How to Tear Down a Horse Barn

Whether you are tearing down an old horse barn to make room on your property or have plans to rebuild a new barn, you need to follow proper tear-down procedures to ensure safety. Some people may be quick to simply throw all the boards out or burn them, but you may be surprised to know that there is a large market for old barn boards. You could sell the old boards to be used for furniture, vintage hardwood floors and other projects. There are a few different ways to approach barn demolition, depending on the condition of the barn.

Things You'll Need

  • Crowbar
  • Hammer
  • Screwdriver
  • Ratchet wrenches
  • Long chain
  • Tractor
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Instructions

    • 1

      Remove your horses to a facility that provides shelter from the elements until a new barn is built. You may have another small barn or have to relocate them to a boarding stable.

    • 2

      Have a structural engineer assess the barn's structural integrity to determine if it is safe to support your weight as you climb throughout to tear it down. If it is deemed unsafe, you will have to hire a professional wrecking crew to demolish the barn with heavy equipment.

    • 3

      Contact your local fire department to see if they will burn the barn down for you if you deem that no parts are worth salvaging. Many fire departments use opportunities like this to train their firefighters by burning the barn and extinguishing the fire a few different times until the structure is gone.

    • 4

      Use a crowbar and hammer to remove the boards from horse stalls. If the wood is in good condition, keep the stall walls and gates intact as much as possible so you can reuse them for your new barn.

    • 5

      Remove any hardware like hinges or latches with a screwdriver. The hardware may be valuable to antiques collectors or you could reuse them in another project.

    • 6

      Tear down the barn in the reverse order of construction, starting with the interior elements, working your way from the top to the bottom. Pull up the floorboards and interior walls with your hammer and crowbar, but remember to keep large support beams intact to hold the barn up while you tear down the other parts.

    • 7

      Pull the nails out of the roof, remove the sheets of metal, keeping the metal sorted in piles to scrap for money and to reuse in another project. If the metal is in good condition, you may be able to reuse it for your new barn or find another use for it around your farm.

    • 8

      Tear up the roof trusses with your hammer and crow bar. If the trusses are assembled with hardware, you may need a screwdriver or ratchet wrench.

    • 9

      Pry the exterior boards away from the barn frame with a hammer and crowbar, starting at the top of the barn and working your way to the ground. When you are finished, only a skeleton of the barn should remain.

    • 10

      Cut notches out of the support beams with a chainsaw to compromise their integrity.

    • 11

      Hook the beams up to a tractor with a long length of chain and pull the structure down with the tractor. If you can't pull it down with a long enough chain to guarantee it won't fall on you or your tractor, do not attempt this step.

    • 12

      Push against the structure with the bucket of your tractor until it falls down in the opposite direction. You will have to raise the bucket and push high up on the beams and repeat this several times on different beams until the structure falls.

    • 13

      Sort the wood into piles of boards that can be reclaimed for other use and boards that must be discarded. Remove any nails that remain in the boards.

    • 14

      Haul the wood and metal piles away and pick up any nails from the demolition site by running a large magnet over the area.