My old farrowing barn went 100% out of use in 2020. I was in the middle of making the usual every couple of years repairs. Like milling new bats to cover the wall board gaps. LOL I needed a farrowing barn fast and built it from green, wet post oak 1x and 2x4s straight off the sawmill. Side to side shrinkage is REAL! There is a benefit to building with green wet lumber. As it shrinks it pulls everything together TIGHT. At some point between 2018-2020 one of the big wind storms blew the roof cap off to land somewhere in parts unknown. I never did find it LOL. So Since then I have gotten some wood rot in the peak boards. Still solid enough though to screw a new cap into. I must have missed a spongy spot in one the truss 2x4s It rotted out pretty good in middle. Going to fix it today by sistering over the entire end truss. So I am not going to do a Hog Breeding/Farrowing program anymore. More than a few pigs were born and raised up to survive on their own out on the pastures in that barn. somewhere around 3000 over the years. I spent more than a few nights helping with rough births in the barn as well. More than a few Chicken VS Sow Stand Offs went down in the outside area of the barn. I am probably going to get a Boar and 2 Sows or might just buy in 2-3 feeder pigs every spring and not have the cost of maintaining 3 breeders. But the days of 2 boars and 20 sows making 320 pigs every year has concluded. The barn despite appearance is rock solid and all post oak. LOL the Roof is scrap pieces of tin I scavenged and the whole thing has stood up to those 70-80mph spring wind storms we tend to get every spring since 2010 with only a few boards and the roof cap getting blown off. The trusses are bore hole with pegs pounded in and a few screws and nails to hold it together until the pegs and glue expanded and bonded tight. It takes a hell of a nail gun to drive nails through 2" thick post oak and even with a heavy duty nail gun more than a few nails deform and don't make it through. Pilot holes and long deck screws work great but very time consuming. Old School Joints, bores and pegs hold the tightest and best in the long run. Split pegs with a oak shim driven into the split are the absolute best. Aside from the storms... HOGS in particular 400-500 pound sows are HARD on a barn. Walls have to be able to take a 500 pounder flopping over against it over and over. Or when two get into a spat and slam into the walls while debating which on is right. Yep it is a damned tough little barn! Sooo it is going to be repurposed into a parking barn for the BX25 and the riding mowers and storage on the walls for garden tools, weed eaters, chainsaws etc. I cut the front out A LOT yesterday and need to buff up the post on either side of the opening and build a header over the top. Get some hinges and build a double swing door and get all of those bats milled and the wall gaps sealed up and yeah a new roof cap built or bought for it. And I might even put some rock down ontop of the very hard packed clay floor. I have old woven steel soft foot hog floors under about 6" of compacted clay that kept the Sows from rooting the whole thing out. Should make a nice parking shed for the next 40-50 years
One thing about having old sheds and barns ,, you can always find a use for them . Just wondering,, could ya predrill the holes on the new rafter scab and run screws into the old rafter ,, if there's enough solid material left to fasten to. Might save ya a few nails ,, or a broken driver in your nail gun . I've got a couple nail guns I need to replace the drivers in ,, just never got around to buying the parts. I might ought to do before the world goes flat to shit anyway.
Drivers and sealing material for when the nail guns blow the seals are good things to keep on hand is pounding nails with a hammer are dirty words to you The only rotten part is in that foot or so section. And it is only rotten on the bottom half of that section. I build really basic and simple trusses obviously I am just going to build another truss identical to that one and tack it up side by side with the original with screws and make a dozen bore holes and pound pegs through old truss and new and then screw them some more. I use a older Hitachi NR90AE Nail Gun running 180-200PSI and yes I blow the seals on it pretty regularly as it is only supposed to run a max of 120PSI, for driving through oak but it weighs 11 pounds fully loaded and gets heavy fast up on a ladder or scaffold! Can drive 2-21/2 inch nails through the 1x stuff with my much lighter dewalt at 100psi which is great for tacking the side boards up to drill pilot holes for screws. Nailing on the ends of oak is a bad idea, it just splits the ends like driving a wedge between the grains. And then there was that time I slipped and shot a nail through my pinky finger and firmly attached it to a feed bunk frame....... And couldn't reach the cutters to cut the head off the nail LOL. Mrs Krap finally heard me and came to assist and laughed her ass off at my predicament. And very worst case with a old barn or shed is it hits the end of its life and you have firewood!
