The Art of Moving a House

[LizzieMaine]

Ours was, a couple years ago -- the seventies mansard roof gave way to whatever it is they call what they're doing now.

They've been forced to comply with local building codes in some towns, though -- one of the tonier towns in this state refused to grant a building permit unless they came up with something "architecturally compliant" with the rest of the neighborhood. In an even more famous case, McDonalds was denied the right to build any new building -- and was forced to mildly remodel an old Victorian house, where they remain to this day.

McDonalds, Freeport Me.

The Clown might think he's a big man, but the Zoning Board is bigger.

 

[tonyb]

... The most common issues aside from the obvious is to do things slow enough to keep the structure from twisting or buckling. It is very difficult to move a structure without doing damage to walls, ceilings, roofs, windows, etc. ...

I'm guessing that some damage is all but inevitable. I have next to no firsthand knowledge of such things, but even I know that houses aren't really made to be moved, so getting 'em to perform a trick for which they were not bred has to be a trick in itself.

I'm further guessing that these modern "manufactured" houses -- the ones that look more like a "real" house than a doublewide trailer -- make provision for the certainty they will be moved. Are the modules temporarily braced for the move?

But how 'bout old houses set up for moving? Besides taking precautions against moving the structure in such a way that it might be twisted, is bracing sometimes used? I've seen old wood-frame structures held together by cables and steel beams and miscellaneous hardware, but I can't recall ever seeing such stuff on the exterior of a house moving down the road.