A Booming Barn-Board Business

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You'll find some folks who assume that a room paneled with weathered boards will have—or will attract—bugs. But we know of many such rooms all around the country, and we've never heard of any unusual insect problem. Of course, common sense, in the form of giving your boards a careful inspection, should prevail. We check out every building for possible problems before we strike an agreement with the owner. Termites and other wood borers will leave little piles of sawdust to announce their presence (see "Where's Your Wood", on page 186 of MOTHER NO. 66, for information on how to spot such pests), and we simply won't deal with any structure that shows signs of insect infestation.

Usually, however, you'll find that the sun and wind have taken care of bug problems for you. Dry timber is safe against most forms of decay and deterioration, and even woodworms and fungi will rarely attack wood with a moisture content below 12%.

The main thing you have to watch out for is dry rot, a fungous decay that causes seasoned timber to become brittle and crumble to powder. This disease will usually be limited to boards that have come in contact with ground moisture, and such wood must be discarded. (A very conservative rule states that you should cut away an affected board at least 18inches beyond any signs of decay.) Luckily, most old-time barn carpenters seem to have kept the dry rot problem in mind when they constructed their outbuildings.

We usually wire-brush our wood before using it . . . or wash it down with a garden hose at full pressure and then let it dry thoroughly in the sun. If your boards are unusually dirty—or if you want immaculate lumber—scrub with a wire brush as you wash.

And, though it's not really necessary, you can preserve and bring out the luster of the beautiful old boards with a half-and-half mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine. It will sink right into the wood and—we think—has a very pleasant smell. (Such a treatment is particularly attractive when the lumber has remnants of an old paint job still on it.)

EXPERIMENT AT HOME

The best way to acquire "decorating" skill is to practice on your own abode. Each room is different, of course, and every person will have his or her own preference . . . but we usually nail our boards up vertically. Horizontal and diagonal alignments can, however, also produce interesting effects.

When doing a big room, we generally try to cover the entire wall—and sometimes even the ceiling—with barn wood. However, in smaller areas the paneling usually looks better when it's run to only three or four feet above the floor . . . and finished off, perhaps, with a matching shelf. To make molding or edging from aged wood, rip the boards into three-inch-wide strips. (If the original wall should show through where two pieces don't quite butt up snugly, solve the problem by spraying a strip of flat black paint on the area where you'll join two sections of molding.) "Antiques" nails—or the ones you've salvaged—can be used to give a room a totally rustic look.

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