Plans for a Small Barn
(Page 3 of 5)
March/April 1970
By Ed Robinson
In laying out the barn, which was to be 16 x 30 feet, I measured 16 feet one way, then 30 feet along the south side, 16 along the west end and 30 feet along the back. I connected the stakes with string and started to dig. That, it turned out later, was where I made my first mistake. I forgot, or rather didn't know, one important thing. I should have measured diagonally across corners to see if the measurements were the same. By not doing so, I wound up with a paralleogram instead of a rectangle. Not a noticeable one, but I was off about eight inches.
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The foot-wide ditch I dug through stone and roots (there was very little soil as I well remember) to a depth of about two feet which is below frost level in our part of the country.
The next step was building the wooden forms into which concrete for the footing and the foundation wall was poured.
Cement—Ready-Mixed!
We ducked the laborious job of mixing gravel and cement and water to make the concrete; we simply ordered the cement ready-mixed just as a professional builder does. Ready-mixed cement delivered to the job costs little more than the materials and this is the best way to buy it when you are using a yard or more, the minimum amount usually delivered.
Before the cement stiffened in the forms we sunk about a dozen half-inch, foot-long iron bolts upright to use later to anchor the 4 x 4 sill to the foundation. If you have the bolts on hand it is a simple matter for the man who brings your cement to place these for you.
In two days the cement had hardened so we could take off the forms, but inasmuch as we couldn't do any more cement pouring until the next Saturday, we spent evenings tossing in stones to bring the ground inside the foundation up to within 6 inches of where the top of the floor was to be. Three of the six inches were filled with cinders.
On Saturday we were ready for the floor. The cinders were raked level and the sloping form for the dairy gutter was braced in place. The concrete floor was poured in three sections. The fellow who brought the concrete showed us how to lay two 12 foot 2 x 4's just inside the concrete foundation but three inches down from the top. Concrete was poured and the top of these 2 x 4's used as a guide for another 15 foot 2 x 4 which we sawed back and forth leveling the cement. This is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. We used wooden trowels to smooth off the top surface because we didn't want it as slick as you can make cement with a steel trowel.
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