House Moving and Raising – 1-800-490-4220

moving and raising a house

Why Our Customers Move Their Homes:

  • Sometimes the land the house sits on is re-zoned for a use other than the use that the land was zoned for when the customer bought the home. A good example would be a parcel that was originally zoned for single family use is re-zoned for multi-family or commercial use. A developer then offers our customer many times what they originally paid to purchase their land. However, the customer wants to keep their home. In this case, it makes perfect financial sense to move the home to a new property.
  • Other times, a house nearby is scheduled to be demolished, but our customer sees potential in the structure – maybe for an office or a “mother in law” apartment after a bit of renovation. In this case our customer may offer to move the home to their property, saving the third party the cost of demolition and saving themselves the cost of building a completely new structure on their own property.
  • Once in a while environmental conditions shift in such a way as to present risks to the house that were not present when it was constructed. A good example of this could be erosion of a hill or cliff side, a river that is expanding and creating a flood risk, or man made developments such as a new road or a home that is constructed nearby blocking a view.
  • We have had customers in the past that want to parcel their acreage. This can make a lot of sense for someone who has more land then they care to use or develop. When this is the case, our customer may want to move their house to another are of their land in consideration of the way the land is to be parceled. Sometimes this customer is selling some of their land, but wishes to retain privacy. Other times the customer may wish to build a rental unit or units on a portion of their land and wants to move their own house to the most desirable portion of their property in consideration of these new circumstances.
  • Last, there are times when one of our customers wishes to move, but just loves their home. We certainly understand! We have many happy memories in our own home!

How is a House Lifted and Moved?

This video is a time lapse of a home we lifted recently

The below is a general process we use when lifting and moving a house. There is often a variance in this process based on each individual situation. For specific details please contact Kunkel Moving and Raising directly.

We generally begin to prepare the house for it’s move a few weeks ahead of time. We use large and sturdy steel beams on each side of the house for support, then place sturdy timber under the beams.

Next we use our special hydraulic jacks to lift the house off of it’s foundation with the utmost care and attention. WE are insured throughout this process, and can work with you to make certain that all of the insurance requirements for your specific home and property are in place prior to the lifting process.

We use industrial strength dollies to move the house onto a platform once it is lifted, and then place to house onto one of our transporting systems (usually a specially designed flatbed semi, but we have used barges, and other specialized equipment as well).

Once the house is transported to it’s new location, we place it back on the steel beams with supporting timbers a few feet above it’s new location while we construct the new foundation. At this time it can be very cost effective to add a basement or lower level since the house is already removed from the foundation. This can add a lot of property value and square footage at a minimal cost. Finally, we lower the house onto the new foundation and seal it in.

For more information about this service please call 1-800-490-4220 or contact us using our online form. We look forward to answering any questions you might have!