Historical Preservation

Circa 1870

Michigan, USA

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Built in the late 1800's this structure is a classic example of the venerable Michigan Barn.  Although its' crumbling foundation allowed the building to shift eighteen inches and the posts tilted out of plumb, the interior of the structure remained plumb and square.  Our challenge was to stabilize the structure, lift it off its' foundation, rotate it back into its' proper position, remove the damaged foundation and replace it with a new poured concrete wall.

This is an interior view of the basement.  Note the alarming tilt on the basement walls and posts.  Stacks of wooden blocking called cribs are being built in preparation for support steel.

The red beam in the picture is twenty-seven inches tall and ninety feet long.  It weighs ten thousand pounds and will serve as the base for supporting the thirty feet wide by ninety-two feet long barn.

A second layer of steel beams which are perpendicular to the first is being installed.  A total of ten of these will be used to support the two hundred thousand pound load.

The original ten inch wide by ten inch thick wooden sill beam had deteriorated into sawdust.  Our personnel constructed a new laminated sill beam and married it to the existing floor joist.

The barn has been lifted and the old foundation removed.  Our excavators removed seventy cubic yards of stone foundation and one hundred twenty yards of soil.  A new footing and poured concrete wall will be installed under the structure.

The structure has been rotated back to its' original location over the remaining foundation.  The basement walls have been plumbed in preparation for lowering.

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