On Thu, 10 Dec 2015 03:20:47 -0600, wrote:

Normally I can figure out a plan to do jobs, but this one has had me
drawing a blank for days.

This porch was built next to my house, but they never put walls on the
crawl space (of the house itself), behind that porch.

The crawl space on the rest of the house is made from 2x6s nailed to the
posts which support the house. The 2x6s run horizontal, and are covered
with metal siding (pole barn metal), which goes 6 to 8 inches into the
soil. Apparently they built this porch before they put the siding on the
house crawl space, so that portion of the house is wide open.

Ok, it's not "Wide open", because they built this porch from treated
framing, put deck boards on top, but also put these deck boards on the
sides, down to the soil. However, they left an opening to get under this
porch, which I temporarily covered with plywood, using a few screws so I
could remove it easily.

While this partly closes things up, there are the gaps between the deck
boards, Plus they did not put backs on the steps, so if I look between
the steps, I can see right under the house. Besides letting cold aur
under the house in winter, it lets critters get under the house, and
whatever rain and snow that can get down there.

The plan is to move the porch about 3 feet away from the house, put the
metal siding against the crawl space wall, and move the porch back where
it was.

This should be fairly easy, because the porch is free standing and not
attached to the house at all. The porch just sits on some solid concrete
blocks, an it's only 7x11 feet. (steps included). But that small porch
is built so well, that it must weigh close to a ton. Last weekend I had
a friend over and we were going to lift it. We could not even lift it a
quarter inch.

Normally, I'd get my tractor over there and easily move it, but because
of the lay of the land, a retaining wall, a fence and other stuff in the
way, that is not possible at all. I cant even get the tractor on the
other side of that fence and use a chain, because there is no way to get
any machinery over there. There are no trees or solid objects to
connect a come-a-long to either.

So, it all comes down to muscle power, or some sort of jacking method.
But jacking it up means another problem. Since the sidewalls go to the
ground, there is no way to get a jack under the sides. The only place to
jack it, is under it from that opening and that would mean the jack
would only be in the center of the deck. Plus the deck floor is close to
4ft off the ground and my floor jack dont go that high. Of course I
could pile wood blocks on top of the jack, but I dont want to be under
there if the blocks tip over, which is very likely with that many
blocks.

So, I'm at a total loss how to go about this.....

Yes, I did have one thought, and that was to see if I could find someone
with a pulling horse. (Around here there are guys that have them). A
horse could get in there, by going thru the woods, whereas a tractor
cant. The horse could probably move that porch easily AWAY from the
house, but the horse cant PUSH it back when I finish my work.
So, that would not work.

Then there was the thought of finding about 6 guys to lift the thing.
I'm sure 6 guys could, but because those side walls go to the ground,
there is not enough space for that many guys to grab it.
Another NO....

So, I'm back to square one ????????

Any ideas?

Engine hoist? Could you build a temporary tripod over a corner
then use a rope fence stretcher or come along to lift each corner
individually?
Then put a furniture moving dolly under each corner and roll it that three
feet.
You'd probably have to put some boards under the dollies so they'd move.
Would round fence posts work better as rollers to move it once it's
lifted?


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