Monster Movers C5 25th July 2005

[Fitz]

With regard to the university building, I'm really trying to decide whether it was all worth it.

If it was really that important couldn't they have just left it where it was and built their new block somewhere else?

The thing that struck me about the whole approach was that it was typically American. Brute force and no finesse. Every solution had the air of a unthinking reaction. Problem: Building in the way. Solution: Move it.

Problem: Building fragile because of cavity wall construction. Solution: Fill cavity with concrete.

Problem: End of building is falling off because we're pissing around with it. Solution: Tie it back on.

They also seemed like a bunch of chancers trying stuff out without really knowing what was going to happen.

The thing that did make me laugh was the other house that had been transported by dismantling it brick by brick then reassembling. The only problem was that the people doing the dismantling numbered all the bricks on the outside face with indellible marker.

[Rick]

I rather thought that the university building was no longer the building they saught to preserve.

The concept of it being cheeper to buy a newly buit house 130 miles from where you live and physically move it is very un-english. As was the idea, that a couple of days before it arrived, the guy was still working out where to put it. They obviously don't have planing laws.

Rick

[Fitz]

Yes - one can't help but think it was a pretty hollow victory once all the deliberate damage had been taken into account.

[Rob Morley]

Americans don't seem to really understand history/heritage.

I don't see the moving as a problem, but the way they ripped it off the foundations was a bit brutal. Underpinning the whole thing and digging it out might have been kinder. The hydraulics were quite clever though.

Doesn't really fit in with the "only use lime on old soft brick" approach, does it?

Actually that was unstable as originally built - it just became more obvious when they started to mess with it.

I though it was reminiscent of some of Dibnah's antics.

Imagine the fun if they'd used chalk and it had rained.

[TheScullster]

Nice parallel! But I think there is a fundamental difference. Dibnah was known for his quirky but apparently well planned and thought out methods - cutting holes in chimneys, shoring them up then burning the shoring. These guys were presumably employed as experts in the field and, as the trolley dash down the slope highlighted, there was a bit too much left to chance here. Imagine the building insurers watching this, plenty of twitching there!

I worked for some years for a company that specialised in heavy lifting/moving. Don't know what the weight of the big house was, but in the States we dismantled a large gantry crane, dismantling it into "manageable?" 200-400te ish lumps. To move these around on similar trailers to those shown, we had the haul route plated with steel.

Phil