I'm getting a free shed! How-to-move-it questions

[Agilityscots]

Hi everyone,

A client of mine has possums living underneath her shed, and she wants the shed out of the yard because she's worried her dog is going to get hurt by the possums. Sooo, she's offered it to me, for free! Of course, I can't pass up an offer like this, because it means I could have more chickens.

And, it means my husband wouldn't have to be pressured to finish the current coop we've been building, which still doesn't have a roof on it because he can only work on it on the weekends.

The problem with the shed is that I don't know how we'll actually get the thing out of her yard. It's a pretty good-sized shed; she said it was 6x6 but I think it's a little larger than that. Here's a pic, with her possum-hunting dog Jessie doing her thing

and also providing some scale:

We have a Yukon XL, but obviously that shed won't fit inside it. We do have a trailer hitch so we could rent a trailer to get it back to our house, but does anyone have any ideas on HOW to get it on the trailer, short of scrounging up 8 or 10 men?

Amy

 

[chickflick]

How far do you have to move it?? My neighbor moved a chicken coop years ago by putting the thing on "runners" and dragging it home thru the fields, by pulling it with a tractor. So, it depends on how far you have to move it. Know someone with a flat bed....and know alot of storng men?? I know someone will come along with great ideas for you. Good Luck!

 

[chickenfeathers]

If you have a friendly, local, auto-towing company you could beg.

 

[Agilityscots]

Hi Chickflick,

So you think a flatbed trailer would be necessary? Not just one we could tow along behind us?

Unfortunately we live quite a ways away...my client lives in the city and we're outside of the city, in a semi-rural area. It's probably about 20 miles away.

Amy

 

[chickflick]

The shed will be quite heavy...so I don't know if a rented trailer would be strong enough...or big enough. Is it possible to take the shed apart? Sounds like too much work for me, tho!! You would still have to wait on your hubby to put it back together again!!! The idea of a towing truck would work.....they would have the pullely to pull it up on the trailer!!

 

[Wolfpacker]

Call a wrecker service with a flatbed wrecker. If it's not too wide, they should be able to hitch a wench to it and drag it onto the bed.

Getting it off might be another issue. You'll probably need several folks to stabilize it as it slides off.

 

[Agilityscots]

Thanks Wolfpacker, I'll do that. I hadn't even thought of calling a towing company to do the work before others suggested it today. It would be well worth the $$ since the shed is free. Excellent idea!

Amy

 

[Chirpy]

Wolfpacker had a good idea but in case you want another idea this is what we would do:

Use a couple of jacks to slowly lift the house, as it lifts put boards under each side and continue to jack it and put more boards under it until you can back up a flatbed trailer under it. Let the jack down slowly and take out the boards until the shed is sitting on the trailer.

To get it off the trailer, do the same thing backwards. Does that make sense?

It definately involves more work than Wolfpacker's idea but, in our house money is in very short supply, so we do things ourselves to save the money.

Just another idea.

 

[tiffanyh]

We moved one like that and found it best to break it down or take it apart. It looks like it was a "kit shed" originally ( I just bought one like that for my goats) and it may be easier to move it that way.

Good find!

 

[Poison Ivy]

We bought a 10x20 shed and the shed company brought it out on a flat bed tow truck and he pulled it around with a tractor. I couldn't part with it when me moved because I paid almost $2000 for it. So we took ours a part and put it in the back of our pickup truck and drove it the 350 miles to Ocala from Fort lauderdale. It survived the trip and is currently housing our sporter and a friends honda shadow. So either way would work its just easier if you could get a tow company or shed company to move it for you in one piece.