June 1, 2020
Editor’s note: This is the second story in a two-part series featuring timber-frame barns.
The cost to repair traditional timber-frame barns depends on the condition of the structure, changes sought, and the qualifications and integrity of the person doing the work. The longer repairs are delayed, the more expensive they become. Neglect routine maintenance, and a structure that might have been given a new life is lost.
Second to the question, “Is this barn worth saving?” is a barn owner’s quest for cash: “Where can I find grant money?”
Michigan has no programs for repairing privately owned barns. A handful of programs exist in other states — among them Ohio, Iowa and New York — with most operated by that state’s barn or historic preservation organization.
Barn Believers Community Project Fund, held by the Battle Creek Community Foundation, makes grants to nonprofit groups to assist with evaluating a barn for nonprofit use, to support educational events, and to preserve historical data and photos.
The Michigan Historic Preservation Network includes barns in survey work, while the Michigan Barn Preservation Network for more than two decades has made annual grants to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for its farmsteads.
“The unfortunate reality is Michigan just does not have the tools in place for widespread historic barn recognition and preservation that some other states such as Washington or Connecticut offer,” says Nathan Nietering with the State Historic Preservation Office. The tax credit option was dissolved in 2010. However, the Michigan Legislature is considering reinstating it.
Keeping a barn in ongoing, good repair is crucial to saving money and preserving future value. “One of the biggest problems, ” says Roger Bateson of RJ’s Complete Barn Restoration, Prescott, “is when gutters have not been maintained. Water that freezes and thaws causes problems for footings, foundations, and rots the siding up from the ground. Add a bad roof, tree roots, branches and vines that tear and eat up siding, and it is bad, bad news.”
Chad Stitt of American Heritage Barn Preservation, Onondaga, adds that foundations of old barns were made with what was available at the time. Repairing them today means using better mortar, re-rod, and the installation of footers where there may never have been any.
Make timely roof repairs
“The first manifestation of a barn going downhill is in the roof," points out Joe Miller of Fire Tower Engineered Timber, Calumet. “A little leak near the ridge or cupola rots a few boards, or a leak near an eave causes a plate to rot. You have to keep a good roof on a barn.”
Every barn is different. Each must be examined for layers of old roofing, and beneath that, the condition of the decking or framing. Both affect replacement cost, as does owners’ preferences in new materials.