Ultimate Recycling: Relocating a House

1 / 6
Bring your dream home to your dream plot of land by buying and relocating a house.
Bring your dream home to your dream plot of land by buying and relocating a house.
2 / 6
Before relocating a house, movers jack it up and place it on wooden cribs.
Before relocating a house, movers jack it up and place it on wooden cribs.
3 / 6
House movers must occasionally overcome obstacles, such as power lines and traffic lights, when moving a house.
House movers must occasionally overcome obstacles, such as power lines and traffic lights, when moving a house.
4 / 6
After a house is lifted, movers slide beams underneath to pull it onto the truck.
After a house is lifted, movers slide beams underneath to pull it onto the truck.
5 / 6
Even large, unconventional structures can be moved.
Even large, unconventional structures can be moved.
6 / 6
Condemned buildings are often cheap, and can be relocated to your land.
Condemned buildings are often cheap, and can be relocated to your land.

Watching a large house roll down the road on a truck is enough to make most of us do a double take. We tend to think of houses as being stable and stationary. With the right equipment, though, almost any house can be moved to a new location. Relocating a house is recycling on the largest scale many of us can achieve, and in addition to saving resources, this option may save you money, too.

Buying and moving a house is a possibility for anyone who finds the perfect piece of land that doesn’t include the perfect house. This scenario is especially common for homesteaders — if you’re interested in gardening, farming or raising animals, you’ll probably have to look long and hard to find land that meets your needs. Odds are not high of also getting a good house with the land you choose.

Houses are torn down all the time to make way for new highways, suburban developments or large institutions, such as an expanding hospital or university. These buildings are often sold for a song — or given away — on the condition that they’re moved off the property. The catch is that you have to pay to move a house, and even if you already own the land, you’ll have to figure in the costs of a new foundation, plumbing, utility hookups, and any other amenities. Still, moving a house can make financial sense.

Regardless of whether financial savings are your main priority, choosing an existing house is a significant way to reduce your environmental impact, because you’ll use far fewer new materials than you would if you built a new house. You may also be able to find a house with higher-quality wood and other materials than you’d likely be able to get in new construction. Or perhaps the reason you want to move a house is purely nostalgic — you’ve fallen for the charms of an older home and want to preserve it.

That was the case for Glenn and Denise Bowman. In 2006, they bought a home that was built in about 1840 and moved it to a rural property in Clarksville, Md. The house had been a fixture in their community, but it was on land owned by an auto dealership whose owners wanted to expand their business. If the house wasn’t moved, it was going to be demolished.

  • Published on Jul 2, 2013
Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368