Restoration Register

Timber frame and barn restoration in Ontario

An Ontario bank barn fails from the bottom up. Sills rot where they meet the stone, post feet drop, the frame racks, and by the time the roofline visibly sags the owner has usually been told the building is beyond saving. Six framers in this province make their living proving otherwise.

The work is replacing rotted sills and post feet with the frame jacked and supported, scarf-jointing sound new timber into old, re-pegging and re-wedging loose mortise and tenon joints, plumbing racked frames, repairing hand-hewn white pine and oak members, and dismantling, tagging and re-erecting frames when a building has to be moved. A frame is a load path, not a set of parts, so replacing one member changes how everything else carries. That is why the work starts with a member-by-member survey and why it belongs with a framer rather than a general carpenter. Four of Ontario's six are in the Peterborough and Kawarthas area.

What to ask before you hire

  1. Will you do a full frame survey before quoting? A member-by-member condition assessment is the standard opening for this trade.
  2. How will you splice new timber into old? Scarf joints cut to suit the load are the traditional answer. Steel plate and bolts is usually the shortcut.
  3. What is the jacking and shoring plan? This is where barn projects go wrong, and it should exist on paper before the first cut.
Grant funding

Municipal grants rarely cover agricultural outbuildings unless the barn is named in the designation by-law, so check the by-law first. Where a barn is being converted or relocated, provincial and agricultural heritage funds are often the better route.

Across Ontario

Region pages

All heritage service pages · Grants by municipality