My nephew just called about the shed he intends to build. After my own shed experience, I am well-acquainted with shed design and build.
Prior to getting the retaining wall and garage built, I knew the shed would be in the way. This shed has been in this spot since about 1971, when the solarium was built and the driveway was moved to this side of the house. Rather than tear it down, I decided to move it.
Building sheds is my idea of fun, but I was taking this on as a challenge. My goal was to move the shed without assistance or renting any equipment.
After emptying the shed, the first step was to remove the trim and tear off the roof shingles.
To remove the roof, I used an ag jack with a landscaping pole to apply enough force on the roof to get a little gap between the top plate of the wall and roof rafter. I used a Saw-zall to cut the nails.
It took quite a bit of force, so the pole and ag jack were starting to bow. If they weren’t pretty close to straight, I was afraid the pole would come popping out like a tight spring. It worked out.
Once all the nails were cut, the roof was just resting on the walls.
Once the roof was detached, I thought it could be lifted in the center and swivel it around. I installed a 2×4 post at the center and used the ag jack to lift. A brace was added to keep the jack from popping out.
It turns out that the roof was really heavy. Maybe four or five hundred pounds. Even with a lifting post in the center, the low side wouldn’t budge. By using a hydraulic jack, the low side could be lifted and shifted.
By lifting and shifting, the roof was rotated about 45 degrees.
The lift and shift was working, but really slow. Also, it didn’t seem too safe to be under the heavy, moveable roof. The winch on the quad was able to pivot the roof the rest of the way.
The point of rotating the roof, was so that it could be slid off the walls on to the utility trailer. With the retaining wall right there, the wall was only a few feet above the height of the trailer.
The roof still weighed several hundred pounds, so it couldn’t just be yanked off of the walls. That would certainly tear up something.
It actually worked. When the roof was on the trailer, the tongue weight was about 5 pounds.
Moving the roof was easy as was moving the walls. Moving the floor was the scariest part of the project so far. I was too concerned about dying to take photos. The floor is all 4×4’s and planks. Jacking it up to get the trailer underneath required me to shimmy under the floor a few times.
After the floor was placed and leveled, moving the walls around wasn’t bad. The walls weigh much less than the floor or roof.
Once the walls were set, the roof had to be raised about five feet to clear the walls. The plan was to level and stabilize the trailer, and work off that level base.
The process was to jack up one side of the roof, build in some legs, then jack up the other side. Keep shrugging it up until it clears the wall.
If the spindly legs collapsed, my plan was to drop to the floor of the trailer and hope the rails would keep me from being crushed. It was a slow process and only got exciting once. Fortunately, it wasn’t very high when a leg failed.
The roof was only this far as it started getting dark. Leaving it like this overnight didn’t seem like a good idea, but was better than working in the dark while fatigued. By some miracle, it looked like this in the morning.
Once the roof was high enough, I hitched the quad to the trailer and backed the roof onto the walls. That took a bunch of little steps and some lifting and shifting to get it set.
Once the roof was in approximately the right place, the heavy equipment was no longer necessary. Working inside, the roof was lined up and screwed down.
With the roof attached, shingles were laid down. Rotted wood was replaced, new doors built and everything painted.
Was it worth it?
The move was a grueling challenge, but I didn’t die and nothing catastrophic happened. In that sense, it was totally worth it. I replaced four sheets of T1-11, new trim, a bunch of paint and the shingles. For about $400, I have a practically new shed that would run about $4000.
A year later, a woman came to my door. She looked to be in her late 50’s, but had a blue streak in her hair for some reason. She said that she used to live here, and was back in Ohio for her mom’s funeral. She didn’t know if she’d ever be back in Ohio, so wondered if she could look around.
I bought the house from Frank, who seemed like a really competent Popeye the Sailor Man. I’d only talked to Frank a couple of times when I bought his house, but we got along well. The woman was Frank’s daughter.
She told me a lot about the house and what Frank had changed in the 40 years they’d lived here. When I told her about moving the shed, she was delighted. As a teenager in the early 80’s, she’d hit the shed when she was learning to drive. Frank made her help repair it.