Renovating Barns, Sheds & Outbuildings

by Nick Engler

Book Overview

From the foundation up, author/craftsman Nick Engler takes the reader through the process of renovating existing outbuildings. Step-by-step advice on how to square and strengthen the structure, enlarge or modify the building, repair or replace the roofing and siding, install new windows and doors, even add electricity and plumbing. Covers complete restoration techniques for frame, pole, post-and-beam, and masonry structures.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580172164
• ISBN13: 9781580172165
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Storey Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.5" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Fixing a wood building? Start here!

Having acquired a decent background on fixing the actual structure of a wood frame building from George Nash's great house books, this book takes and expands in detail just what/where/how you need to do to save a wooden building. I'm VERY glad to have found this book before my starting the "Save The Barn' project. This book has shown me that 'just some 20t bottle jacks' aren't going to cut it for what I need to do. Lots of timber pieces are going to be needed for blocking and to prevent shifting once the sagging beams are put back into place, and the foundation repaired. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

The Best

Wow, I couldn't believe this book when I got it. It is the best book I've ever seen when it comes to explaining all the forces acting on barns and how to counteract them. This a book that really explains the concepts behind the fixes. Illustrations are great. There are some advanced methods of fixing barns that are good to know but I'm not sure I could handle them, it's great to know about them.

agree with Donald 110%

I never write reviews, but this book deserves one. I read Donald's review and thought to myself "That describes every phase of the project I'll be taking on at my own barn". So I picked up the book, read/studied all 240 pages over a weekend, and took my original project plan and enhanced it in multiple ways. You can piece this information together with hours and hours of research (that's what I had been doing up until this point), or you can get this book. Clear explanations, excellent illustrations, and Nick Engler's writing style is just generally easy/fast to read.

SIMPLE STEPS TO STRAIGHTEN YOUR BARN

Excellent book on how to tackle serious structural deficiencies of your barn from foundation up to the roof.I think you could use this usefull information on other types of buildings such as older homes and garages.In fact this book will show you how to replace rotted out logs in a log cabin.Many simple pictures and diagrams on how to get it done.Also good basics on how to run water and electric utilities once you square up your building.

not more architectual fluff

if you are looking for good, solid, usable information on restoring old barns and the mechanics of their structure, this book is the bible on it. quite detailed and good instructions. the author doesn't just tell you it can be done, but how to do it as well. this book won't help trendy city folk, with no building skills, pick out carpet samples for turning a barn into a home, but it is the number one resource on the structure of barns and making them solid and usable again before changing their purpose. I highly recommend this book.

The best book on renovating barns!

It's easy to say that this is the best book on renovating barns - it's the only one that I know of. But, this book is very, very good. I'm lucky enough to be able to spend much of my time designing new barns and helping clients restore old ones. I'm amazed and embarrassed by how much I learned from this book. Nick Engler presents a good primer on barn design, and then goes to work, explaining in detail how to repair each and every common problem with old barns. If your barn is leaning, if the stone foundation is buckled, if your pole-barn posts are rotting, if your timbers have splintered, if your roof sways, you'll learn what to do to fix the problem and to keep it from happening again.