The Grumpy Old Timberframer from Carolina Timberworks is back with a few thoughts about bosses. You don’t want to miss this one.
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Interviewing a Timber Frame Company
Ask someone who builds timber frames for a living what makes their company different, and you’re likely to hear some variation on the theme of high quality, responsive service, and talented people.
Their answer may be truthful, but if you want to build a timber frame, you haven’t learned what you need to know to make an informed decision.
So, how exactly do you do that? Ask better questions, listen carefully, and interview like a pro.
Here are some tips from newspaper reporters and the FBI about how to interview people (after all, they do this for a living):
Just like building a timber frame, start with the foundation
There may be no such thing as a stupid question, but some are a lot better than others. It can be helpful to play “let’s pretend”. So, pretend for a moment you have a superpower—any question you ask will be answered. What questions would you like to know the answers to?
As you develop your questions, start by asking yourself what you want to achieve. For example, are you looking for a solution to a particular problem? Are you looking to uncover something? Are you looking for a better understanding? Decided to build a timber frame, but trying to choose between 2 or 3 apparently equally qualified timber frame subcontractors?
Typically, you’ll want to uncover:
- Can they do the work?
- Will they do it when you want it done?
- Can they do it for the investment you’re willing to make?
- What would it be like to work with this firm?
- Is this timber frame company the best fit, or not?
- What could possibly go wrong?
Not familiar with some of the timber framing terms mentioned by your potential timber framer? Visit our Timber Frame Glossary for detailed explanations.
Get comfortable asking questions
You have a right to ask questions—you’re about to write a big check. Furthermore, you have a responsibility to ask questions—if you don’t ask the right questions and bad things happen, you have only yourself to blame.
(Not everyone has to like what you ask. You’re on safe ground as long as your intention and purpose for asking the question comes from a good place. )
Visit their shop and use your powers of observation
Use the part of your brain that has evolved over tens of thousands of years to sense and observe the environment. Do people seem to like working there? Is the phone ringing? Do the other employees avert their eyes when you pass? Notice cigarette butts or litter as you step out of your car? Is the place generally organized or not? Tension in the air? Do you see anyone you would be uncomfortable with in your home?
Ask non-leading questions
A leading question implies its own answer and subtly prompts the respondent how to answer. You’ll learn more if you try not to give clues about how you feel or think about something.
If you were to build a timber frame home, what wood would you choose?
vs
Oak shrinks a lot, correct?
In general, ask open-ended questions
An open-ended question is one that can’t be answered yes or no or by a limited set of possible answers. They encourage the respondent to talk thereby providing you the opportunity to learn things you wouldn’t otherwise.
What are you most proud of about your company and why?
vs
What are your company’s strengths?
What Questions Should You Ask Your Timber Frame Company?
- What are the challenges you see in our project?
- If we ask for references from recently completed jobs, how would that process work?
- Are you a member of the Timber Framers Guild? (if so, why? If not, why not?)
- I don’t suppose your firm is currently in litigation with anyone?
- We have to stick to our budget. How do we know the timber frame won’t end up costing more?
- Are the people who work here employees or subcontractors?
- Are there any outstanding tax liens or judgments against the company, or the owner(s)?
- Have you ever had an unhappy client? If so, would you share what happened?
- What’s your process for handling changes?
- What’s not included in your price?
- How often will the business owner check in on my project?
- How do we resolve any disagreements?
- May I see your certificates of general liability and workers comp insurance?
- Who would be overseeing my project? May I meet her?
- What’s the best thing that’s happened to your company this year?
- Is your firm licensed to do business in my state?
- How long have you been in business?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20 percent of small businesses fail within their first year. By the end of their fifth year, roughly half of small businesses fail. After that, only about one in three small businesses get to the 10-year mark and live to tell the tale. After that, survival rates flatten out. Businesses fail in good times and bad, and to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, it happens gradually, then suddenly. Consider for a moment what would happen to the money you’d paid to date, were you in the middle of building a timber frame home and the timber frame manufacturer abruptly ceased operations and stopped returning your calls.
The New Carbon Architecture: Our Book Review
Architecture that heals the planet? Buildings that pull carbon out of the sky?
Can buildings be part of the climate solution? Bruce King thinks so, and shows us how we can soak up carbon from the atmosphere as we create beautiful buildings that showcase nature’s palette. The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate offers an inspiring approach to shaping our built environment as it seeks to answer a relatively complex question: How can we transform our buildings from climate villains into climate champions?
It is apparent that the author cares deeply about sustainable development, and hopes that we do too. But King does not moralize to us, and readers will enjoy his thoughtful and optimistic proposal for addressing climate change by converting carbon emissions into carbon storage. And it’s also an approachable book: a quick read that provides solutions-based approaches, with a ‘we can do it together’ spirit, because after all, this book is a collaborative project, one that seeks and provides the expertise of many leaders in the field.
Without a doubt, this is a very timely and important book for the building industry– for at least two very good reasons. One, we must cut carbon emissions or face irreversible consequences, and two, “constructing and operating buildings accounts for nearly half of all US energy consumption and fossil fuel emissions”. The good news is that we are already doing a better job of reducing the carbon emissions associated with operating our buildings. We’ve made and will continue to make steady progress in energy efficiency for the operation of our buildings, but King argues that we need to take a holistic approach here as we count carbon, and that our definition of a carbon-neutral building could use some updating. So, what might we be overlooking?
First, King lays out the facts. He explains that the embodied energy used in the construction process – the carbon emissions resulting from manufacturing and transporting building products, coupled with the construction process – is usually being ignored in the green building community, though very soon these will represent over 50% of the carbon emissions produced in the life-cycle of a building. Therefore, our big opportunity as architects, engineers and builders is to address how we can achieve a truly carbon-free building environment by setting our sights on a real NetZero standard. Yes, we need to face the fact that our standard of green building is not nearly as green as we think it is.
But we can do it – King posits that by taking a little inspiration from nature, we can use what’s already available to us in our natural environment to employ carbon-sequestering practices as we design our buildings; we can have everything and the carbon sink.
So, how do we get there? First, King explains that we can make smart substitutions and replacements to our current materials palette– instead of using concrete and steel, use wood. Instead of spray-foam insultation, consider using bonded plant fiber insulation systems. We can further develop low-carbon concrete alternatives, and we can even use the plastic in our oceans to make building blocks! King provokes our thinking by asking us to consider natural materials, and inspires us to apply our amazing human minds to creatively re-consider the materials we currently use to construct our buildings. Can we use natural clay concrete instead of Portland cement? Have we forgotten that innumerable building projects in our human past – such as the Great Wall of China and the Pantheon- were built with forms of clay concrete?
In chapter four, King offers perhaps his most compelling argument – that we can achieve a real NetZero standard in embodied energy by designing and building mid-rise buildings with wood – and specifically, by using mass timber construction. And there’s no need to wait, we can start doing this right away. And why should this be cause for celebration? Because typical timber captures 742 kilograms of atmospheric CO2 per cubic meter, whereas concrete emits 410 kg per cubic meter. Moreover, wood is one of the only renewable building resources while concrete and steel are not, though Jason Grant’s essay reminds us that in order to reap the full benefits of carbon-sequestration, we must also demand wood from sustainably harvested and certified forestry.
The mass timber solution offers a new way to build large and tall wood buildings – up to 20 stories – ostensibly providing the global building sector with a realistic path to meeting the COP21 (2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference) targets of carbon-free by the year 2050.
What else can we do? We can renovate existing buildings – instead of building new, because far less energy is required to renovate than to build new. We can use agricultural byproducts in construction, such as straw. And we can take a closer look at the health benefits of using natural materials while building beautiful spaces.
Above all, The New Carbon Architecture should be seen as a collaborative effort, of international scope, that provides an open forum for an evolving exploration of sustainable development. While this book is geared towards inspiring change in the construction industry, it is equally significant for those of us who wish to learn more about the relationship between our built environment and climate change. Can we have a win-win situation for the planet and our built environment? After reading King’s book, we think so.
(More about the author: Bruce King is a structural engineer and the founder and director of the Ecological Building Network (EBNet), an organization dedicated to developing and promoting low-carbon buildings. We met him when he presented at a Timber Framer’s Guild conference.)
Mass Timber Construction: Why Is It Important?
Did you know that mid-rise and high-rise buildings can now be built out of wood? Mass timber is quickly gaining momentum as a viable alternative to traditional construction methods.
What is mass timber and what is it made of?
Mass timber is an emerging building typology that replaces steel, masonry, and concrete with wood. With mass timber, architects and engineers can pursue sustainable construction, warmer aesthetics, and remarkable improvements in construction efficiency.
Although mass timber is a relatively new category, it already features a wide variety of products. Below, we’ll cover nail-laminated timber, glued-laminated timber, dowel-laminated timber, and the mass timber product gaining the most traction: cross-laminated timber.
What’s the big deal with mass timber?
Because of the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere and reverse climate change, these benefits are plausible due to two key facts about construction:
- First, carbon emissions from the building industry account for approximately 40% of global carbon emissions.
- Second, the manufacture of concrete and steel contributes about 10% of current global carbon emissions.
Andrew Ruff of Connecticut-based Gray Organschi Architecture explains, “If you look 30 years down the road to 2050, we’re projected to have 2.3 billion new urban dwellers. That is a huge amount of construction. Every day that goes by that we don’t convert from mineral-based extractive construction techniques to carbon sequestering building systems, we tend to dig ourselves further in a hole” (Yale Environment 360: As Mass Timber Takes Off, How Green is this New Building Material?, April 2019).
Conversely, using wood in mass timber building actually removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Scientists refer to the process as carbon sequestration, but we like to think of wood as a carbon sponge. A tree is nature’s solar-powered CO2 storage machine, until the day it dies. Then, if left to rot—whether in a forest or landfill, or the wood burned—the sponge is wrung out and the CO2 returned to the atmosphere.
Here’s where it gets interesting: take that same wood and keep it dry, as part of a building in the form of mass timber—whether a timber frame, glulam trusses, or cross-laminated timber walls and floors—and it will last indefinitely. Hundreds of years. Longer than concrete.
Mass timber is part of the solution to our climate change problem.
What to Know About Mass Timber
The term mass timber might be confusing to some of us. First things first – a mass timber definition: the term mass timber refers to a building typology—a way in which the building itself is made of large, solid wood structural pieces for wall, floor, and roof construction.
What is Mass Timber Made Of?
As large solid pieces of timber become more expensive to source, mass timber is being fabricated using many smaller individual pieces of wood—literally tons of wood go into the making of these manufactured structural pieces. With mass timber, the large engineered wood structures of a building are made entirely of wood—usually the beams, columns, arches, floors and roofs—and fabricated offsite to engineered specifications.
Hence, the term mass refers to the large, solid components, and the term timber refers to a solid or manufactured wood product.
What is a Mass Timber Building?
One more thing that might help – the criterion to define a mass timber building is as follows: If the primary load-bearing structure is made of either engineered or solid wood, we can call it a mass-timber building. If the building uses mass timber as an accent and not as a primary structural element, then it is not mass timber. (Construction Dive: Mass Timber 101: Understanding the Emerging Building, May 2017)
Advantages of Mass Timber
- Faster and Cheaper Construction: Because mass timber is fabricated and sometimes even assembled offsite, it allows for a more efficient and more cost-effective construction process.
- Improved Fire and Earthquake Safety: In contrast to stick-built structures, mass timber buildings are more fire resistant—largely due to the larger, heavier, and more compressed timber.
- Reduced Emissions: Steel and concrete are highly embodied building materials—meaning they produce a tremendous amount of carbon emissions. Mass timber is made from wood, which is a carbon sink and a renewable resource.
Types of Mass Timber Systems
- Post and Beam: With its vertical posts and horizontal beams, post and beam construction is ideal for buildings with open interior spaces. Although it’s related to timber framing, post and beam uses metal connectors and fasteners.
- Floor and Wall: Mass timber can completely replace steel and concrete to form floors and walls of mid- and high-rise buildings. Floor and wall systems often use a honeycomb structure to manage vertical and lateral loads.
- Hybrid Systems: In addition to timber, hybrid systems include materials like concrete and steel. With hybrid systems, you can choose the best material for the job while still enjoying the benefits of mass timber.
What are the most common timber products?
Sawn Solid Timber (timber framing, post & beam construction)
Traditional timber framing is the more than 2,000 year old building method (some would argue it’s an art) of connecting two or more pieces of timber using wood-to-wood joinery. Prior to the discovery of metal, this is how timber posts and beams were connected to frame the homes, barns, and businesses our ancestors lived and worked in. Held together without nails, bolts, or metal connectors—timber frames tend to withstand the test of time—many with a lifespan measured in centuries instead of decades.
What is a timber frame? Learn more.
What’s the difference between timber frame and post and beam construction? Learn more.
Glue-laminated Timber (glulam)
Glued laminated timber (glulam) is an engineered wood product made by laminating smaller pieces of solid lumber together with moisture-resistant adhesives into a single, usually large and very strong, structural member. These large structural members are used to create vertical columns, horizontal beams and floors, as well as curved arches.
Glulam technology allows architects to design bold curved shapes, in a range of wood species and appearances. And because of their strength and stiffness, glulam timbers can be used to create beams and arches that span large distances—up to 300 feet—without using supporting columns.
Cross-laminated Timber (CLT)
CLT was first developed in Germany and Austria in the early 1990s in response to an increasing shortage of old-growth timber. A CLT is a large, prefabricated, engineered solid-wood panel commonly used for long spans in walls, floors, and roofs. Finished panels are typically 2 to 10 feet wide, with lengths up to 70 feet and thicknesses up to 20 inches. They are light-weight and very strong, with superior acoustic, fire, seismic, and thermal performance.
CLT’s are manufactured by combining layers of lumber boards which are stacked in alternating directions, then bonded with structural adhesives, and finally pressed together to form a solid rectangular panel. CLT’s are fast and easy to install, and because they are engineered and fabricated offsite, do not generate any waste at the jobsite. As an alternative to traditional concrete and steel, CLT’s are eco-friendly, offer increased design flexibility, provide better thermal insulation, and lower construction costs due to prefabrication. Did we mention that they are beautiful to look at?
Nail-laminated Timber (NLT)
Nail-laminated timber (NLT). NLT has been around for more than a century, and used to be known as heavy timber or mill decking. To create an NLT, you simply stack layers of dimensional lumber on end and fasten them together with nails or screws. NLT is commonly used in floors and roofs as a valid substitute for concrete slabs and steel decking, with the added benefit of creating a unique, exposed wood aesthetic.
Whereas CLT is a newer technology in North America, and not always fully understood by building inspectors, NLT works well for simple spans—it’s also less expensive, and is firmly accepted in the building codes. The downside? Your saw is not going to be happy if you have to cut openings in NLT panels.
Dowel-laminated Timber (DLT) (no glue, no nails)
Dowel-laminated timber (DLT). The same as NLT, except instead of using glue or nails to fasten the lumber, wooden dowels are used. A major benefit is the lack of off-gassing from adhesives.
Why invest in mass timber?
Besides offering a low-carbon alternative to traditional building technology, the exposed wood interiors in mass timber buildings are warmer than other materials and far more aesthetically pleasing that concrete and steel. People love them, and literally want to hug the wooden interiors. This is because there’s still no other building material quite as warm and welcoming as wood.
In addition to the calming psychological effects of living in a wooden building, there are the physiological benefits. The buildings actually smell of wood, usually pine and spruce.
One last reason might convince you to consider CLT—the business case—developers and builders using mass timber are getting a lot of attention.
If you are getting really inspired about wood buildings, we recommend watching Michael Green’s TedTalk on “Why we should build wooden skyscrapers”
Carolina Timberworks is proud to design, fabricate, and install timber framing, glulams, and CLT panels anywhere in the United States, starting in our home of North Carolina. Send us a message or call us at 828-266-9663 to learn more.
Inquiries
Architect Contact
Curious about how buildings can be part of the solution to climate change? Read our review of Bruce King’s book, The New Carbon Architecture.
From raw timber to complete structures, see timber framing in action
Biggest Horse Barn in the US
No, they won’t let you live there.
This video generated lots of interest and questions in online discussions. Kaitlin Mitton did a great job answering the most-asked questions on Horse Collaborative (now Horse Network):
- This is in Wellington, Florida.
- It is the home barn of a professional polo team.
- Yes there is a state-of-the-art sprinkler system and fire extinguishers.
- Polo players don’t need arenas to ride in.
- These horses are happy, healthy, and very well loved.
- They also host tournaments and polo matches as well as entertain at this facility.
- This facility is owned by a very well respected and charitable equestrian family in the polo and hunter jumper world.
Barn specifications for the largest horse barn in the US:
- Total square footage under the roof of the entire building: 78,000 sqft
- Total square footage of horse barn area: 62,267 sqft
- 130 stalls
- 10 tack rooms
- Custom Aquatrainer Equestrian aquatic rehab treadmill and cold soak therapy area
- Equine Veterinarian Area
- Two commercial-grade laundry rooms
- Two Feed Storage Rooms
- Four Interior Wash/Tack Stalls
- Eight exterior wash stalls (6 to 8 horse capacity in each)
- 4,800 sqft Central Courtyard with Banyan trees
- Eastern White Pine Timber Frame Trusses, Hand-Hewn by Adze
Attached functions:
South Wing
Private Owner’s Suite
Guest and entertaining Areas
Catering kitchen
Argentine Asado Grilling Area
Three Sided Fireplace
Wine room
North Wing
Three bedroom “Pro’s” Living Quarters
1,300 sqft gym with physical therapy room
Use: Equestrian center for a professional polo team
Location: Wellington, Florida
Copyright 2015 Carolina Timberworks, All Rights Reserved
Ready to be blown away by timber framing craftsmanship? Watch now
Video tour of Carolina Timberworks’ Timber Frame Shop
On Schedule and in less than 7 months.
It turned out better than we expected. For example, you can’t really be in the building anywhere without having a visual connection to the outdoors.
We’d love to show it to you in person. Give us a call at 828-266-9663 to schedule a visit.
Building a Custom Timber Frame Home: The Process
The custom timber frame home building process starts with a dream. The Owners find the right architect, who then defines the dream. Their builder manifests the dream.
In what we think is our best video yet, dreams become reality one step at a time.
A Pursley Dixon Architecture English inspired summer retreat perches proudly on a mountainside. This sanctuary, consisting of multiple porches and balconies along with linear room arrangements, ensures breathtaking views of the National Forest and beyond.
From a timber framer’s perspective, it’s a work of art: A majestic cantilevered terrace supported by massive timber brackets and impossibly slender cantilevered joists..made possible by engineered structural steel artfully concealed inside Western Red Cedar timber framing. Supported by pairs of 9′ tall brackets, the timber deck joists taper gracefully to impossibly slender profiles as they reach further and further out over the gorge–making those not privy to the secret ask, “how did they do that?”
General contractor: Paradigm Custom Home Builders.
Roof thatcher: William P. Cahill
Music written and produced by Paul Defiglia | Performed by Mickela Mallozzi.
The Custom Home Building Process: Dream
- Something inspires the Owner(s) to build something.
- Owner(s) then looks for an architect.
- Something makes the Owner(s) confident in their choice of architect.
Definition
- Architect identifies their program–the Owners’ lifestyle, personality, and budget.
- What it’s really about: great architects put their ego aside and design something that is a “total reflection of homeowner’s personality and lifestyle.”
Manifestation
- How to choose a builder: his or her custom home building process.
- Builder builds. Builder takes 2D architectural drawings and turns them into 3D reality.
Barns for Sale
Sadly, the age of antique timber frame barns is drawing to a close. Put simply, time, the elements, and neglect are hard on old barns. There are lots of barns for sale, but most aren’t worth saving.
At North Carolina-based Carolina Timberworks, we usually have a couple of antique timber frame barns in inventory that we couldn’t resist buying an old barn for sale. And we’ve also built brand new timber frame barns using traditional methods.
Why all the fuss about old fashioned barns? Perhaps Tedd Benson said it best when he opened a timber framing talk with these two words:
Barns resonate.
Tedd Benson
Let’s look at how old wood barns create memorable experiences—and how you can build or refurbish one of your own.
What Is a Timber Frame Barn?
A timber frame barn is a large structure built using traditional timber framing methods for agricultural and storage purposes. Well, at least that’s how they were historically used.
These days, some traditional barns have taken on new lives as gathering spaces or entertainment venues. No matter their function, however, timber frame barns are built to last—often for generations.
Timber Frame Antique Barns vs. Conventional Barns: What’s the Difference?
Known as stick framing, the conventional method of barn building requires minimal skilled labor. When you build a barn with stick framing, you build with smaller pieces of wood—typically 2x4s or 2x6s. Then you assemble the pieces with screws, nails, or other metal hardware.
To build a timber frame barn that has ample open space, you start with lots of heavy timber (mere 2x4s could never do this kind of job). Then you connect the pieces of the frame using traditional joinery methods, such as mortise and tenon.
What about post and beam barns? Aside from the joinery, they’re pretty similar to timber frame barns. Post and beam barns typically use heavy timber connected by exposed metal fasteners and steel plates, as opposed to the traditional wooden-pegged joinery in a timber frame barn.
Want to learn more about the timber elements that make this barn unique? Check out our Timber Frame Glossary for insights into key timber framing terms.
4 Traditional Barn Styles You Should Know
Whether you’re on the hunt for the perfect antique barn or you’re planning to build a brand new s barn, you’ll want to get familiar with the most common styles. Here are four to consider:
- Think of a classic barn. What kind of image do you see? There’s a good chance it’s a gambrel barn, which most closely fits the typical “classic barn” definition. This type of barn also has great storage space, thanks to its double-sloped gambrel roof.
- Another timeless style, a gable barn has a pointed roof that looks a bit like the letter A. It also features that classic barn aesthetic but generally has a bit less storage space than a gambrel barn.
- Bank barns are two-level structures built right into a hill—or a bank. The design gives you access to two levels. The main entrance at the bottom of the hill leads to the first floor, while the second-floor entrance opens to the top of the hill.
- Saltbox barns have slanted roofs and eye-catching asymmetrical profiles. You’re most likely to spot these unique designs in New England.
Barn accessories give all these styles added functionality. For example, swinging or sliding barn doors can completely transform the entrance and change the space.
Barn windows can determine light levels and define both interior and exterior aesthetics. To complete the exterior, add an original touch with a cupola or a weathervane.
Creative Uses for Timber Frame Barns
You don’t have to own a working farm to find a good use for a timber frame barn. There are countless creative ways to enjoy a new or antique barn:
- How about a timber frame party barn? This type of structure can add rustic charm to any event you host, and it’s especially popular for weddings. Did you know? Even Carolina Timberworks’ very own Eric Morley got married in a timber frame barn.
- Do you have a lot of equipment to store? A timber frame barn doubles as an oversize shed and provides ample storage space.
- Are you ready to move your workshop out of the garage or basement and into a dedicated space? If you’re a fan of building or repairing things, a barn can easily become a workspace. In a big timber shed like this, you’ll have plenty of room for tools, equipment, and much more.
- Do you want to bring a barn-inspired aesthetic into your living space? Using a timber frame barn as a cabin, bunkhouse, or carriage house is a wonderful way to capture the rustic appeal of this structure.
Do you own horses? Old wooden barns are perfect for creating a safe, comfortable space for horses—and these structures can come in a range of sizes to meet your needs.
It doesn’t seem too great a leap to assume that some of our ancestors who built the great halls and cathedrals of the Middle Ages would also be charged with constructing the other great buildings of the era (barns).
Perhaps then, it’s not surprising to note how both the size and aisles of barns evoke the space and shape of a cathedral:
Fast forward a few hundred years, and it makes sense that immigrants to the United States would bring those skills to bear on the barns (and houses) they built on the shores and prairies of a new land.
With their wide-open spaces, soaring ceilings and weathered wood, antique post-and-beam barns of centuries past are being reborn.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
So What Can You Do With Old Barns for Sale?
Barn projects, like their owners, vary widely…
Wedding and Event Venue Barns for Sale
Party Barns
Barn Conversions
Two of Our Favorite Old Barns
All the beautiful projects above began life as old barns, much like the two structures below. There’s a certain logic to the idea that the best barns were built on the most fertile land–the idea being that these farmers were the most successful financially, and therefore had the means to build unusually nice barns (usually timber framed as opposed to nailed or bolted together).
Although we don’t have these two used barns for sale any longer, we would be happy to discuss an antique barn project with you. Have one in mind? Tell us about it, and we’ll keep an eye out for a specific size barn for you. Or talk with us about our custom timber frame barns and learn how an old style barn could create an experience that’s just as memorable.
Lancaster Barn: 26′ x 38′ 4″
Cooper Road Barn: 40′ x 60′
Who Buys Old Barns?
The allure of antique barns attracts a diverse group of enthusiasts and professionals:
- Homeowners seeking a property with rustic charm
- Architects and builders looking for authentic, aged timber for unique construction projects
- Collectors passionate about preserving historical structures
Many buy old barns both because of the structure and the stories and heritage they embody.
How Much Do Old Barns Sell For?
Old barns can vary greatly in cost, depending on size and condition. On average, a small barn of 30 by 30 feet or less in reasonable condition can cost around $10,000. This cost does not include the dismantling, packaging, and shipping of the barn and its materials.
Barn wood and vintage hardware can also be valuable, but the prices vary widely depending on the species and quality of the wood. Values can reach $50,000+. Old-growth barn timbers do not have a definitive value; their worth is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay.
From the aesthetic to the experience, we’re big fans of timber frame barns here at Carolina Timberworks. In fact, we’ve even refurbished a number antique barns and built “brand-new old barns”. Take a look at a few of our favorite timber frame barns in and around North Carolina, learn more about timber frame barn homes, and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have a project in mind. We’re nice!
Pondering an antique barn project?
Call us at 828.266.9663 (we’re nice!) or email below: