Maybe you are moving house and the building is worth taking. Maybe it is in the wrong corner of the yard, or the new fence went in and now the doors open into it. Whatever the reason, moving a storage building is a routine job for someone with the right equipment and a genuinely bad idea for someone without it.
Here is what the job involves, what it costs, and how to work out whether it is worth doing at all.
Can you move it yourself?
For a small building on skids, over flat ground, a short distance, with several people and some patience: sometimes yes. Pipe rollers and a lot of care can shift a 8×10 across a lawn.
Beyond that, the honest answer is no, and not because we want the work. The failure modes are expensive:
- The floor frame racks as soon as it is lifted unevenly, and the building never sits square again
- A building that looks light is not. A 10×16 wood building runs well over a ton.
- Buildings tip. A tipped building is usually a written-off building, and it is the point at which somebody gets hurt.
- Straps in the wrong place crush trim and siding
The buildings we see damaged in transit are almost always the ones that were moved by a homeowner and a borrowed trailer.
What a professional move actually involves
We use a shed mule, a self-propelled machine that slides under the building, lifts it as a single unit and carries it out. The building stays level throughout, which is the entire point: it is being carried rather than dragged or jacked at the corners.
A typical move runs like this:
- We look at both ends of the job, either in person or from photos and measurements you send.
- We confirm access: gate widths, overhead branches and wires, slope, soft ground, corners the machine has to turn.
- On the day, the building is lifted, brought out, transported and set on its new base.
- It is releveled at the new location and the doors are checked before we leave.
What affects the cost
There is no single number, because the variables move it a lot. What matters most:
- Distance. Across the yard is a different job to across the county.
- Access at both ends. This is the big one. A clear straight run to an open yard is straightforward. A narrow side gate, a tight turn between the house and a fence, or a soft muddy approach adds time and sometimes equipment.
- Size and weight. Larger and taller buildings need more machine and more care.
- Obstacles. Low branches, power lines, fences that need panels removed, septic fields you cannot drive over.
- The new base. If the new spot needs a pad built first, that is site prep work on top of the move.
Anyone quoting you a firm price without asking about access is guessing. We would rather ask the questions and give you a real number.
How to prepare
The move goes faster and cheaper when the building is ready. Before we arrive:
- Empty it, or at least remove anything heavy and anything that can shift. Contents move around and break things.
- Clear the path. Trim branches, move vehicles, take down a fence panel if that is the way through.
- Have the new base ready and level. A move to a spot that is not prepared becomes two visits.
- Tell us about anything buried: septic lines, irrigation, a soft spot where a pool used to be.
If you are unsure whether the access works, send photos. It takes us a minute to look and it saves everybody a wasted trip.
When moving is not worth it
Sometimes the honest advice is to leave it. If the building is already failing at the floor frame, if the siding is soft at the base, or if it is a small economy building and the move is a long one, the cost of moving can approach the cost of replacing it with something better.
We will tell you if that is what we think. It is a smaller job for us but it is the right answer, and you would work it out eventually anyway.
Moving a building you bought elsewhere
That is fine. We move buildings regardless of who built them. The questions are the same: how big, how far, and what does the access look like at both ends.
Getting a number
Tell us the size of the building, where it is now, where it is going, and what the approach looks like at both ends. Photos help more than descriptions. We serve the greater Richmond area from North Dinwiddie and Charles City.
Details are on the shed moving page, or call (804) 894-8095 or (804) 894-2985. If the new spot needs a base building first, our foundation guide explains the options and our site prep crew can handle it in the same visit.