Webster brings new life, location to old barns

As the saying goes, “everything’s bigger in Texas.”

For Eric Webster, owner of Webster Reclaimed Wood Products based out of Stetsonville, that’s where his largest project recently ended.

Over a six-month period, Webster purchased and dismantled a nearly 100-year-old barn originally built in Ringle, preserved all of the wood and rebuilt the barn in Fredericksburg, Texas. There, it will become an events pavilion for Yee Haw Ranch Outfitters, owned by Russell and Donna Hutton.

For Webster, a Gilman native who uses “Building With History” as his business motto, restoring barns has become a passion. Though this project tested that love at times.

“When I began my process, it was filled with doubt –– a lot of it –– which was unsettling,” he said.

But the reactions to the refinished product made it all worth it.

“They loved this building and the process so much, on April 16 they’re going to break ground for the next building,” Webster said. “We’re not sure what it’s going to be. We’re thinking it’s going to be two to three barns combined to make a unique timber-frame building. Russell and I really got to know each other when you do this kind of thing. Our businesses are working together now. I’ll take these barns down, we’ll ship them down there. Their atmosphere and their weather is way better for preserving these timbers. But they have the market.”

Webster said he started veering toward wood reclamation projects about five years ago and barns have become his main focus.

“When I started taking barns down and salvaging the wood, I didn’t realize what my business would turn into,” Webster said. “It’s kind of a dream come true. I didn’t know I was going to develop and find such a passion doing it. There’s an incredible amount of man hours that goes into it, but it’s worth doing. I found out there are a lot of people who value the materials, the history of it and where it comes from. They pay for it because they like that story. Barns are kind of like our coliseums.”

This particular barn was part of a farm located on Hwy Z in Ringle and owned since 1994 by Eric and Anne Heggelund. They bought it from Roger and Betty Geurink, who bought the 160-acre farm in 1964. Before then it was owned by families with the last names of Lang, Tarras and Marquardt. The Marquardts built the barn in 1923.

It was a classic Wisconsin red dairy barn with 30 stalls and a milk house, a feed room and four pens nearby. A metal clad addition was built in the 1970s which included 25 additional stalls and hay storage.

“I dismantled the entire frame,” Webster said. “I marked every timber with a tag and drew a blueprint of it. I dismantled then I shipped it, four semi loads of materials down to Fredericksburg, Texas.”

It took five weeks to dismantle the barn and get all of the materials ready to be shipped. The frame was constructed before Christmas. After flying back for Christmas, Webster completed the rest of the project in January and February.

Yee Haw Ranch Outfitters sells a variety of clothing, animal mounts, furniture and decor that all says “Texas.” Webster said he supplied much of the timber used to construct that building four years ago. Bingham Family Vineyards Wine Tasting Room is a tourism draw located right next door.

The preservation process of the wood is, as one would expect, a tedious process.

“What I did is I sandblasted every beam with recycled crushed glass and cleaned all of the timbers up,” he said. “Then I preserved every timber that also killed any bugs or eggs in there. Then I sanded them all, every timber, all sides. Then I stained them with a timber oil. So everything was pre-finished and preserved. Then I put all the barn bents together and then I flew down Chad Kloth Construction, with his two employees and we reconstructed the frame.

“After that, I flew home for Christmas, then I went back down and I finished rebuilding it, the vast majority of it by myself and the land owner.”

Prochnow Trucking transported the materials to Texas and the roof decking was purchased from Wolf Brothers Saw Mills.

Working with such old wood is a skill that Webster said is hard to teach and more or less just comes with experience.

“A lot of these timbers, depending on the size, they can be 200-300 year-old trees that were cut down, so the grain is different, the strength of the material is different,” Webster said. “Some of the timbers in this barn were 53 feet long. The full length of the truck. The joinery that they used was master craftsman joinery, it really was. Scarf joints were used to splice these timbers together. But the wood’s strength is incredible. It’s nothing like using a new-sawn timber today.

“When I was taking it apart, some of the 38- to 40-foot timbers, the amount of flex they had, I mean they would bow like a banana when you were taking them apart, but nothing broke,” he said. “The strength is outstanding. The distance I could space apart. I could space my upright support beams at 20 feet apart and still maintain structural integrity. Preserving it is a huge process. You gotta read every timber, every board, so you really get to know the structure.”

The barn features some new additions as it stands now in Fredericksburg. Webster added a balcony, a 15by 100-foot porch and a 55-ton fireplace that is 36 feet tall and, at one end, 32 feet wide. The main frame consisted of 102 10- by 10-foot timbers. Fourteen more timbers were needed for the porch and balcony and seven more were needed for the hand railing on the balcony. The roofing included 180 2x6 rafters and 6,000 square feet of planking that were all timber oiled on one side.

Webster said his passion for barns probably comes from his childhood. A lot of time was spent by him and his brothers on his grandparents’ farm.

“Every barn is built different,” he said. “There’s no two exactly alike. When you’re doing it, I have a huge passion for what I do.”

Webster said last summer, he worked on a large 250foot barn for a local owner and the emotion of that project is something he won’t forget.

“This man spent his entire life building this barn, keeping it up, maintaining it,” Webster said. “He raised a family there. Everything revolved around that farm. He would be there every day as I took it apart. As I brought the barn down you could tell there was a lot of emotion there for him. To give it new life instead of it just falling down was kinda cool. It’s kind of a neat feeling.”

Gilman native Eric Webster worked for months to dismantle a barn from Wisconsin and rebuild it as part of ranch development in Texas. The work allows Webster to fulfill his passion of preserving old barns and bring them new life.

SUBMITTED

The rebuilt barn will become an events pavilion for the Yee Haw Ranch Outfitters in Fredricksburg, Texas. Here it is shown nearing completion.