Speaking of moving a Barn

[firefighter9208]

I've really enjoyed the projects here on TBN and have been very motivated by them sometimes.

The most recent project that I have undertook is the moving of a 16x30 barn that was in the field in front of our house. We had Boer Goats for several years and I built the barn as a shelter for the goats and a pasture divider. The pasture fence split the barn into two 15x15 barns that were used for shelter when I weaned goat kids seperate from their mothers.

The barn is level, but was built on ground that was not. When I built the barn I wasn't real worried about water running through it, so I didn't build a pad to put it on. I just leveled the barn and built the sidewalls to the slope of the ground.

Well, I had a lot of problems with water and ended up adding 2 loads of chert to the barn to bring the floor inside the barn up to level.

We decided to move the barn now that we don't have goats (sold them 1 year ago) and plan to plant pumpkins in this field this summer. I've been putting off moving the barn for a year, because I wasn't sure about trying to move it in one piece or if I needed to tear it down and then rebuild it.

After seeing threads here on TBN about moving barns and the one video on youtube of the man and 400 friends moving his barn by hand I decided to give it a try.

My neighbor had a modular home delivered about 5 years ago and they left the two 8'x80' mobile home trailers (each with 5 axles). We had taken the trailers apart to take them to the scrap yard, but decided to put one of them back together to use as a barn mover.

The first thing that I did was go and buy four 4"x6"x20' posts and sixteen 1/2"x10" lag bolts.
Posts: $140.00 (will be used later)
Bolts: $50.00 (will also be used)

We then dug down on the inside of the barn to expose the bottom of the 4x4 posts and bottom band. I then took a sawsall and put the posts off below the band. The posts were concreted in the ground and I felt that it would jeopardize the integrity of the barn to try and pull them up. When we got them cut off the barn was basically just sitting on top of the ground.

Here are a few pictures:

 

[firefighter9208]

So we started at 9:00 AM two Saturdays ago and my goal was basically to get the barn on the trailer. Jim (my neighbor) and Joey (my cousin's husband) came to help. My wife Vanessa was there to try and keep us from getting killed. :thumbsup: .

We peeled the tin back or removed it at the 4x4's. We then ran the 4x6's through the building and drilled through the 4x4's and 4x6's and bolted them together.

After bolting the 4x6's to the 4x4's we X-braced at each post. We ran a brace from the rafter all the way to the 4x6 and then used a lot of screws.

More pictures:

 

[firefighter9208]

Once we got all the braces, Vanessa went and got us lunch.

2 Large pizzas: $20.00

We then started lifting the building with our tractors. We would lift enough to get a concrete block under and Joey would stack the blocks. We had the building braced good enough that when we lifted one end we lifted the whole building.

 

[firefighter9208]

Once we got the barn high enough off the ground.... and the blocks started to lean.... we decided to back the trailer as far under the barn as we could.

Once we got the trailer under the barn the lifting was left up to me and my tractor (Kubota M4800 with Bushhog loader). Jim was now responsible for keeping the trailer against the bottom of the 4x6's and I lifted with his tractor (Kubota L5030). I would lift 8" and Joey would place a block under that side. Jim would lift the trailer against the 4x6 (the trailer frame would flex a lot) and I would lower that corner onto the trailer and block. I would then go around to the other side of the building and lift that corner. It took about 2 hours to get the trailer under the building.

 

[UnclePaul]

I will look forward to following this tread. How far do you have to move it?

 

[firefighter9208]

Once we got the barn to the point that the blocks were leaning (remember that we were also supporting the barn with the trailer) I went to the other end and began lifting. Now I was jockey back and forth between four corners as Jim was slowly pushing the trailer under the barn. It sure would have been a lot easier if we had of had 3 more tractors :laughing:.

 

[firefighter9208]

I will look forward to following this tread. How far do you have to move it?

We moved the barn about 200 yards to a spot behind the house. I have another barn that is 36'x48' that I am going to place this barn close to.

The barn is still actually sitting on the trailer behind my house until I can get a pad built to put it on. That will come later.

Chris

 

[firefighter9208]

We had to get the barn pretty high off the ground to sit it on top of what was basically a mobile home frame. The whole time we were lifting my wife was on pins and needles. I got kinda nervous a couple times and Joey was really nervous. He was inside the building stacking blocks :drool:

You might notice in these pictures that we had to move a stack of blocks on the back end of the building to get the trailer under the building. Hind site is 20/20.

 

[firefighter9208]

After we got the trailer under three of the four 4x6's we were pretty confident that this was going to work. The building was strong enough that we only had blocks on the four corners. I lifted the front corners and put blocks under the corners. Jim lifted the trailer against the 4x6's. I then went to the other end of the building and lifted the entire end of the building (basically 1/2 of it) with my tractor. The front tires were almost flat at this point, even with 45 psi air in them.

Jim then lowered the tounge of the trailer and backed it under all four of the 4x6's. We then set the building all the way down on the trailer and removed the blocks.

 

[firefighter9208]

It was now time for a much need break. Joey is on the left and Jim is on the right. I'm the good looking tall guy in the other photos.... . At this time I was behind the camera.