This job couldn't be done, but we did it anyway. The stone foundation of this Lee, Massachusetts timber framed barn had a collapse so catastrophic that the rear of the building fell into the cellar hole. The resulting stresses throughout the timber frame caused the front of the building to lean so far out of plumb that the locals used to joke that a clothesline that was tied to it (visible as a shadow in the picture, below) was holding it up.

The back wall was so sheared and twisted, due to the collapse, that an engineer's report stated that the building simply could not be repaired. The total accumulation of tweaks and stresses had to be addressed all at the same time by reshaping the whole frame with an array of jacks and comealongs in a process that took weeks. Once the barn's timber frame was back to being itself, and was supported by a system of cribbing and posting, we engaged a mason to relay the stone foundation so that it could fully support the building.

Rear of the building, it can be seen that the cause of the deflections is that the building has fallen off its foundation.

Restoring the frame to its proper shape required the application of many points of force through lots of jacks and comealongs.

Back to its proper shape, the barn is ready for the mason to reinstall the foundation.

Compare this plumb and level barn with the picture at right.

A foundation collapse at the rear of the building caused this Lee, MA barn to lean so far that locals joked that the clothesline is what held it up, look for its shadow,