23. Shed Move
How do you move a house 157 feet?
Our property came with a rundown shed, located near the north driveway. It was awkwardly placed next to the main house, unfinished on the interior and very mossy.
We did not know what to do with it, but we knew we did not like it where it was. Then we started to wonder, instead of demolishing it, could we move it?
Logistics
The size of our shed is about 12 feet by 20 feet. The bottom of the shed has skids or wood framing attached to the underside that extends the full length of the shed, spaced about 3 feet on center. When I called around about the possibility of moving our shed, this was usually the first question that I was asked: is it on skids? The answer was yes, luckily!
The Mule
The shed movers use a set of wheels on one side of the shed combined with a tractor lift, or mule, on the other. It is a fairly specialized piece of equipment, and very expensive, so we hired professionals to move the shed.
The Plan
The existing shed location was at the highest point of the property, just next to the north driveway. We wanted it moved down the hill, and into the corner of the future orchard. The total distance between the two locations was 157 feet, and we had a relatively clear path of travel between the two points.
The prep
A dump truck brought 10 cubic yards of 3/4 minus gravel. We hauled five cubic yards of gravel to the shed site; the other five we are using for a patio project. Using string we marked out the edges of the shed.
We checked for level with the help of a laser level. We had the level pretty well dialed in, but it was not perfect. We still had to shim the shed on both the front and the back, suggesting we were a little high in the middle.
The back of the shed area is nearly level with the grade, while the front of the shed area has a significant drop, between 6 to 12 inches. We built up a small ramp of gravel along the leading edge of the gravel area since we were not sure how the shed movers would deal with such a large height difference. It turns out the height difference was no problem for the shed movers; the movers said the gear was intended for off-road conditions.
Moving Day
The movers showed up early in the morning and got right to work. The work started at 6:53am. The crew was packing up their gear by 7:08am. Wow, that was fast. From start to finish, the shed move took about 15 minutes.
Costs
Gravel base: $250
Shed move: $750
Plus our own man power to clean the shed, prep the site, and level the gravel base.
Final Location
The shed now sits in the corner of the future orchard. It is slightly less mossy and ready for next steps!
The next step is to reconstruct a ramp, paint the exterior, and to remodel the interior.