Barn wood can often be sawed into wider planks than newly harvested lumber, and many companies claim their products are more stable than newly-cut wood because reclaimed wood has been exposed to changes in humidity for far longer. In the U.S., older barns were built from timbers hew from trees on the farm and built as a log crib barn or timber frame, although stone barns were sometimes built in areas where the stone was a cheaper building material. In the mid to late 19th century in the U.S. barn framing methods began to shift away from traditional timber framing to “truss framed” or “plank framed” buildings. Truss or plank framed barns reduced the number of timbers instead using dimensional lumber for the rafters, joists, and sometimes the trusses.

The joints began to become bolted or nailed instead of being mortised and tenoned. The inventor and patented of the Jennings Barn claimed his design used less lumber, less work, less time, and less cost to build and was durable, and provided more room for hay storage. Mechanization on the farm, better transportation infrastructure, and new technology like a hay fork mounted on a track contributed to a need for larger, more open barns, sawmills using steam power could produce smaller pieces of lumber affordably, and machine cut nails were much less expensive than