Where There's a Will, There's a Way OR How to Move a Portable Building in 500 easy steps !!

Moving A Portable Building

Mother nature finally told us it was a good time to move our 12 x 24 foot portable building from our old home to the new one.  No rain, no wind – a perfect day!
 

We had to take out a tree that was in the way (but it was dying anyway) to have room. There wasn't a lot of clearance  to move the building out of the backyard but taking it out at an angle worked great.

We were very pleased with our mover and highly recommend him. He is very professional and knows what he is doing. He made it look very easy, but said the right tools makes it that way.  His business is TJP Portable Building Moving and his name is Toby Poore at  817-980-2965.

 

 

 Leaving Cross Plains. . .

 Since there are many trees in both our front and back yard here, we  had to move it in at angle  in the front as well with even less clearance. It was a VERY tight fit between two trees but Toby made it, giving directions to HD at the wheel with only 1\2 to 1 inch clearance from the tree on each side.

 
 
He set it down on plywood close as he could to where we wanted it.

The next day we took it from there and had to manhandle it because it was another tight fit between a tree and the house and took more time to accomplish. Moving it into the back yard was quite a challenge.

We moved it with varying clearances of ½ to 1 inch between the tree and the house (flower bed at ground level and overhang and gutter at the top) a little at a time using straps and comealongs.

With the plywood underneath  to slide it on, we started with some schedule 40 pvc, to roll it, but it didn't hold up well. We moved it very slowly, just a little at a time, balancing the distance between tree and house.

A neighbor loaned us some pipe and by using one in the front and one in the back, it rolled so easily, we hooked a chain to the truck to keep if from moving more than we wanted it to.  There was a drop off with landscape timbers between the yards. We needed to keep it jacked up and fairly level so I suggested we use concrete blocks in the dropoff area under the plywood. It worked well.

  
 By the time we cleared the tree, we were about 8 inches from this neighbor's garage.

 

Then we started turning it so we could head it straight into the back yard. We were so concerned about the trees in front, we didn't notice the one hanging over the fence from the neighbor but we had enough room to move it over enough to clear it.

We were very grateful for all the help with this. It went much better and faster than we thought.

 
It was quite a project and I am sure those watching were saying “They will never get that building in the back yard.  “Where there's a will, there's a way!!”