moving a shed without skids

by Shellie
(Knoxville TN USA)

I have a 10x16 shed my husband built one year ago.
He passed away suddenly in August, and I have no need for the shed and I would really like to sell the shed. I have been told that he apparently never intended on moving it because he did not build it on skids or runners. I had a lady show up with cash in hand and with a tow truck, the drivers of which told me it was "impossible" to move.

Everything I have read says it is not impossible to move. So, my question is can I have skids installed underneath the shed and how much would it cost or is it really going to be impossible for me to sell my shed? Like I said, it is 10x16, flooring is built with 2x6's, and is leveled on blocks.

Please help!

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by: John

Hi Shellie,

So sorry to hear about your husband. It looks like he built a great shed.

With regards to moving it, commercial sheds are built with skids underneath running the length of the shed so that they can be moved. Typically, there will be two skids that support the floor joists. To move the shed it will be lifted at one end and wheels inserted under the end of the shed. Then the other end is lifted (possibly with a high lift jack) on to a powered ‘dolly’ to drag it to the new position.

Where sheds are to be moved to a new location across town then a vehicle recovery truck, or sometimes a specially designed shed delivery truck is used. I would think that is what your potential customer was intending to use. What they wanted to do was just reverse up to the front of the shed lower down the bed of the vehicle and then winch it on to the back. In its current form this wouldn’t have been possible as it looks like the floor joists run the length of the building.

However, I believe you are right in thinking that it would be possible to install skids to make it possible for potential buyers to easily load up your shed. To do this I would recommend that you contact a local carpenter/builder who should be I able to do the work for you. It is the sort of thing that I would do for customers local to me, but I am on the wrong side of the Atlantic for you, unfortunately!

Things to watch out for will be that the floor joists look to be running the length of the building so there may need to be a layer of timber between the underside of the joists and the top of the skids. The skids should be wider than 2" possibly 2 or three 6x2 bolted together.

The foundations piers will need to be considered so that when the customer starts to pull the shed on to the truck it doesn’t just drop of the piers at the back of the shed! So possibly some temporary piers between the ones that are there to support a wooden trackway so that the shed can slide smoothly.

And finally, the builder should do a quick look over the shed just to check all the nails etc are in and it doesn’t need any reinforcement or bracing before being moved.

This might sound like a lot of work but the preparation should take a couple of guys a day or two. So, the cost of this should be at least offset by what you manage to sell the shed for. And having the shed ready to load should increase the pool of buyers who are interested in what looks from the pictures that you have supplied to be a well-made shed.

Best of luck with the move and let me know how you get on.


Kind regards


John

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