The only thing more attractive than an old barn frame is the Virginia countryside.

So, to finish up the story on this old frame…

We did safely jack the building up and we put proper supports under her. We then went ahead and applied all the stress skin panels and “dried the house in”. We declined the offer to finish the house. Another builder came in and finished the project up and proudly to this day brags of his skills at timber framing.

And the builder who originally put this frame up? He’s still in business, and I still get calls to come fix what he started… but now I decline them all over the phone.

Some may ask how do you find a good builder, and avoid the bad ones?

Well, don’t read any of those articles that start out with… “Ten steps to getting a good contractor”

Do spend time at building supply places and talk to the old guys behind the counter. Most of them know what is going on.

The county building inspector had taken a look at this structure (that another builder had put up) and promptly condemned the building site. He recommended that the building be taken down and then rebuilt correctly.

He placed a work stoppage on the house… the builder quit… and the owner fired the builder… I’m not certain of the exact order of these events, but that’s the story.

The building inspector said that he knew of one person who might be able to fix the situation and that would be… me.

I could have easily doubled the size of my company over the years just by taking on all the offers of repairing and completing the shoddy workmanship of others.

But, there is little satisfaction to be had from cleaning up messes.

I have also found that folks that have been done wrong can no longer trust a builder. It’s hard enough just restoring a home, without the burden of restoring anothers faith in humanity.

Here’s an antique timber frame barn that was being erected by another builder. That builder put this entire frame up with no structural support underneath it. The entire weight of this structure was bearing on nothing but plywood which was either between floor joists, or suspended beyond any joists.

It was amazing that this beautiful old barn frame was still standing and hadn’t made a quick trip to the basement.

Con’t on next post…