A historic old home was moved from one site to another here in town yesterday. Nickel Bros. House Movers of Victoria BC did the job and made it look effortless. They moved the building about 6 blocks, but had to use a longer route due to narrow streets in some areas. The route started with a downhill into a left turn, and was either flat or slightly uphill from there.
First they jack the house up, then they get wheels under it. The rig they used was very slick. It’s a large semi trailer that is in two halves, a right and a left, and has crosspieces that tie it together once the halves are in place under the house. Each corner of the rig is hydraulically adjustable so that they can keep the building level even if the street isn’t. The driver gets instructions via radio and hand signals, and moves at a crawl. I could only hear the engine idle, it seemed like he never stepped on the gas once, and the whole thing moves at a slow walking speed. He wove back and forth down the street to swing the house past the cobra-head streetlights.
The house is on its new lot now, on cribs. They will come back and lower it once the concrete is in. The price for the move was ~$48K.
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Very cool! Thanks for sharing. Its great the house didn't have to be chopped up for the move.
...that's not a mistake, it's rustic
There is just something so exciting about seeing a house moved like that.
Makes me recall an old story heard of moving a house from one end of a lake to another.
To save cost and complications they decided to sled it across the thick ice in winter.
You guessed it. Cracked and the house is now fodder for a fish hideout.
Now that would be interesting seeing some pics of :o)
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
Gotta love the house movers. They save buildings that would otherwise be destroyed. There's a long tradition of it here, back in the 1920's they moved houses with big mule teams.
-- J.S.
My uncle and his father before him moved several houses from the South to the Northeast by taking them apart piece by piece, labeling each piece and reassembling on their new site. I haven't heard of anyone doing it recently around here but I think less and less people care about authenticity and just want new and fast.
I watched Nikel bros. move one off a barge one time , up and over a seawall. They were awesome to watch . It was like poetry in motion.