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Colonial Barn

Barn Restoration Services

The average age of the buildings that we restore is around 150 years old. Our clients are stewards of antique works of art. These buildings have had many owners and, if maintained properly, will have many more owners. When an antique building is repaired, the repairs should be consistent with the original architectural details from when it was originally built.

For purists, we can supply antique timbers and barn board so that even the lumber that we use is the same age as the buildings we are repairing.

When we use new lumber we often get it milled by the same sort of sawmill as the original barn. The contrast of old and new wood is appealing. As the wood ages the area that was repaired becomes less and less apparent.

We are experts at cutting 'scarf joints'. These joints essentially make a timber longer. They enable us to repair just a portion of a timber, rather than repairing the whole thing. Some timbers in barns can be over 40' long. Repairing only the rotten portion leads to significant cost savings.

We know how to cut many different styles of scarfs. We always do our joinery in a style that is consistent with the original architecture of a building.

In a perfect world, we would use all recycled timber, use 100% mortise and tenon joinery, and use antique style nails to bang the boards on with. Unfortunately, that is not in every customer's budget. We are not such purists that we are against simple joinery and steel fasteners to get the job done. However, when we use metal fasteners we try to keep them out of sight. They are often buried in walls or hidden on tops of beams.

We love challenging structural repair projects. If there is one good wall standing with a decent foundation under it, we can fix it!