed the grand whoosh when the barn collapsed into itself, crumbling down into a heap.

Before the demo I had been able to pull lots of decking and many beams.  I will be able to make a killer tree fort for our children, and we have gained a great addition to our lawn and garden.