Early Spring Projects

This February and March we have been busy salvaging two structures that were lost due to the heavy snow load this winter. The first was a 208' x 30' tobacco barn in Enfield, CT. The original front section was built sometime in the late 1800s with 8"x8" chestnut sills and 8" x 8" and 6"x6" red pine post and beam structure.

These beams are all sawn materials with great color. I did salvage a few 30-foot 8"x8" beams. The rest of the timbers vary in length depending on if they were broken or not when the barn collapsed. There are a lot of 4x4s and other small dimensional material up to 16-feet long.All of these beams and timbers have a beautiful patina that would enhance exposed beams and mantels in new construction or remodeling project.


Our second salvage was the former Dayville Congregational Church, located in the Dayville National Register district in Killingly, CT. The Greek Revival church, constructed in 1849, was being used as a real estate office. This building collapsed practically onto Route 101 and blocked off this busy thoroughfare for a number of hours while it was moved from the roadway. This church had two beautiful Greek Revival fluted columns with bases and capitals.

These wooden columns are approximately 16-feet tall with a slight taper. Luckily, they survived the collapse with just some scrapes. We also recovered many hand hewn chestnut beams of various sizes and fantastic color. These salvaged timbers will be great for mantel beams. A few could be used as structural pieces, such as long exposed beams.

We also salvaged a few long oak beams with great color as well as some narrow (7" wide), hand-planed and heavily painted clear white pine boards from the exterior. Some of these items will be my April Inventory update (sign up by clicking "Subscribe" on my website!), but since the yard is full, I've been selling them off the ground.