My husband's old great aunt's place has a great old cookstove in the yard, but unfortunately, a large tree has grown around it, enclosing part of the stove. It could be extracted, with a lot of work, but my question is would it be worth the effort to topple the tree and carve out the stove after probably 50 years or so encased in the trunk? The outside isn't too rusty, believe it or not, and IF the inside that is inside the tree isn't too damaged, it would be salvagable. My husband just rolls his eyes at the thought, but it is a neat old stove and those I've seen at auctions are pretty expensive, even if only partially there. What do you all think? Would you try it or not? There is no problem of the tree falling on the house, as it is a shack that is kept chained closed and is not habitable, so as long as we were careful to cut the tree so it doesn't fall on us, I don't see what the harm in trying would be. Poor hubby, every time I see an ad for a barn to be torn down,and think of a project to do with it, he groans! Not that we don't have enough to do here. Has anyone torn down old buildings to use the lumber or rebuild? Any special considerations in doing that? Thanks, and think SPRING! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 15, 2000

Answers

Jan, I knew I hadn't heard it all, but this one I never expected! Can you get the exposed part of the stove open in one or more areas (lid, door etc) and check it out for inhabitants. Once you've sent them out for the day, look at and feel the enclosed part of the stove as best you can. My first thought was rusted away and/or crushed, but if the exposed part is indeed good, who knows.

I'd cut the tree off above the stove, branch by branch if I had to. I wouldn't want to try cutting it at the base and felling it with the stove in it. Once I had as much of the tree cleared away as I could, I'd look at the stove again and decide if I could continue and how. You might then be able to split some of the tree away, or see where to cut to remove more of the tree.

Just be super careful. A tree that close to a dwelling is likely full of metal-nails, clothes line wires, maybe even something to hold the chimney up if they used the stove where it is. If you're thinking to yourself "So?" get someone else to do the cutting who has experience removing junk trees. at best you'll ruin your blade by hitting something, at worst you'll kill yourself. It really does happen.

In any event, get some pictures of it.

As for tearing down old buildings, can be done. Lots of work. Lots of danger. Be clear on who gets what, and the level of clean-up required. Who hauls or pays to be hauled the unusable stuff to the dump. Could be lead paint on the buildings. Could be some real treasures, especially in the old beams. You'll need tetnaus shots, heavy duty tools and the know-how to safely un-assemble a building without causing it to collapse. If you don't have that, or don't know someone who can help you the first few times, an option on smaller buildings is to doze them over and then somewhat more safely pick out what you want to save from the rubble. You still save some of it, which is better than a 100% loss. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 15, 2000.

Jan,

Not much help with the woodstove, but we have taken down a number of buildings and salvaged the materials to rebuild with. We have also recycled old fencing (field fence and posts). The old fencing was so horrid I don't think we would ever do it again, but the building salvage projects were very manageable. You need to take the building down in the reverse order that it went up in. That means you need to have someone who knows about that type of construction around to help, if not yourselves. Be sure that you have all the power, water, etc, off and lines disconnected, etc. Safety is really important. I agree with Gerbil (BTW, nice to see you back Gerbil!) You might run into some rot and fall through a floor, for example. Be careful of nasty spiders (brown recluses around here sometimes) and snakes, rats, etc. too.

We built our bunkhouse, and hen houses, too, out of a couple of old houses. One had great timbers which made a wonderful finished floor. We didn't use the windows, but I have them for coldframes (which I never seem to get built).

This is beside the point, but we also had a local fire department burn down an old house that we bought one time. We liked the property, but the house was a goner. The whole town (pop. 1000) turned out, and we had a party....we have a video of it, too...and Talking Heads doing "Burning Down the House" playing in the background. But, how I digress!

Just be careful.

Now that I think about it, if it were me, I'd probably go for the stove, and use the tree for firewood. Unless it's a real novelty, and nice to look at in the yard, I can't imagine the tree much benefiting from the stove, and vice versa.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 15, 2000.

Gerbil, great to see you back!!!! Jan, you have to send a picture in to countryside. I have got to see this! I also would take down the tree, CAREFULLY!, for firewood, and see if anything was usable about the stove. Annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), April 15, 2000.

Call the tree--TIMBER !!--and see what the stove has left to offer. My guess would be --a great plant stand or conversation piece but salvage it anyway.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), April 15, 2000.

As to the stove, thats a judgement call. How bad do you want it and how pliable is hubby.

On the house, when we sold our other place we had an old, run down shed on the property that I promised to dispose of. It was 10x20. I judisciously cut relief cuts in specific places on the old shed with the chain saw, making sure I had an escape route while cutting. Then I hooked up a series of chains so that when pulled down the building would collapse in a specific way---namely all folded up and laying on my trailer ready for hauling out of there. I did it with the tandem axle trailer with bed extensions, 77ford 1 ton truck and brutus, the ford tractor, in about 2 1/2 hrs without mishap and it worked pretty well. My wife thought I was nuts to even try it but mission accomplished.

I figured even if it didn't work out I was sure the building would be collapsed and on the ground, without involving alot of climbing. This wasn't done with an eye toward material recovery but I think the same method, with variations could be used to enhance the material recovery potential. The really good thing about it was that I wasn't climbing around on the roof and all the work was done on the ground.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), April 15, 2000.

Thanks, everyone. You've given me some food for thought. I am really willing to tackle the stove, and will get pictures first and send them to the mag. The building I last saw an ad for is already spoken for, but will watch for the next one. The only concern I would have would be getting the roof down safely, but possible the idea of pulling it down with a tractor would work, after the usable wall lumber was removed. Most of these buildings that are offered in our area are old barns or outbuildings, no floors or electric hookups to deal with. Now, snakes and rats, those are another matter!!!Hate the things! Thanks again for your words of wisdom! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 15, 2000.

I read about someone trying to pull an old post and beam barn down with a tractor; it was still so strong that it wouldn't come down and they had to take a chain saw to it. Ditto with an old house up the road from us here that had partly burned. But they were able to salvage most of the old timbers -- more rot in them than they had expected, though.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 15, 2000.

Jan, I'd behoove you to SAVE the tree, with the stove inside it! It's really a unique, and historical phenomenon, in my opinion.

How close do you live to a major highway? Maybe you should bill it as another roadside attraction, and earn enough to buy a new stove, and save the tree.

I tore down a 7000 square foot barn about twenty-five years ago. The owner was going to burn it, and let me salvage it instead.

I got a huge amount of good wood, lots of kindling, over 7000 square feet of good metal roofing, and a local decorator paid me a LOT of money for the "barnboards".

Everybody for miles around also got truckloads of 100 plus year old manure, which was about a foot and a half deep overmost of the floor.

But be very careful.We tried to pull it over with a fairly large caterpillar tractor first, and it would wiggle all over the place, but not fall. It had a major lean on it, and another friend and I finally decided to knock the shear bracing off, one brace at a time, while standing on top of a twenty four foot extension ladder, taking turns! When it finally began to go, with great cracking, screeching, and groaning, we ran like hell for about fifty feet to stay away from the flying debris. We were lucky.

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), April 16, 2000.

While there is no scientific precise measurement for intelligence---knocking the shear braces off while standing underneath--is right up there with sawing the limb off while sitting on it ! Sorry--pure speculation from a dumb hillbily.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), April 16, 2000.

Jan, If your are determined to have that stove, go for it! After someone cuts the top part of the tree down, go after it with hand saws, wedge and a sledge and even burn it out if you have to. The stove will really mean alot to you because you will have earned it!

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail .com), April 16, 2000.

I would go for the stove! Sounds like it could be salvageable. If the buiding is already spoken for and they plan to salvage it for the lumber why not go and watch them take it down and maybe you may learn some good tips or you may learn from their mistakes!

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), April 16, 2000.

Hmmm. Joe, there IS something to be said for saving large, old trees. This property isn't one that is near any major arterials that would draw tourists, and my brother in law, who is actually in charge of the property, as the auntie is in a rest home and totally incapable of controlling her affairs, doesn't want any one wandering about. He has enough trouble keeping homeless folks from staying in the "house" and lighting fires to keep warm. Keeps talking about pulling that down, but so far, just talking. Have to go take another look at the stove/tree situation and decide. Good idea to go watch the folks take down the building with the metal siding, and see what happens to their efforts. Thanks, everyone! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 16, 2000.

Joel, I agree that what we did was not the brightest thing I ever did, though it wasn't the stupidest either, unfortunately. But it wasn't QUITE as stupid as it might have sounded.

The building had a VERY strong lean to it, so it was obvious which way it would go when it went. we started with the highest shear braces first, and the ones farthest from the huge door on the end of the barn opposite the barn's path. Then, taking turns, so as to spread the risk, worked our way towards the door, which would have been, we hoped, our salvation, should the barn have gone down before we wanted it to. After taking all the high braces out we started on the bracing on the outside walls, working from OUTSIDE the barn. Even after taking EVERY damn brace out of that barn, it just stood there, looking like an optical illusion. As we were standing there scratching our heads over what to do next, with no bright ideas forthcoming, we started hearing an occassional, and almost inaudible, popping noise. The noise was repeated, then gradually got louder and more frequent. THAT'S when we took off running.

It was a pretty exciting, scary, yet satisfying and profitable day. I was only, I think, thirty-one years old at the time. I'd NEVER do that again. (I won't tell you what I did THIS year, at age 54! Some people have more guts than brains.

joj

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), April 17, 2000.