Unless you are a builder, professional building imploder, or have a special on some cable network, most men don’t get too many chances to demolish a building. I’ve been working on the old granary out in the pasture off an on since last fall. A lesser man may have found a match, but I have spent the time salvaging as much of the wood from the building as possible. The granary was probably dragged out to the pasture in the early 70’s and has been deteriorating ever since.
Some of the floor joists from the 2nd story floor are seen leaning against the fence. I
I’ve removed all the wide boards from the interior, all but three of the 2nd level floor joists and some of the supporting wall 2x4s. The building finally reached the point where it wasn’t safe to keep working on it.
So now decision time comes. How to get the building down safely and try to prevent as many of the wall studs and roof rafters from crushing? After a few days of walking around and in the granary and ruminating, I came upon a plan that required the tractor and a long chain. At the end of the day, the building fell just as I had planned – down.
Actually, it fell about as perfectly as I could have wished. First, I ran the chain around the bottom of the short wall on the north side and pulled the bottom of the wall out with the tractor. Next, I repeated the same step on the opposite short side and almost as the last wall stud was ripped out, the building leaned to the east – the east and west walls fell due east and the roof stayed intact and rested on the east wall and exposed the west wall.
Now I have a few weeks of additional salvage. I’ve got a plan for some of the wood, but that’s for another day.