Whether you’re trying to save an historic home, got a great deal on an existing structure that must be moved to your property, or want to move your home to be in a better position to weather flooding, a house mover NJ can handle the project. Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how they do it:
1) Paperwork & Finances
The early stages of the process don’t involve a lot of action, but they are essential enough to warrant mentioning here. There are numerous permits that must be attained, plans to finalize, engineering to get done, and financial paperwork with the bank to get worked out. In most cases your NJ house mover can assist with that paperwork, thereby helping you streamline the process.
2) Project Planning
The last important step before the big work begins, moving a house is not to be taken lightly. In addition to all of the structural work that has to be done, it’s important for movers to meticulously plan out the route over which the structure will be taken. Trees, power lines, uneven roadways, and other potential obstacles will all factor into the planning.
3) Utilities & Preparation
Before the most intense structural work begins, your contractor will have your utilities disconnected and disassemble those connections. Also, an area at least 10 feet around your home will need to be cleared, so bushes, trees and shrubs will either have to be dug out if you plan on keeping them or bulldozed if they are being removed entirely. On the bright side, your furniture and belongings can stay in your house!
4) Foundation Prep
Now work can begin. Your house mover in New Jersey will dig at strategic spots around your foundation and begin to insert steel beams into the foundation. Wooden cribbing – interlocking planks of sturdy wood built into supports capable of holding a great deal of weight – will also be built beneath your house.
5) The Lift
Next comes the actual lift. A series of interlocked hydraulic jacks dubbed the Unified Hydraulic Jacking System will be used to lift the house off its foundation. These computer-controlled jacks are designed to work in perfect sync, ensuring the house retains structural integrity throughout the process. No matter how much weight each respective jack is carrying, they will all rise at the same rate.
6) The Move
Once lifted off the ground, sliding beams will be placed beneath the structure, which will then be slid onto specialized dollies made for big loads. This gets the house onto a truck, which will slowly make its way to the new location. The journey can be a crawl, with workers following alongside the truck the entire time to lift away wires, trim trees, move and replace mailboxes, and anything else required.
7) Onto The New Foundation
Once at its new location, the structure will remain jacked in the air while crews pour and build a new foundation. Once the foundation is prepared, the house is lowered, utilities are connected, and new porches, decks and stairways are set up.
And that’s it. In seven easy (and not so easy) steps a house mover in NJ can move almost any residential structure to a new location, whether several yards or several miles away.