How to Move a Storage Shed

Are you trying to figure out how you will move your storage shed during your upcoming move? It’s like a second building on your property and it’s definitely something you shouldn’t try to move on your own. Since you’ll already have a professional moving company in Chicago helping you, you’ll want to let them know to expect a shed will need to be moved too.

By Tonniedixon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

While it’s a simple item that lacks any awkward shapes like your furniture or delicateness of your fragile items, it is still very heavy and large. Take a look at how a storage shed is moved and why your moving crew will need to have a heads up before the move.

Securing it first

The first thing that the movers will do is secure the shed since they aren’t made to be secured while being lifted or pushed. After removing it from the ground, they lose their sturdiness. Your movers will need to support any weak spots, remove the windows, and even attach boards to keep it in its current shape.

Digging and jacking it up

Next, your movers will have to dig underneath the shed to place the jacks needed for lifting. They will likely dig in each corner for four access points to place the jacks down, but in some cases, may be able to just dig in two places. After that, jacking it up to the needed height will happen and when there are four jacks, it makes it easy to lift the entire structure at one time.

For some jobs, they would jack one side up, prop it with blocks, and then relocate the jack to continue lifting. They will have to delicately decide the right height to jack it up since the higher it is raised, the more careful they will have to be. This is also the time to check for damages or rotted areas on the bottom of your shed.

Moving to the truck

Now the movers will be able to move it to the truck. They may roll it on a conveyor belt-style of piping across your yard or they may move it by machine. On a machine, they would place it on a trailer after sliding it on the trailer. In some cases, sheds have even been moved using a crane or forklift.

Things to keep in mind

Before any of the process starts, you’ll want to make sure you’ve prepared the shed by removing all items. It’s time to empty the shed out because that excess weight and unsecured items will make it more likely that your shed will get damaged along the process.

You’ll then want to make sure you’ve planned for a path and cleared it for your moving crew so that they have a sufficiently wide, dry, and not so steep option. You can even put down a brick pad for a place to land the shed close to the moving truck’s location. Look for hanging tree branches that could get in the way.

If you don’t want to move it

In some cases, it’s just not worth taking the shed with you. It makes a great selling point for listing the home and your new house may already have a shed. It’s also a chance to start fresh with something new. If you feel that you don’t want to move the shed but you need a place to put all of your shed’s materials, talk to the moving crew about their storage units that offer you a place to store your things during your move. You may even want to keep one all year to store your seasonal items!

If you were wondering how it will go moving the storage shed, this is a look at the process of what your movers will do on moving day.