We might be wanting to move a 2m x 2m garden shed, by about 1m and maybe rotating it 90 degrees. It has plywood on the floor and appears to be resting on paving slabs, not bolted down.
Beyond emptying it of stuff and getting N people to pick it up, any suggestions for moving it easily? Perhaps sliding or rolling?
What immediately springs to mind are those giant crawler units used for taking the Space Shuttle to the launch pad... maybe not.
Theo .
Theo submitted this idea :
If the timber floor joists run in the same direction you want to move it...
Get maybe three or four 2m scaffold poles, jack it up enough to get them under the hut, it should then roll quite easily. Rotating it will need some improvisation with the poles.
go for the 4 people - one on each corner
Maybe lift the front of the shed and slide a wooden plan or fence post under it - the plank being wider than the shed. Repeat at the back of the shed
The 4 people have then got something more easy to lift and you support the bottom of the shed better
OR 2 people Still 2 planks but closer together and
maybe rope rather than slings and maybe tried on at the bottom. Maybe a 3rd person just to steady the shed when moving but not actually lifting.
We had some proper heavy 'Shifting skates', that assuming the surface was good enough would allow you to left some really heavy weights very easily (Dad was in the lifting gear game for a while). ;-)
We have also moved some heavy stuff on wooden rollers (round fence posts), but the problem you may have is getting the shed up high enough (without damaging it) and keeping control of it whilst doing so.
What is the actual shed made of as that can make a big difference re how much distortion it can take? If it's plastic panels with a wooden floor then you might easily stress the fastenings. Also, what are the slabs resting on, just earth?
If the whole structure is reasonably strong, strong enough to be listed up by one edge, a few long levers along one edge allowing you to get some timber under the bearers (assuming there are any) might give you a start?
Have fun!
Cheers, T i m
Substitute two sections of an extending (lightweight) ladder for the planks/posts.
I'd fit temporary bracing then just pick it up.
NT
All the ideas suggested so far are wildly impractical. The only sensible way to do this is to tie a rope to the shed, then purchase a gross of party balloons, a large cylinder of helium, and a packet of cheap darts. Inflate the balloons and put them in the shed. They will tend to congregate near the roof. Ensure that the roof is properly fixed to the walls and that the walls are properly fixed to the floor, otherwise this method will only be partly successful. Eventually the shed will leave the ground. At this point quickly get hold of the rope. If you are a small person, or anorexic, get help. It should then be relatively easy to manoeuvre the shed as required. When it is above the required position throw the darts through the shed doorway in order to puncture a number of the balloons. The shed should then settle onto the ground in the desired position. Please remember to dispose of the remaining balloons responsibly.
Bill
Hydrogen has more lifting power.
NT
How old is it, and what is the roof made of. I did move a very old shed a few years back but it soon started to fall to bits after that, the floor and the screws and nails in them were very rusty and many sheered the roof being asbestos cement developed a crack due to the slight twisting during the move. With hindsight, I should have left well alone except it was on hardcore and earth and the foxes had burrowed under it. Brian
And allows the balloons to be deflated with the use of a blow torch rather than the darts.
Have you no style;-)
Flaming arrows are the correct thing to use.
Don't rule out the use of sky hooks.
Or Chinooks.
But is flammable.... remember the Hindenburg disaster?
I thought about sliding it on something slippy... plastic boards or something. Although it would need some means of exerting force on it - isn't so easy to push as it's in a corner.
It's all wood, except some polycarb for the window which can probably be taken out. I think the slabs are just resting on earth, although I can't tell because they're underneath the shed :)
I did wonder about some kind of pulley/ratchet arrangement, but there's nothing secure enough to attach the pulley to.
Theo
Given 30 seconds ago I grumbled about random YT clips, I won't post it :) but there's a few clips of a yank spinning 4 tonne stones around with his little finger. He made them after being told how hard it must have been to build stonehenge - he also showed how it only needs 5 or ten people (who know what they are doing) to put the lintels on.
I'm always a little sceptical when I hear claims of how many thousands "it must have taken" on projects like stonehenge. I think our ancestors were smarter than that.
What you will find with a small(ish) wooden shed is that it is much lighter than you think but difficult to man-handle just due to its size. Even something as simple as temporarily attaching two long pieces of wood at thigh height to the front and back provides lifting handles for
4 people to get the shed 6 inches off the ground to carry easily to a new location. Sheds are often poor quality and just about fit for purpose and what should be avoided is twisting the structure whilst moving.What you often see on TV is archaeologists with no engineering experience proposing impractical methods to test their own pet theories. If you watch one of the lesser TV channels they present absolute proof on how Stonehenge and the pyramids (in both Egypt and South America) were built. They were build using anti-gravity technology by aliens who came down in their spaceships.
Build a temporary watertight dam around said shed, to include the new position; seal said shed to make it watertight; fill dam with water; float shed to new position; drain dam; job done.
Well, it's no more daft than balloons of helium/hydrogen!
Yup, that could work but maybe only depending on the rigidity of the boards and the firmness of the ground (to stop the boards flexing and corners / edges 'digging in').
I think pulling and from low down might be the safest thing.
That could make it heavy or light, depending on the construction and wood. ;-)
I think if it got as far as distorting the panels enough to break the polycarb you might have bigger problems and the polycarb (depending on thickness) might help keep it all together. ;-)
So will it be moving over the same? eg, Will you be moving it off slabs on earth to more (yet to be placed?) slabs on earth?
I think if the slabs are a complete patch (rather than just at set positions like corners and the ends / middles of the bearers) then I think you are still in with a chance. If just the corners etc, that could make it much more difficult (depending on the strength of the shed and your pulling power).
A h/d strap pinned very low where you can, maybe round the bearers / floor level and then pulling from that. I have a little Tirfor 'Jockey' wire rope winch (that could probably damage the shed if you kept winching and it didn't move) ... as long as you can also get a good anchorage in the right direction?
I think the biggest issue (without a crane) might be the consistency of the ground.
Cheers, T i m
p.s. I (still) have a 8'x6' taylor made wooden shed in my Mums back garden, bought for me (to act as my own workshop) when I was about 16.
It's still pretty sound, all but the bearers it sits on and whilst it's on nice flat concrete with at least 8' access at either end, getting something underneath to take the load again wouldn't be easy. In an idea world I'd roll it over onto it's face, remove the old bearers and fit the new ones ...
Depending on how much space around the sides you have, just get two 3m lengths of 2"x3" timber from B&Q (or whatever), screw them to the sides of the shed with half a metre extending each end to make handles. 4 people, pick it up and move it.
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