FTLComm - Tisdale - May 4, 2000

Back in October Ensign showed the house across the street from McKay Towers as it was built and serviced. At the time it was believed that the old house would be destroyed when the family moved into their new house in the back yard but as it turned out instead of tearing it down it was moved. On Wednesday afternoon the moving crew eased the house off its foundation and gradually winched it out onto the moving beams. The process was executed with precision as the three

workers running the house on boards and steel pipe rollers moved the structure a few feet, repositioned the rollers and boards and then moved a few feet more. the whole process took very little time as the most difficult part of a move like this is getting the jacks in place and lifting the house up from its foundation evenly then sliding in the steel beams that will carry the house to its new resting place South of town.

House moving is a practicing skill where the mover calls on his experience and practical knowledge of "simple machines" the wedge, incline plain, roller, and the pulley to create the mechanical advantage that will allow massive objects to be moved with minimal force applied. In this picture the house is only a two metres from being positioned on the beams. Four beams are used two to move the house from its foundations and two to handle the wheels for transportation. In this picture we see the boards on the top of the beam which provide some resistance to the movement

and prevent sudden lurches. The pipe rollers are tapped with an ax or maul to keep them rolling straight and each move is slow and gradual allowing the movers time to keep things tight and stay well ahead of possible problems. This is a sturdily built house and moved at times almost effortlessly along the two outermost beams. In this picture we can see from what had been the front yard the house now almost off its foundation with a few rollers spaced out behind it just before a worker would move them up to the front.

Shortly after nine the house was moving up main street and town employees were diverting traffic around the house as it moved down the street. SaskPower had their bucket easing up the few lines that cross main street and this picture shows the house stopped as a truck with a bucket moves into position to raise a line.

Here, looking North we can see the bucket gently raising the line up and from this picture you can see that the rain has picked up a bit leaving the street shiny and putting a raindrop on my lens to blur the lower left hand corner of the picture at the top of this page.