Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn

   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #1  

patrick_g

Elite Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
4,182
Location
South Central OK
Tractor
Kubota Grand L-4610HSTC
I have a 30 plus year old metal shop/barn with 14 foot wide 14 foot high overhead doors at opposite long ends and a small office room on the side in the middle on the north side sticking out like a wart on a pickle.

There are three regular size (people) doors in the building proper on the south, east, and north sides. The door on the north side opens into the office which has yet another door on its north side. The building is situated with the long dimension running E-W.

There is a HD jib crane in the middle of the south wall with an electric hoist on a rolling car.

This building is located on state highway frontage a quarter mile from my house and its attached metal and wood shops.

I have prepared a pad to receive this building. This is located just east of my 3 car garage approximately in line with the long dimension of my house. There are 10 each 6 5/8 OD pipe columns supporting 5 trusses plus there are C purlin columns framing the doors and taking a small load.

The pad has been prepared with 14 piers that are 18 inches in diameter and 12-15 feet deep with larger (flat topped mushroom shaped) upper ends affixed with weld plates set into the top of the rebar reinforced piers with J bolts. The weld plates are were adjusted by LASER level to the same height.

When the building is moved it will be set down on these piers. There is no slab floor at the new location and there may never be one. As the existing slab has provision for the siding to extend a few inches down lower than the top of the slab (for rain shedding and weather seal) I will have to extend the columns sufficiently to not "CRUNCH" the siding when lowering the building into place.

The building movers came and placed large I beams through the building as wide as the 14 ft door opening would allow. Then they placed I beams transverse to those with one under each of the trusses except the center truss which got to transverse beams.

The top of the transverse beams is in contact with a horizontal pipe welded with its bottom extent at 25 inches above the slab. These horizontal braces encircle the entire periphery of the building connecting all the vertical columns. In addition I have welded 20 ft pipe/braces from near the top of the wall to the transverse I beams. That is 10 diagonal braces. Another brace runs horizontal about 5 feet above the transverse beams and has two triangulating braces down from it to the transverse I beams. The mover requested the diagonal braces but I added the additional horizontal brace with 2 each diagonal triangulating braces to reduce the flex of the transverse I beams near the center of the span.

The vertical columns are cut about 70% of the way through at the level of the top of the slab. We will cut the rest of the way through just prior to lifting the building as it is not prudent in Oklahoma to hope for a long period of light wind and just take your chances.

The movers will jack up the bottom beams and insert sets of wheels. They wile then drive across the pasture 1/4 mile south and set the bld with long dimension again running E-W but turned 180 degrees so what was the south side will face north. The office has been cut free and will not be moved. I will disassemble it for materials. The siding will be used to patch the holes cut for the over length transverse beams.

For those of you who are still awake... there are some attached photos.

The picture showing red siding is of the east overhead door opening. You can see the I beams which will be used to lift the bld. The "cage" in the picture with the photogenic toilet was the angle iron frame of the bathroom after the walls were removed. (New location will not have water and no toilet but will have electricity.)


The picture with the glaring window in the middle shows the "W" bracing between the 20 foot diagonal braces.

The close up of the two triangles shows the details of how the horizontal pipe braces were attached. The gussets and the bottom of the pipes are both at 25 inches above the top of the slab and provide the point at which the lifting I beams will contact the bld.

The guy with the red and white cap is a helper who was cutting angles on the ends of the pipes to make welding easier. We used a Harbor Freiight electronic protractor to set up the saw and check the cut ends and so forth. It works really good.

The picture with the white rectangle in the center (overhead door 14x14 feet) also shows some of the bracing we welded in.

The picture of the south wall shows the jib crane as well as the horizontal bracing 25 inches above the slab.

The next installment will be pix of the building being lifter, hauled and positioned over the piers. Later we will weld the bld to the weld plates of the piers and cut all the braces loose so the mover can have his beams back.

Given the difficulty of getting good trustworthy labor to disassemble and reassemble the building, I found it to be less risk and maybe less $ to move it intact. I got bids differing by a factor of 2 for this job. First contractor dropped out and did not do the deed, another wanted twice as much, but the third guy seems to want to do a good job and is only a few $ over the low (non performing) bidder.

Pat
 

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   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #2  
Seems like a pretty big job. What equipment are they going to use to move it. Curious what is the cost of the move? Make sure you take lots of pictures of the move that will definately be a sight. I have seen an old church moved about 5 miles from me. It was only moved from one side of the street to the other but took a whole day becuase of the age of the building 150+ years old and they had to move alot of electrical wires. They uses 2 big dozers.
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn
  • Thread Starter
#3  
JDEERKID, They will lift on the I beams with hydraulic jacks to raise the building after I cut the columns the rest of the way through. They will insert sets of wheels under the bottom layer of I beams (running length of building) and then hitch up to it with a large Mac truck. They will back up for a couple hundred feet to allow pulling forward while turning south through a section of removed fence. They will drive it 1/4 mile south through pasture and then make a sweeping rit turn of 90 degrees and position it over the piers on the pad. After they get it placed they can pull straight ahead to get to my drive way and exit.

My bids were $6K and $12K. I selected the $6K who turned out to be an overly independent flake who wasted lots of my time and lost me a lot of lead time but did nothing beyond talk. I found another bidder at $6.8K and he showed up with HD truck, BIG steel, and experienced crew supervised by the owner's son-in-law.

The Mac tractor is a BIG sucker, large as you will see on the interstate. It has a fifth wheel hitch and a winch on the back. They will use the winch. The intended route through the pastures varies from level to slightly down hill so I don't foresee a power problem as they will not go very fast.

EVERYONE around here who knows of the impending move wants to see it happen or pix of the event. I could sell admission tickets and run a snack concession!

One of my main concerns is rain. I hope I get into their busy schedule and get it moved before we get significant rain. Right now the intended path is just fine but with only a little rain would be a slick nightmare and with significant rain a show stopper.

Part of the deal was that I pay for the dozer to pull them out if they get stuck.

I hope to have pix to document the operation.

As if I didn't have enough projects... I was thinking of maybe building a mezzanine floor in at least part of the building. Wall height is 18 feet so headroom would not be a problem.

I have received various suggestions of what to do with the slab floor being left behind. It is 12-16 inches thick I think. It withstood BIG Caterpillar tractors with no problem. I thought roller rink. Other suggestions included farmer's market. It doesn't get cold enough for an ice rink unless I put down rigid foam insulation. Landing pad for helicopter or VSTOL aircraft or ultralight. Model A/C flight ops. Glaze the surface and put in shuffle board. Marble shooting rings. It is two small for a basketball court (84 or 94 ft long.) It will be in a pasture for cattle, actually part of a maturnity ward and nursery for cattle about to give birth, recently gave birth and their young calves. Cattle tend to avoid walking on the pavement so It doesn't do anything for them and it is way too much work to remove it.

Pat
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Not much to see but pier tops and batter boards but here is shot of pad.

Careful observers will see my "catfish" pond that I stocked with 200 channel cat at about 4 inches in length. they are about 16 inches now.

Pat
 

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   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #5  
Betcha that old concrete pad would be an excellent spot to erect a large storage shed!:D
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #6  
Betcha that old concrete pad would be an excellent spot to erect a large storage shed!:D

egon, that must be the ns way of thinking. ya just beat me too it.... i'd move that shed off them posts and onto that nice big concreat slab.............
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #7  
egon, that must be the ns way of thinking. ya just beat me too it.... i'd move that shed off them posts and onto that nice big concreat slab.............

That concrete slab with a nice shed on would probably make for a good place to store hay bales ehh.:p
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #8  
The pad has been prepared with 14 piers that are 18 inches in diameter and 12-15 feet deep with larger (flat topped mushroom shaped) upper ends affixed with weld plates set into the top of the rebar reinforced piers with J bolts. The weld plates are were adjusted by LASER level to the same height.

Pat
12-15 feet deep? Thems some serious pads?

Wedge
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #9  
Maybe I missed it, but why are you moving it? There is a slab where it is and you're moving it to a site without a slab. Looks like you'd want to keep it on the slab?
 
   / Moving a 35x70x18 metal barn #10  
Where the footings engineered or by-gosh that should work?

I'm guessing given a little knowledge of your SOP, at least some what engineered. I'm also guessing uplift is the reason for such monster footings?
 
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