Vol. LXVI. No. 2993. NEW YORK, JUNE 8, 1907. WEEKLY, $1.00 PEli YEAR. 
A MICHIGAN CONCRETE BARN 
How It Was Built. 
The concrete dairy buildings on the Beach Farm, Neal 
& Angevine, proprietors, were built to take the place of a 
fine set of frame buildings that burned from spon¬ 
taneous combustion in a silo just after the silos were 
filled in the Fall of 1905. The stock was all saved that 
time, which might not happen again in a dozen such fires. 
In the present concrete stable the stock might be in¬ 
jured once in a hundred fires which might happen in 
the storage barn, but the dairy barn 
would not burn down nor be injured so 
that the cows would be out of a home as 
they were before. Fig. 216 shows the 
general appearance of the buildings from 
the road; 1 is the residence; 2 the milk 
house; 3, storage barn; 4, ice house; 5. 
one of the silos; 6, cow stable; 7, one of 
the ventilator stacks. 
For these buildings the molds were 
built of wood on the ground and the out¬ 
side sections were lined with sheet iron 
so they would not warp and swell badly. 
The molds were built in sections, 20 
inches wide and 12 feet long, of hemlock 
inch boards, cleated together and with a 
1x4 inch strip the whole length at both 
edges to stiffen the mold. Enough of 
the sections were built to go all round the 
wall, both inside and out, of the largest 
building, which was 38x154 feet in size. 
All the walls are hollow, and to form 
them, there was a set of inside molds, 
made the same size as the outside ones, 
20 inches wide by 12 feet long, and 
enough sections to go twice around the 
building except across the doors. 
Fig. 215 shows the building work as it 
appeared during construction of the walls. 
1, is the foumkition wall; 2, the four-inch 
starter block; 3, is a 20-inch course of 
wall finished; 4-4 a pair of the uprights, 
2x4’s used as clamps and level and plumb¬ 
ing guides; 5, clamp at ends of the sec¬ 
tions of forms; 6, stay lath at top of the 
uprights to hold them in position; 7, is 
one of the long bolts used in the clamps; 
8, 8, 8, window frames in place. 
To set up the molds we first put in the 
foundation to grade line and then laid on 
top of that a block of concrete called a 
starter, of the exact width the hollow 
wall was to be. In our case, the finished 
wall was 11^2 inches, divided as follows: 
outside wall, 3]4 inches, dead air space, 
four inches, and inside wall four inches. 
This block was laid exactly level, true to 
the line of the building and four inches 
thick. This gave us a perfect form to start 
our mold on. To set up the molds at 
one corner and set the inside and out¬ 
side molds, the inside one should be 
cut off just as many inches as the width 
of the wall so that the other ends will 
be even with one another and these ends are held from 
spreading by clamps made of pieces of 2x4 inch stuff, 
with bolts one across the bottom and one across the 
top of the mold. These pieces are nailed to the molds 
with half their width projecting to catch the ends of 
the next pair of molds. . The bottom bolt rests on the 
wall and is so spaced that each time the mold is' raised 
it comes just on top of the last course. After this 
corner mold is in place the molds are continued on 
down the length of the building till they are in place 
entirely around it. 
As a means is needed to keep the wall plumb and 
level and further clamp the wall the following method 
is used. Two pairs of 2x4’s are used to each section 
of the molds. These are 10 feet long and holes are 
bored in them, commencing about l r / 2 inch from the 
bottom end and just the exact distance from center to 
center of holes as the width of the molds used, and 
these are placed as clamps two feet from each end of 
the sections of the molds, with a bolt through the bot¬ 
tom pair of holes, resting on the starter below. Pieces 
of strips should be cut of a length to cover the width of 
the wall plus the thickness of the forms plus two inches. 
One is put between the upright 2x4’s, with a bolt 
through what will be the top pair of holes, and the bolt 
tightened to hold it there to keep the width exact; 
another should be placed at the third pair of holes 
from the bottom and then a strip of inch stuff, the 
length of the molds’ width, should be placed between 
the upright and the mold on each side. When the bolts 
are tight, the uprights are plumbed and stayed in place 
and carefully kept there, as they are the means of keep¬ 
ing the forms properly plumb and level. 
After the outside molds are all in place and the up¬ 
rights are ready the center molds are put in between 
and so spaced by a system of clamps that hold them 
in place that the two walls with a hollow space are 
formed. These inside molds are made of inch boards, 
cleated together with hoop iron and a cleat of wood 
nailed to the ends so they are only the thickness of 
the boards, as there must be space between them to 
loosen them to raise. 
After the molds are all properly set up around the 
building the filling commences. The concrete is mixed 
just wet enough to tamp water out and there should 
should not be stone in it more than one inch in diameter 
to have it work well. It must be put in 
in thin layers and kept well tamped. 
Enough help should be kept to raise and 
set the forms and fill tliem each day, and 
thus a building will grow quite fast. 
After the forms are filled and the con¬ 
crete has set hard enough to work on, 
which it will do over night, and some¬ 
times oftener, the bolts in the uprights 
are loosened. The strips between the 
molds and the 2x4’s are taken out, the 
bolts in the clamps at the ends of the sec¬ 
tions are removed and the molds are 
ready to raise and set for another course. 
The bolts through the uprights at the bot¬ 
tom of the wall are left in place, and-the 
uprights are not moved as they must be 
kept right to form the spacing and plumb 
lines, but a bolt is put in through under 
the molds at each time they are raised to 
hold them in place. When the forms have 
been raised and the wall has reached the 
top of the uprights, they are unbolted, 
raised and put into place again; the work 
proceeds as before, and a wall can be car¬ 
ried to any height and kept in shape. We 
went 40 feet high on silos and the top of 
the wall was level at the finish. All scaf¬ 
folds were on the inside of the buildings, 
which lessens the amount of scaffolding 
needed, as well as the travel in placing 
the concrete. The walls were blocked 
off in the following manner: A piece of 
one-inch angle iron was fastened to the 
outside mold at the bottom and the con¬ 
crete molded around it formed a V. In 
the wall lengthwise, short pieces of the 
same material were cut and hung up and 
down in the molds and they could be 
changed on each course so as to block the 
wall off as shown in the pictures. 
All windows and door frames are made, 
and set in in the molds in place as wanted 
and the concrete put in around them. In 
these barns the windows all slide back 
into the hollow wall and there are storm 
windows that fit on the outside for 
Winter. On all of the Beach Farm 
buildings we made pilasters at the corners 
of the buildings, which strengthens as well 
as makes a better looking job. The forms 
were built with an offset to form the 
pilasters which in this case were 2x24 
inches. 
The storage barn is 38x120 feet, with side walls 24 
feet high above grade and has a self-supporting gambrel 
roof covered with galvanized iron, and as an iron roof 
is a practical insurance against lightning, we feel safer 
on that line. The first story of this barn is eight feet 
four inches high in the clear, except at the barn floors 
which are scaffolded over at about 14 feet; 42 feet at 
one end we used as a horse stable, and there are stalls 
for 12 horses and a little room besides. In this stable 
the alley between the two rows of stalls is 10 feet wide 
and the concrete water tank is placed in this and 
makes it handy to water. The feeding is done from 
BUILDING A CONCRETE WALL. Fig. 215. 
A MICHIGAN CONCRETE DAIRY BARN. Fig. 216. 
