Used Garages

[sizzler90]

I have noticed a lot of house's on the main drags where they are widening the streets are being hauled/moved away. Some of them have detached garages and they are from the street at least in pretty good shape. Is it worth the trouble to try and get one of these? What is the down side to them? I get off work to late to try and talk to the house movers to get any information and when I go by there yard no one answers the door.
Have any of you had any experience with these?

 

[Stuart in MN]

I originally had a one car garage, and when I was planning to build the four car garage I have now I found a place in town that bought and resold used garages. They bolted in some cross beams across the middle of the garage, jacked it up, backed a flatbed truck in, let it down, and drove it away. I ended up basically giving it away, but it saved me the time and money it would have taken to tear it down plus it got recycled. I don't recall what they resold them for, but it was pretty reasonable. Two car garages would cost more, of course, partly because they are more difficult to move around. I drove by the storage lot where they kept the garages they had picked up, and most of them appeared to be in pretty decent shape.

A funny aside - they moved the garage late at night to avoid traffic. The night they hauled it away, my neighbor had just got home from the bars, and was sitting on the couch watching TV. He told me the next day he thought he was hallucinating when he looked out the window and saw my garage slowly passing by.

 

[6768rogues]

I would take it apart to move it.
Years ago a friend moved a two car garage. The county wanted an expensive permit and insurance, and wanted a highway crew and a crew from every utility on hand; very expensive. That was in case a wire or sign had to be moved. He said "Screw 'em" and did it after dark. The cops caught him and he got the building to its destination with a couple of bent highway signs to pay for and a fist full of tickets. Overall, he said the illegal route was easier and cheaper than the legal route, and he would do it that way again.

 

[sizzler90]

A funny aside - they moved the garage late at night to avoid traffic. The night they hauled it away, my neighbor had just got home from the bars, and was sitting on the couch watching TV. He told me the next day he thought he was hallucinating when he looked out the window and saw my garage slowly passing by.

That would be pretty funny.

 

[Falcon67]

Houses moved off our school property year before last - 3 bedroom house sold for about $500. Move from lot to new location - $12,000. Still a deal. Detached garages all plowed into scrap. Most were junk anyway.

 

[kbs2244]

The easiest way I have ever done it was with a semi flatbed.

We removed the roof and just saved the joists and rafters.

We used a backhoe as a crane.
With a chain out to the 2/3 point of the wall and wrapped around the top plate, we used a Sawsall to cut the nails and separate the walls at the corners.
The backhoe swung the wall over and laid it on the trailer.
One wall on top of the other.

Since the walls were 8 foot tall, when laid flat they were 8 foot wide.
That meant no special permits.

The slab was ready at the new site, so the next morning we just reversed the process.

We did break the glass in the windows.