O/T Lightning Rods and old barn

Ok... My cow barn was built in 1870 along with the farm, It is a wood structure with a metal roof, it is the highest object within 80+ft around. Should I have lightning rods on it?? I thought of a ground clamp on one of the sheet steels for the roof would work, but what gaurantees all the sheets are touching eachother??
I beleive the origional roof was wood shakes and later in the 20's the tin was added..
Your thoughts please...

If it was built in 1870 and hasn't been struck yet, why worry about it. Insurance yes.

Light gauge questionable grounding of sheet metal roofing (even if it were all bonded) IS NOT any substitute for proper Lightning Rod protection, but its going to cost so its your decision if you want to make the investment. Youre looking for a low impedance current path to mother earth versus the presence of heavy current n extreme high voltage direct strikes being impressed upon the roof itslef. If its a nice old historic barn thats worth preserving I believe proper lightning protection would be in order myself so do your homework and shop around. Its NOT rocket science just good heavy rods and heavy braided copper cables and some serious earth grounding.

John T

A church of that age was stuck twice a few years ago .A church had its steeple struck here 4 years ago.Both were built around 1850.My telephone line got hit 3 times in 8 years.

Neighbors barn was hit by lightning a few years back.

It had all the rods, cables and ground rods you would think it would ever need.

Lightning followed down the cable from the peak about 10 foot where it blew a hole through the roof and followed the electric wires that were under the roof. Most of the wiring in the barn was melted.

Wells, wind mills, light poles, barns with lightning rods and trees seem to get hit the most.They have the most grounds.

Houses and buildings seldom get hit that don't have rods.

Anymore I believe a building is better ungrounded.

Gary

Its worth saving...all the money and time I put into this place...the bad thing is the Insurance company wont re-build a wood structure like this again, i would get some pole barn P.o.s.

I believe the reason that few houses take a direct hit is the fact that they have nearby power poles with the highest wire being a ground wire, and each pole is grounded. The pole close to our house has been hit hard twice (we are on high ground), and then the bolt of lightening split over to the big maple tree in our front yard. As the bolt traveled down the tree, it blew a path of bark off, and when it hit the roots, it blew the the dirt and grass off the top of the major roots. Enough juice was left to travel down our nearby well 320 ft to the pump motor to destroy it, and the pressure switch in the basement. But we did not have a fire.

By comparison, my SIL lives a few miles from here in a subdivision that has all burried electrical cables going to the houses. There are no power poles in that neighborhood. One night they took a lightening strike to their brick fireplace chimney, blowing bricks all over, destroying their deck and landing a bunch of bricks on their neighbor's roof. The lightening blew the sheetrock off their living room wall, but much of the juice followed the roof top chimney damper cable right down to the basement fireplace, where it also blew some sheetrock off the wall, but worse was that it totally shattered the glass fireplace doors, embedding glass in the other 3 walls and all the furniture and carpet. Luckily the house did not start on fire.

Now when I hear of house fires caused by lightening, I see that most of them are in neighborhoods that have burried electrical and telephone service. Thus the houses are the high point for the lightening to hit.

If I owned a big tall barn (and I love them), it would have the lightening arrestors and ground cables, even though they may be expensive.

Good Day!

Paul in MN

Put a steel pole up a little way away from the building and a little higher than the barn and bury the bottom in the ground. Much better than lighting rods on the building in my opinion.

Back in the days of home base CB radios, we had a large antenna on our chimney. That thing attracted lightning fabuously! Knocked bricks off it, and scared the bejabbers out of the wife on several occasions. Didn't start any fires, tho. I sold it to a neighbor kid, but after it got hit at his place, his dad junked it!
We have electric power lines out front, but they never get hit.
One day, i talked to the man who bought my Grand-dads farm. It had three nice barns on it, of various sizes. I asked him if the old barns were still there, and he told me that lightning had hit them and they all burned down, but not all at once! Must of been something to be living there when a lightning storm came around!

Put up a taller tv tower close to it but not touching so a strike will hit the tower & go to ground & not hit the barn. Lightning rods will attract & if the strike is more than the cables can handle, the barn is toast.

I'm thinking the odds of someone stealing your lightning rods and cable for scrap will be greater then the odds of getting hit by lightning.

I have had 2 lightning hits here in the almost 20 years that I have lived here. No tall buildings, single story house with a TV tower next to and stabilized by the house. The first one hit a 50' pine tree near the house which about scared the stuffing out of us just after going to bed. Never saw light so bright and that was thru the shades. The tree died. The second one was also a tree one Saturday morning. I was standing in the garage with the door open and it hit a tree about 60 feet away. Teribbly loud. It blew a low of small pieces of bark off the trunk, but only minor damage. No lightning rods.