Do you have anywhere in your home where you could use the wood to make a mantle or perhaps use some as flooring or ceiling beams? Or a unique coffee table or even a headboard? I hope you are able to use it - if so, how lucky for you!

You could get a school full of kids and make a ton of birdhouses ....

I just recently saw some very simple, but nice and rustic outdoor benches and table (like a outdoor coffee table) made from salvaged barn wood.

I like the sentiment of using the barn wood in your home, but I think your cousin might want to check with salvaged wood dealer before burning the wood.

Yeah, methinks he might be burning a couple kid's worth of college tuition...

My husband made a table out of barn flooring, which we used in the dining room for years. It received many compliments.

Yes in deed my hubby is a builder,we bought a farm some men came in and made offer for all the wood etc,over 2,000 we were paid just for barn,beams,fancy windows,people around here use barn siding as wainescoting in thier house ,valuable.

The barn wood may look unusable now but get someone with a wood planer and that stuff sells up to $9.00 a foot..I live in CA so not too many barns around any more .There is such a movement to be eco that people will pay a premium to save the environment.. I say tell your cousin that you will take it all..Google "Reclaimed Barn Wood" Then make this easy table ant sell ...

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.diningroomsdirect.com/asp/superbrowse.asp?clid=147&caid=&sku=FDL1157&PiID=3622222&refid=FR18-FDL1157_3622222

Use it as beadboard wainscoting in one of your rooms! It would fantastic -- and just give the whole room just a wonderful feeling of true history!

Yes indeed -- a plank wood table with cross-beams at each end -- plus benches! Again -- what a treasured family heirloom!

Or as wood counters in the kitchen? Or on a kitchen island?

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

Also if it's not too late take a picture of the barn before it's down so you can show from where all those beautiful things you end up with started from....

There is a HUGE market for salvaged/reclaimed antique barn wood, especially the beams. It would seriously be big money up in smoke if your cousin burns it!! Google it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Just one of many lumber salvage companies I Googled

My sister had a house once with barnwood paneling on the ceiling. It was gorgeous.

Well it has all been said...don't burn, recycle, many folks would be very interested. If you do sell, be sure to keep a small portion for yourself. Make something you can take with you if you ever move...headboard, dining table, coffee table, hutch, chest, etc. Be sure to get plenty of pictures before the barn comes down. Have fun!!!

I'm curious why if you're living on the farm your cousin is getting the wood? Okay, none of my business, sorry. I'm just thinking like others here that I wouldn't burn it. Around here it goes for big bucks to crafters and furniture builders. Gosh if we had a barn I'd be in business for ages making things from it. If it's planed it will look new if you don't care for the aged wood. And being it's a hundred years old the pieces will be thicker than you can get now. Probably even so after planing them!

If you're going to be using it in the house, treat it for termites first.

If I were lucky enough to have old barbboard, I would use it as molding along the ceilings, same as you would crown. In the corners I would butt up two pieces. To finish off, I would place a shorter piece extending from ceiling to corner piece, creating sort of a triangle. This sort of design is used in English Tudor homes, mainly on the exterior, but can be found on interiors as well. ;o)

Here is a link that might be useful: Timbers used on Old English home

DH helped a friend tear down a very old barn on his property. He gave DH a bunch of wood and he made a beautiful Morris chair out of it. The barn was made of oak. Friend floored his entire first level with the rest of it. Rustic, but absolutely beautiful.

Wish you could post a picture, can you?

I'd take a good photo of the barn, get it professionally enlarged, and frame it with the wood.
Don't let the guy burn it! What a waste, as well as polluting. I'm sure you can find a buyer, but if you're in a really remote location, make sure the buyer pays the shipping.

I just took a bunch of heart pine floor joists off my property to use as *something* else. But yes, people wanted to buy it - I had to take it to protect it from being stolen since 800 sq. ft. of antique heart pine flooring was already stolen off the job site!

My apartment looks like a salvage yard!

Wow, what a plethora of ideas!

Justgotabme, that's a good question! The barn is on the family farm where I live; my grandparents own the farm and my aunt, uncle and cousin also live on the property. So the barn is owned by my grandfather, but my cousin, who is actually in college, helps out & may take over the operations one day. (maybe.) So--my grandfather actually owns the barn--we don't! When he (my cousin) told me that they are planning to tear the barn down sometime soon, I told him under threat of bodily harm that I *had* to get some of it. My toddler son is the 5th generation on this farm!

This is interesting. My husband and I live in a 16-year old ranch house that my mother built on the farm, and I'm renovating it (slowly, surely) now and trying to 'age' it--to make it look more cottage-y, older, rural. One thing we had planned to do was to plank the kitchen ceiling (I don't know if that's a verb, but....). Using the old wood, if we can determine how best to treat it etc, would be fantastic.

Ideefix, I love that idea, too. :) Sentimental--and I love barn wood frames.

Patty_cakes--that idea really intrigues me. I wonder if we can try to do that here. I was thinking of putting a coffered ceiling in our dining area; maybe we could do that instead. I LOVE that thought.

I also love the idea of a table w/ crossbeams.

We are going to replace our kitchen counters in the next couple of years, and I had been thinking about using salvaged wood. I have NO idea how to make it work, though--if they are in planks. I suppose I might need to enlist the help of a professional. My husband is a little freaked out by the idea of salvaged wood in the kitchen. I don't know if that's hygienic or not! But I think it has great potential and could really transform our kitchen (which, right now, is suffering under beige linoleum).

I also like the idea of wainscoting.

My husband is not a woodworker, but he's clever with tools and could learn. I wonder if he'd be up for this challenge!

Where is the best place to store the wood? We have a tiny house with a full, unfinished basement and garage--I'm not sure where we should put it once the barn is down.

Maybe I will tell my grandfather that if my cousin tears it down, I'll pay him $250 for everything. :)

I'll try to find a photo! It's not a huge barn, but it's a pretty little thing! (red!) It does need to go--on our walk today I noticed how badly worn it seems to be.

You've been given a ton of great ideas! Here's one more. ;o)

Here is a link that might be useful: look at this!

I too live on the family farm (my kids are 6th generation, my great-great-grandpa bought the place 96 years ago though I wasn't raised here). My cousin owns the farmhouse and barns - I really wanted barnboard floors in the FR but my great-aunt died while we were building, my uncles inherited and it was such a mess with the estate (5 acres with the house that was all she had left - my great-uncle had sold off acreage to my uncles and me earlier) that I didn't even want to ask.

You'd be doing your grandfather a favor by finding a local place (check with flooring companies) that will come and tear the barn down and pay him for the wood - just tell him part of the deal is that they leave x sf for you. At first I thought your cousin lived there and was going to use it for a woodstove to heat the house, but even if that were the case he might be better off selling the barn and buying firewood. If he was just going to burn it to get rid of it, DON'T LET HIM!

Folks from all over have had wood counters for YEARS (LOL!) in all types of kitchens and workplaces (think about those old butcher shops, bakeries and other old stores and businesses)

Wood counters would need to be oiled or treated -- and could be sanded to remove stains (I think thats part of the charm!)

Jan

PLEASE SAVE THE WOOD!! You could keep it lying(on a tarp) outside, next to the house if you don't have room in the garage/basesment since it's already weathered. Don't store it standing vertically or it will bow and you'll have to straighten it. I would also water-proof/termite-proof while it's just setting. It will need to be dry for this, so you could take what you might need for a project indoors a couple of weeks beforehand. ;o)

You are in luck! Termites begin swarming in mid to late February through late March. This is the first visible evidence of termites, and is commonly mistaken as "flying ants". Soon after swarmers take flight, they shed their wings, leaving small piles of wings behind. So if you miss the swarm, you can look for the discarded wings.

Wonder if you could strike a deal with a barnwood furniture maker?
He gets the wood in exchange for making a keepsake piece of furniture for each branch of the family.

I wanted to jump in and say how much I love this thread!! We put an addition on our barn last fall and we plan on putting new siding on it (aluminum, probably) within the next year. We will probably pull off all the old wood and I hadn't thought of all these great ideas for using it! Our basement still needs a ceiling (I really want tin, but not in the budget) and I like the idea of using the barn wood. I've seen barn wood used as wainscoting and I really like that look. Old roofing tin that has aged is really cool for wainscoting, too (a local furniture store did that).

I took down a barn, wasn't really "old" ... from the 1960's. Listed the old metal roofing on Freecycle, and gave that away.

My neighbor and I have been slowly using the useable wood for many different projects ... it was a horse barn and some of the wood was really not useable.

I use some of it to repair my other barn, adn other buildings. We used some of the wood to make a road-side plant stand .... new barn door, etc.

I have the wood stacked out by where the barn stood, with cross pieces separating the different levels in the stack.

Some more great ideas given here ...

Any barn doors? I have a little pantry in my house plans which are covered by barn doors --- the trick is finding real barn doors! You are so lucky to have this resource at your fingertips! I've been pricing beams for a big room also (about 20') long and they are expensive --- you've got the real deal!

Lucky you!

Wow, such good ideas! I will have to check out a few links when I have more time! I did have a tete-a-tete online w/ my cousin about this yesterday. He is actually planning to reuse some of the barn wood anyhow (the 'best' pieces), presumably in another application on the farm--there are lots of other buildings, and this is what farmers do--recycle, reuse!! :)

He says some of it is not very good, but I'm not sure if that means I really, truly couldn't use it or not. I need to do some more research. I told him again that I want some of it--even just a bit. I'll probably just go check it out with him in late spring when he gets home from college.

Is restoring the barn an option? That's what I'd do. check these out...

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20312&st=0amp;sk=t&sd=a&hilit=restore+barn

http://www.thebarnjournal.org/featured/014/index.html

If restoring is out of the question, don't forget ebay. If you search "antique barn", and then sort by highest priced first, you'll find a few for sale...for some serious $$$.