On Site at Ragged Island Brewing: Restoring History and Building a New Event Barn

Ragged Island needed dedicated event space so brewing and rentals are not competing for the same floor. The new barn adds roughly 4,900 square feet beside the existing brewery buildings, sized for the concerts, trivia nights and private gatherings that outgrew the current layout.

Elevation schematics from Ragged Island's public announcement: Herk Works design, PJR as general contractor and South County Post & Beam on the timber frame.

South County Post & Beam, based in West Kingston, specializes in timber frames, enclosures and the heavy lifts that come with barn-scale work. PJR is the general contractor on site: crane paths, protection of the lawn and existing barns, utilities and trade sequencing, and daily decisions when weather or an old wall changes the plan. The design goal is a barn that feels at home next to the 1890-era brewing space, built for decades of use on a working farm.

Phase 1 is structural restoration of the storage barn before we lean on it for the long term. Once siding and sheathing come off, farm buildings often reveal rot, old repairs or framing that does not match first assumptions. PJR documents what we find, replaces what is unsafe and keeps the owner informed when the scope shifts.

With the cedar off, we rebuild the envelope in order: dry-in, trim, then finish decisions that match how the barn will be used. Each wall plane gets the same attention whether guests see it from the lawn or only our crew sees it from scaffold.

Historic barn work on Aquidneck Island starts with a clear schedule and honest updates when we open the walls. We plan Phase 1 for about four to six weeks. Once siding and sheathing are off we may find rot, water damage or old repairs that were not visible from the outside, and that can change how long the phase takes. We walk the owner through what we found and how it affects the timeline before we adjust the plan. PJR is in Portsmouth and we have years of farm and commercial work across the island. Restoring this storage barn before the new event barn goes up is the sequence that fits this property.

Phase 2 is the new post-and-beam event barn. South County Post & Beam brings their crane, trucks and timber crew for the lifts as trusses and bents go up. PJR ties that work into the rest of the job: foundations and slabs, mechanical and electrical partners, inspections and the handoffs that keep an active brewery running next door.

Ragged Island stays open while we build, so beer deliveries, event load-in and guest parking share the same drive as our material drops and crane days. Compared with an empty build lot, that takes tighter staging, work hours agreed with the owner and staying current on Portsmouth review for the barn and the farm's event use on the parcel. PJR keeps people on site to work through those overlaps early, before truck days or crane lifts get in the way of guests, deliveries or a weekend the farm already booked.

Ragged Island is a gathering place in Portsmouth: birthdays, fundraisers, weddings and summer music within sight of the bay. PJR knows Bristol Ferry Road and the barns along it. Phase 1 protects structure the farm still needs. Phase 2 gives the business room to host without resetting the brewery floor every Monday.

When the timber skeleton is standing, you are looking at years of weddings and barn sessions PJR and South County Post & Beam built for a neighbor business, meant for real use season after season. That is the kind of commercial and barn work we want more of on Aquidneck.

If you run a farm, hospitality business or commercial building in Portsmouth, Newport County or nearby Rhode Island, you know the pattern: stabilize what you have, then add the square footage your program needs, with one GC who will tell you straight when the wall opens up wrong.

When you want to talk through barn restoration, post-and-beam partners or full general contracting, start a conversation with PJR. We will walk the site with you, read the existing framing and lay out phases you can plan around.