Moving a house (if lava comes)- Urban legend?

[Greg]

Buy a lowboy trailor, and you'll be the one in demand.

[lquade]

yeah stillhope, when we moved the church it was 82? 84? cant remember but there wasnt alot out there, the old store that burned and a few homes. same time lava went through HOVE, if it happens today there are hundreds of homes instead of a handful. it depends on the flow. we had plenty of time with the church, it was moving slow and we had it all jacked up and the flatbed ready to roll under, just watching the lava. it was so hot on your feet as it inched along and we were just waiting till we knew for sure we had to move it... much different with a fire, or lava bombs when you got to get in and get out quickly...it was a beautiful place but we were happy we lived out of danger in mountain view as much safety as possible when living on the slopes of one of the worlds most active volcanos!!

[Kelena]

Beautiful pictures of this move in Frankie Stapleton's "Aloha O Kalapana". Thank you for moving the church.

[StillHope]

Lquade,you guys are heroes!

I wish someone had a video of it!

"it was a beautiful place but we were happy we lived out of danger in mountain view as much safety as possible when living on the slopes of one of the worlds most active volcanos!!"-

that sounds like from a great book . (A quote on the cover ?)

[Devany]

Great thread. It is very common in the midwest to move houses. It sometimes takes logistical help from various cities etc. to do so... and yes of course you have to have a place to move it to. I have seen 2 & 3 story victorians as wide as a 4 lane highway being moved... provided they do not have to pass a bridge.

I agree, it does sound like a great book idea. And Lquade you guys are heros. That church was one of the first places we visited on our first trip to Hawaii and I loved it then.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.travelingfork.blogspot.com

[ef9]

None of you saw the 3 houses get moved from Hilo up to Kaumana?

The 3 houses were sitauted across from Island Chevrolet (next to HELCO's main office). These houses were very old (I remember some of my classmates from Kapiolani Elem. School lived there back in the early '80s).

The 3 houses were purchased by a developer and have since been moved to Kaumana.

[leilaniguy]

My neighbors across the street from me moved thier house to Leilani from Kalapana Gardens, they still own their Kalapana land. Kalapana was destroyed in 1990. I had lived here just a few months when lava entered the subdivision. Until it started I was looking for a lot there. It was so incredibly beautiful. There were several houses moved, a row of them sat on blocks by Hwy. 130 where the painted church is now. One sat so long it collapsed.

[Carey]

The house on Makuu & 13th was moved from Hilo (not for lava, but it was done...) a couple of years ago... There are companies on island that can move a house & there is a permitting process to move a house (wide load stuff...) on the roadways.... Do not know if there are emergency permits for lava flow,... That was an older, smaller, narrow plantation home. Newer wider, homes might present some more moving problems...

Some of the homes in Kalapana that moved were moved onto other properties that the family owned...

The easiest homes to move in case of lava would be container homes that are mounted on high enough rails to allow wheels under.
Most newer construction construction homes would be harder to move (those ties that bind the structure must be cut!)

[StillHope]

Thank you, ef9,Leilaniguy and Carey.

Moving permit -that is something new...

[Carey]

Stillhope, Structure moving permits are nothing new, been around for way over a half century (as they were not new when I was a kid...)
I know that in Illinois & Wisconsin, when you move a house you have needed roadway permits (usually the overhead utility companies have to sign off on the route, sometimes even having to have crews along the route to move wires out of the way... and the route is usually published in the paper for a time before the move, as the house moving equipment normally blocks off streets during the move..)

I am surprised that you have never seen a house move... they are done almost everywhere... sometimes to preserve an old structure that is in a spot that has other potential, sometimes to move a family home out of the way of road construction... there are many that are bought to be moved, so that the land they are on can be used, without demolishing a useable structure, as was the case of the Hilo home in HPP...