Watch the video and read the entire Asbury Park Press article here.

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There are many scenarios where lifting your home can be a viable option. Some of the most common examples are flooding, short basement/crawlspace, adding another story and commercial renovation.

Flooding

Each year different areas of the country get more rain than what the local rivers, canals and storm drains can handle. If your home or local business is in one of these areas and has been flooded once or many times, we can help. You will need to find out from the town where the 100-year flood plain is for your property. Lifting above this level will give you added protection from the big storms and many times will cut your flood insurance drastically. Sometimes houses need to be raised just one block (8″) and sometimes they need 12′ or more. No matter what height you would like to lift your structure, Wolfe House and Building Movers can handle your project with ease and support it in place while your mason builds the foundation underneath. Read this page about flood elevation to learn more.

Adding Head Room to Your Basement/Crawlspace

If you live in a house with only a 6′ basement, a partial basement or even just a crawlspace, than this service could be an excellent choice for you. In this case there are two different options or combinations that can happen. Option number one is to raise your house to an elevation that gives you the desired head room in your basement area. Option number two is to support your house right where it is and excavate below it for the desired basement space. Any combination of those two options is possible and we at Wolfe House Building Movers would be happy to discuss those options with you to figure out what the best solution would be. Also, it would be wise in many cases to consult an architect for a professional opinion on what option should be chosen.

Adding Another Story

Many people don’t realize that adding a second or third story under a lifted house can be a viable option. This option means that you don’t have to waste time and money in removing and rebuilding a perfectly good roof as well as cleaning or remodeling the story under the roof. Wolfe House Movers can lift the existing structure up 9′ to 12′ to just above the new desired height. A new wood floor system is then built on the existing foundation walls and exterior frame walls set in place. Once all the bearing points are in place, Wolfe House Movers will return and set the house down onto the newly constructed first floor.

Commercial Renovation

When your business needs more space there are several solutions that we can help with. We can lift the roof of your structure up to give you added height. Whether you have a residential type building or a large warehouse roof, Wolfe House & Building Movers have the expertise and the equipment to lift the roof up 1 foot or 30 feet to give you as much space as you can use. If it suits your purposes better, we can raise your building from any point in the wall rather than an entire building lift or just a roof lift.

Concrete Slab Floors

Although concrete slab floors seem to be immovable, Wolfe House Movers have lifted and moved many structures including their concrete floors. For a residence or a business; if the building is nice inside and you can’t afford to be out of it long at all, we can lift the slab floor right up with the building. Once lifted, there must be at least a 4′ crawl space built under it and permanent steel beams set underneath it every 5′ for support. The alternate to lifting the slab floor would be to lift the house up off of the slab. This would require the entire lower floor of the house to be emptied (lower cabinets, furniture, appliances, bathroom fixtures, etc.) and the steel lifting beams to be installed through the frame walls at approximately 3′ to 4′ above the floor. Once the house is lifted, the foundation walls can be built up and a new wood floor system built. Then the house will be set back down onto the wood floor system. This will require a significant amount of remodeling (drywalling, painting, etc.) to be done on the lower 4′ of the walls.

Please contact us for more information

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KINGSTON – Randy Granger loves spending time on the wraparound front porch of his home on the Wyoming Seminary campus. When the weather warms, he is looking forward to gazing out from the porch again, this time at an altogether different view.

On Thursday, construction crews moved the house Granger, academic dean of Wyoming Seminary, shares with his wife and three daughters about 250 feet from North Sprague Avenue to the corner of North Maple Avenue and West Hoyt Street, turning it 180 degrees along the way.

“I can watch field hockey and lacrosse games from my front porch now,” Granger said, referring to the athletic fields across the street from his house’s new home. “It will be weird when we move back into it. We kind of got used to where we were, and we’ve got to get used to a new neighborhood, in a sense.”

Wyoming Seminary is moving the building, formerly 286 N. Sprague Ave., and demolishing three others – all owned by the school and used to house faculty – to make room for a new creative arts building on Sprague Avenue. The private high school chose to preserve the home rather than demolish it because of its historic significance and aesthetic appeal.

“It’s beautiful inside with a lot of hand-carved woodwork,” Granger’s wife, Natalie, said. “It’s really lovely.”

Probably built in the early 20th century, the three-story, four-bedroom house was formerly owned by Harry C. Roat, a 1909 Seminary graduate and prominent local businessman who owned a hardware store on Wyoming Avenue, according to school spokeswoman Gail Smallwood.

Roat’s son, Arthur, bequeathed the home to Wyoming Seminary after his death in 1988.

Crews from Wolfe House Movers LLC, of Bernville, prepared for the move Wednesday and Thursday morning by punching holes in the house’s basement walls to install steel I-beams to support the house, lifting it about 5 feet with a unified hydraulic jacking machine, and backfilling its foundation with dirt.

Then a delicate dance of workers and machinery began.

Six power dolly hydraulic drivers – Smartcar-sized four-wheel carts with hydraulic lifts on top – were placed beneath the house and wired to a power unit on the back porch. Once connected, the carts could move as one unit, manipulated by a remote control operated by crew leader Jamin Buckingham. Standing directly under the house during much of the move to see the wheels better, Buckingham turned the home about 135 degrees, moved it diagonally across its back yard, then completed the 180 degree turn and guided it down a slope to its new location.

“I’ve done this for years and years and years,” he said, nonchalant, after stepping from beneath the 110-ton structure.

As the machines did the heavy lifting, workers and forklifts circled the house, laying down a track of steel plates for the house to drive over.

In all, the move took about three hours.

The structure was then placed on hardwood cribbing on top of the new foundation footer, which will support the structure as crews from A. Pickett Construction, Kingston, build new foundation walls underneath.

“It’s definitely a unique project,” said Levi Bonnice, the project manager for A. Pickett. “It’s not very often you’re building foundation dimensions to a building that already exists. It’s critical that you get everything exact because the house already exists and you can’t modify things to make it work.”

Bonnice said the foundation should be finished around Christmas.

Sem moved the house and will demolish two additional houses and a four-unit apartment building – all owned by the school – to make room for a new creative arts center it hopes to open by fall, 2014, as well as additional parking. Construction is expected to begin this spring.

John Vaida, chair of the school’s fine arts department, said the school has outgrown its current performing arts facilities as its music program has expanded. Sem currently has an 85-member choir; 50-member orchestra; wind, string and hand bell ensembles; jazz band and madrigal singers, and some groups have resorted to rehearsing in hallways for lack of space, Vaida said.

“We have so many students involved in music making right now,” Vaida said. “Between the orchestras, choirs (and) the different ensembles, there just isn’t enough space for everyone who wants to use it.”

Final plans for the project will not be approved until the school’s Board of Trustees meets today, but they are expected to include a 600-seat auditorium with theater stage, art gallery, dance studio and several classrooms and rehearsal spaces.

According to school President Kip Nygren, the new arts center will supplement, not replace, its existing performing arts buildings – the Buckingham Performing Arts Center on Sprague Avenue and the Great Hall on Wyoming Avenue.

“What we realized a few years ago was our arts program – since the time the Buckingham Performing Arts Center was built – has become a really high-quality program,” Nygren said. “The quality of the program has really exceeded the quality of the facilities, and to continue to have a top-quality program we need to have top-quality facilities.”

The Buckingham Performing Arts Center was constructed in 1977.

The move Thursday drew a crowd of onlookers and slowed traffic as passing motorists craned their necks to watch.

“This is amazing; how many people ever get to see this?” asked Ginny Ricci, who lives caddy-corner to the home on North Sprague Avenue.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Christina Thomas, a 17-year-old Wyoming Seminary Junior from Drums, said as she watched the house make the descent towards it final resting place. “It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I’m kind of afraid it’s going to collapse, but I’m sure it will work out.”

The move didn’t thrill all in the neighborhood, however.

Kate Crossin lives with her parents, Molly and Jay Crossin, next to the house’s new location on North Maple Avenue. She said her family and other Maple Avenue residents opposed the move.

“We feel like Seminary is taking over all the houses on our street and the next street over,” she said. “We always liked it vacant because we could look out our windows; we liked the quiet.”

Nygren responded that the school has kept neighbors informed about its plans and said the campus expansion would ultimately make the neighborhood more attractive.

“In the end, this is going to be a nice area.” Nygren said. “If I owned a house in this area, I would feel good because I think property values will increase because of this, but change is always hard.”

To read the original article please click here.

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Workers moved it onto some wheels today and began moving it farther away from Kesslersville Road in Forks Township.

The Victaulic-owned historical landmark is slated for a 17-room expansion in its new spot about 300 feet away, company officials said last week.

It previously has been used for entertaining corporate stakeholders and customers, and the renovations will allow for meetings and gatherings.

The work is being done by Wolfe House and Building Movers, along with about a dozen other vendors. The renovations are scheduled for completion in 2014.

To read the original article please click here.

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It took hours for a crew from Wolfe House & Building Movers to prepare and then transport the 30-foot-tall Harpur College monument from its longtime spot along the Vestal Parkway to its new home: the Harpur Quad.

The plaza is being developed behind the science complex, fine arts facilities and the Library Tower. It’s intended to establish a physical identity for BU’s largest school and symbolize the importance of the liberal arts and sciences at Binghamton, according to BU.

The Harpur Quad’s grand opening is scheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 13 during homecoming weekend. During the event, the Harpur College Wall of Excellence, located on the ground floor of Library Tower, also will be unveiled.

To read the original article please click here.

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This brings up the question of how to fully protect a home from flooding. There are options available for people who want to relocate and those who want to remain in the same location by elevating their home.

The Dilemma for Home Owners Wanting To Relocate

Homeowners are naturally attached to their house and regard it as one of their most valuable assets. Additionally, homeowners develop sentimental emotions towards their home over time. This makes abandoning a home and moving to a new location all the more difficult. Moreover, going through the process of getting a new home financed or trying to sell a flood-prone house in an area such as Binghamton during a challenging housing market are all discouraging options for homeowners. Therefore elevating their homes in order to mitigate flood risk is a wise option. Moving a house is also a consideration from homeowners of historic or preserved homes that are unfortunately located in flood zones along the Susquehanna.

House Lifting as a Rising Alternative for Flood Prone Areas

House lifting can be a win-win solution for residents living in areas like Broome County, Binghamton and other flood prone areas, especially those who simply cannot relocate to another location for various personal and sentimental reasons. Raising a house above the base flood elevation gives it added protection from storms and cuts down on flood insurance. It entails elevating the entire physical structure either on stilts or on concrete foundations so that flood water can run underneath or through it, leaving your main living space untouched.

Before House Lifting	After House Lifting

This seemingly impossible task is done with the help of steel beams, hydraulic jacks and a Unified Jacking System which keeps the house stable during the lift. Appliances such as HVAC and heat pumps can also be lifted to prevent them from getting damaged and to ensure that all house utilities are functioning as the flood water gushes below.

Wolfe Can Help Raise your Home above Flood Level

With over 40 years of hands-on experience under their belt, Wolfe House and Building Movers have established themselves as a trusted name in structural moving and lifting in the United States particularly along the East Coast in states such as Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and more. By utilizing an expert crew and the latest in house lifting equipment, Wolfe House Moving has become a reputable go-to source for all home elevation and relocation projects big or small. If you live in a flood prone area, you can count on them for a safe, insured, damage-free home lifting service carefully planned out to withstand even the fiercest of floods.

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Wolfe House and Building Movers of Bernville, Pa., proved up to the task of raising the circa 1875 church, working for building contractor Victor MacSorley. MacSorley and his crew can now begin the task of building a new foundation, onto which the historic church should be settled in a few weeks. Then Wolfe house movers will return to carry out a reverse operation of Tuesday afternoon’s job.

Renovation of Christ Rock Church is finally possible through the efforts of the Friends of the Stanley Institute — the one-room schoolhouse across the road from the church. Both buildings have important roles in the history of the black community in this area.

Friends of the Stanley Institute President Herschel Johnson credits his entire organization for working to raise nearly $350,000, primarily through grants, to finance renovation of Christ Rock Church. It is, in part, because of this effort that Johnson recently received the Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area’s Individual Achievement Award, though Johnson credits all of the members of the organization.

Johnson said the project has received a total of $250,000 in grants from the Maryland Historical Trust, including two $100,000 grants through its African American Heritage Preservation program. A total $100,000 in matching funds is also required for these grants, nearly all of which has been raised, Johnson said, through fundraising and donations.

Once a new foundation has been created and the old church has been set back in place, MacSorley said, the church will receive new siding, shutters, some new windows to match existing stained-glass windows and other improvements.

The goal, Johnson said, is to restore Christ Rock Church as it appears in a 1931 photograph in the Stanley Institute museum’s collection. The photograph was taken 20 years after the last renovation of the church in 1911.

Looking at the old timbers revealed in preparation for raising the structure, MacSorley points to beams original to the 1875 structure and believes siding matching from 1889 suggests that is when the bell tower was added to the church.

One mystery is found on the back of the church’s cornerstone. The front of the cornerstone duly notes that dates of construction and renovation of the church in Cambridge.

The back of the stone reads, “Simpson Chapel, the Rev. C.A. Horsey, 1889 — the same year the major renovation, with the bell tower addition, occurred at Christ Rock Church.

An Internet search shows a Simpson Chapel United Methodist Church in Rio Grande, Ohio, and a Simpson Memorial Chapel in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

To read the original article please click here.

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The Harnish House has witnessed rolling fields of arable land transformed into a busy roadway, upscale residential and commercial lots and the sprawling campus of Willow Valley’s Manor and North retirement communities.

Now, those 154-year-old bricks have a new perspective.

Inch by inch, the 340-ton farmhouse moved some 300 feet Thursday morning.

The job — estimated to take six hours but accomplished in less than two — preserved the Harnish House from demolition. The building will be repurposed to service a new recreation area in Providence Park, Willow Valley’s next generation of residential units.

Workers started moving the house at 8:59 a.m. and ground to a halt at 10:44 a.m. A pair of forklifts was kept busy throughout the process, hopscotching steel plates along the route to provide stability.

Motion was almost indiscernible, visible more by watching the slow turning of the wheels than by watching the house itself.

Bob Martzall, project manager for Creative Construction Solutions, said the building was lifted off its foundation on Tuesday.

Workers from Wolfe House & Building Movers dug a broad trench around the home so holes could be knocked through basement walls. Steel support beams were inserted beneath ground-level floorboards.

“Once they get it up on the beams, it’s pretty much business as usual,” Martzall said.

Five sets of heavy chains were wrapped around the house, linking steel braces at each corner to bolster the brick walls. The rear wooden porch was removed, with steel plates and beams used to support upper levels.

The move itself, powered by remote-controlled hydraulic engines, was smooth sailing.

Although the house was empty, Martzall said he doubted any furnishings would have been damaged had they remained.

“You could let your china sit on your dining room table and just walk away,” he said. “It would still be there when you came back.

“Because if something falls off the table, that means the house is going to fall. It can’t take that kind of motion.”

Hydraulics kept the building level as it moved over the grade, he said. Workers, using come-along winches, steered the behemoth along its route.

Thursday’s efforts were overseen by a territorial red-tailed hawk, which perched on the western chimney prior to the move, kept a watchful eye on its progress from nearby trees and utility poles, then swooped in to resume its perch on the house in time to ride the last several feet to its foundation.

“That’s the most amazing thing,” Martzall said, snapping a photo of the tawny raptor.

Once the house settled over its new foundation, Martzall said it would be kept hovering 10 feet above grade for the next few weeks as workers build up the basement walls to meet it. Once construction is complete, he said, the surrounding ground will be graded to bury the basement.

The 60-by-28-foot building, which was used as a residence until 1970, will be adjacent to a planned heated outdoor pool, tennis courts and a 30,000-square-foot clubhouse with bowling alleys, gymnasium, snack bar and video arcade, said Roseanne Macrina, director of development and public relations for Willow Valley.

“This building is going to be redesigned to have locker rooms, meeting rooms, restrooms and storage,” she said. “We’re thrilled to be able to take this historic landmark and incorporate it into the Providence Park expansion.”

Phase one of Providence Park is expected to break ground this fall and will include 40 duplex villas and two single-family homes, Macrina said. Phase two, which is a few years away, calls for 68 apartments, although Macrina said the configuration could change before construction begins.

Interest in the project has been high among Willow Valley residents, Macrina said. Dozens of residents turned out bright and early Thursday morning to watch the move — many carrying chairs to watch the proceedings from the shade — and many more who came by later in the day were surprised to see how far the house had traveled.

“This is the best entertainment we’ve had for a while,” one woman said.

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