Relocation of a 50's WB

[kasperflipped]

Ahoy there chaps and chapettes,
thought i might regail you with some pictures of our house relocation journey. So grab a comfy chair, a light snack and sit back and through the wonders of the internet you can watch a 50's weatherboard house be uprooted from Moorabin in Melbourne down to sunny Ocean Grove on the Victorian Surf Coast.

So this is where it began, a typical 3 bedroom weatherboard house with an extension on the back sitting happily in its moorabin surrounds before the land owner decides what melbourne needs is more town houses. Instead of just demolishing it, a man and his company convinces him to let them take the house from his land. I'm going to keep this man and companies name to myself for the time being until all payments are settled.
Anyways here she is, the house...

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/house2.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/ourhousesmallphotos016.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/ourhousesmallphotos017.jpg

[kasperflipped]

So how do you get a house thats too big for any truck 100kms away?? well you cut it so it fits on a truck so you can drive it those 100kms. Now my understanding of this process is that the roof covering material, in this case tiles, are removed and if its not to high the trusses (i think thats what theyre called) are left in place. Any brick work has to be demolished as it cant be transported, so in our case, the chimney met its doom at the hands of a sledge weilding builder. Once that is done, bracing is installed and any crossbeams and the like are cut with a saws-all. My house had to be cut into 3 sections, 1 long 20mtr section and a couple of 4 x 4 mtr sections. Once the sections are cut, they are then supported underneath and the stumps cut, hydraulic then rams lift the section up until the truck can back underneath and the section lowered onto its tray. Strapping holds it down tight and the truck begins its slow journey.

Here she is, cut into 3, sans roof, sans chimney and 1 section raised ready for the truck
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010454.jpg

heres my wife surveying the the mess that a chimney, shed and roof tiling makes when its pulled apart
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010442.jpg

another angle of the destruction
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010449.jpg

but shes ready to go, tarped up for safe sex oops i mean travels, and the 2 of us are chuffed!!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010457.jpg

[kasperflipped]

A day or so later the first piece arrives at its new home. Its temporary position down the very back corner of the block make it look quite sad and lonely. The neighbours informed us later that they thought it was a cubby house for kids.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010461.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010463.jpg

So what do three young men, including myself do when they are incredibly hungover, they go look at my house piece and pose with it

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010507.jpg

[kasperflipped]

Soon enough its time for the other pieces to join the lonely first section. I had my doubts how a piece of house soo big could fit on a truck and be navigated out of the maze of streets onto the highways so it could be delivered, but at 4am on a cold october morn, a blaze of flashing lights heralded its journey down the melbourne/geelong freeway

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/housebridge3.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/housebridge2.jpg

There something that warms the cockles of a mans heart seeing a truck with your house taking up 2 traffic lanes as it barrels down the freeway at 70k an hour. Video of the event is full of excited expletives!!

[kasperflipped]

Not being able to get to the block for a few days gave the builder/removers enough to time to dig stump holes, put stumps in these holes and then plonk the 3 house sections onto their new stumpy legs and for it to become one again. So sadly i have no pics of thise part of the process :( but below is the result.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010546.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010547.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010548.jpg

[kasperflipped]

Next it was time for the roofers to come and install my new colorbond roofing. Their scaffold was unlike anything ive seen before, but an amazing feet of engineering!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010565.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010563.jpg

here i am making sure things are in order....even though i have absolutely no idea!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010567.jpg

the scaffold allows for awesome poses through the laundry roof

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010566.jpg

[kasperflipped]

more scaffold, has anyone seen the poltergeist movie where the kids braces grow out of his mouth and entangle him in it, if you havent, it looks similar to following pics

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010575.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010576.jpg

[kasperflipped]

before we had a chance to blink, well really it was a 5 day working week, we came back down and the metal exoskeleton had gone and in a nice new roof greated our eyes

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010590.jpg

So that gave us a chance to install the eave linings

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/kasperflipped/house/P1010623.jpg

[kasperflipped]

to be continued, with more exterior works and lots of interior, including the battle to fix the section cuts through the horrible fibreous plaster

[andy the pm]

Awesome work there, and it looks great with the new roof! Its good to see the house not end up at the local dump like so many others that are cleared for developments :brava

[sundancewfs]

It definately was a very cool looking motor-home. You could have become not-so-grey nomads and just kept on touring....:U
Good to see you got it back on the ground and re-roofed before winter.:2tsup:

[leeton]

Great story, and great pics...I will follow with interest....nice old house too!:brava

[nww1969]

Good read.

Any chance of a price for removal and stumping.

[johnstonfencing]

Nice job there mate.
Looking forward to more photos of progress, maybe a few blue steel poses thrown in!:U

Just out of interest what is the colour of the colourbond you have?

Cheers
Craig.

[kasperflipped]

ahoy there folks, more pics to come, just need to find the time. As for the questions, the cost for the re-stump and removal was all part of the final price we will pay so i cant give you a break down of each but all in we are just shy of 90k. A good part of that is plumbing & electrical and extra building works as im a complete fool with the tools and shouldnt be trusted building things so a pro is doing the work.
The roof colour is colorbonds WOODLAND GREY.
Ill compress some pics now and see if i cant get them up by the end of the day :)

[dazzler]

Love it!