Pulling the barn to its foundation…
on Sep 17, 2011, Updated Jan 16, 2022
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In this part of the story about moving our free barn, we describe pulling the barn to its foundation and show lots of pictures of the moving company and process we used to move the barn.
This post is part of series on the round top barn my husband and I moved to our property and are in the process of restoring. You can read the other posts in the barn restoration series here.
Pulling the barn to its foundation…
After we finally got the barn moved onto our property, it was too late to pull it onto its foundation on the other side of the silo. Of course! So we had to wait. The crew parked the barn and promised to come back “tomorrow.” 🙂 I have forgotten how many tomorrows later it was when they finally showed back up, but it was certainly not the next day.
The first thing they did when they finally came back was hook up their semi to the barn. They had to pull it around the silo and place it on the new foundation we had poured weeks before. This was by far the trickiest part of the move because they had to get it exactly perfect on the foundation. “Kind-of” wouldn’t cut it.
It had been a wet fall and it was still pretty muddy. Right away, the semi got stuck. Luckily, Art (the previous barn owner) has a pretty powerful bulldozer and we fetched him to pull the semi-truck out. Amazingly it worked, but only for a while and then it was all stuck again…
Since the bulldozer couldn’t get it on its own, the house movers hooked up their skid-steer too. The bulldozer was on one side of the barn and the skid-steer was on the other. It was pretty funny seeing them pull that semi up over the foundation.
Finally, they got it in just the right spot. It took most of the morning. They placed the barn on the same jacks they had used when they first moved it, and jacked it up. Then they left.
On a side note, while Patterson’s crew was placing the barn, my kids were playing in the mud! It looks like my daughter is buried in the mud. (But she’s not). 😉
The barn was finally on our property AND on its foundation. Now what?!
Make sure to read the whole barn restoration story!
Getting the barn ready to move
Wow! That is cool! My son (age 3) would have a blast watching something like this. When they re-sealed our church parking lot (next door to our house) this summer, he was out there ALL DAY watching the work machines. Such a good experience for them!
Yes, then what? What a project! Can’t wait to hear the next part of the story.
I think it is so cool watching as your dream becomes a reality. What a sense of accomplishment you must have when you look at the barn – now that’s it’s placed 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing your progress.