Mailing a house

[snopes]

Comment: I once heard a story a long time ago about the USPS. It said that
the reason there are size/weight limits is that someone once tried to mail
their house because it was cheaper than paying a house mover to do it.

[DemonWolf]

On a related note: I've heard that members of congress are allowed free postage for "official business." This policy is often abused and once a congressman tried to label his horse "official business."

[lord_feldon]

Since USPS doesn't have a house packing service, I would imagine that house movers would still be needed to get the house in and out of the box.

[Tarquin Farquart]

When you move house you move the contents of the house not the house itself surely?

[CannonFodder]

Nope, sometimes you really do move the house.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by CannonFodder

Nope, sometimes you really do move the house.

Wow, that's my kind of house move! Of course I can well imagine turning up only to find someone's parked their house in your space.

[violetbon]

Originally Posted by CannonFodder

Nope, sometimes you really do move the house.

Actually, they did this to a house across the street from the school where I taught a few years ago in Indiana. We brought the kids outside to watch, and it was really interesting. They only moved the house a block, so we got to watch them pick it up, load it on the truck, drive it down the street, and put it back down. And it wasn't some tiny little manufactured home either. It was a full sized bungalow style house.

[STF]

IIRC they moved the Myers' house from the movie Halloween.

[lord_feldon]

They moved a fairly large historic home in my town about 12 years ago so they could build a huge electronics store on the site. Now it's some kind of events site or something. Another house got moved (through corn fields) so a freeway could be built over it.

[Troberg]

Nope, sometimes you really do move the house.

Yep, or the entire city.

I was in Kiruna in the north of Sweden a few months ago and stayed at the amazing Ice Hotel ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel and http://www.icehotel.com/ ). I really recommend a visit, and it's not cold to sleep, even though it's -5 degrees Celsius, as the sleeping bag keeps you comfortable. Among the events at thet trip was a visit to the city hall and a presentation about the imminent move of most of the city.

The problem is that the city lives on it's main industry, an iron mine. It's the largest underground iron mine in the world, and the ore is second to none (70% iron, theoretical maximum is 72%). The problem is that the iron body is slanting in under the city, and as they dig deeper, the ground above will settle, making it unsuitable for living. The move will take about two decades, but the first houses will be moved in the next few years as they are the closest to the mine. Among these are the city hall and the railway.

They are probably going to move the city hall with the help of a Dutch company, as it is a historical building. It's also a big house, so it will be a magnificient technical feat.

Kiruna City Hall:


What complicates things even more is that even though there are vast open areas around Kiruna, they are all designated as "national interest", in other words, they are protected for environmental reasons, as national parks, for reindeer herding or some other purpose. This means that they can't move there, so instead, they'll move to the outskirts furthest away from the mine and densify the city plan. Personally, I think that it would be smarter to ignore some national interests and make a clean move to a less cramped city plan.

Read more about the move here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiruna

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Sears and eventually other mail order companies were selling "mail order houses" back in the early 1900s. It would make more sense if someone tried to ship one of these kits using USPS.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Singing in the Drizzle

Sears and eventually other mail order companies were selling "mail order houses" back in the early 1900s. It would make more sense if someone tried to ship one of these kits using USPS.

There's a Buster Keaton film (One Week, 1920) about the perils of assembling a mail-order house. If the reality was anything like the film then I'm not surprised they went out of fashion.

The TGI Fridays on Tverskaya Ul. in Moscow was picked up and moved backwards when the road was widened - although it wasn't a TGI Fridays in those days.

[Joostik]

Originally Posted by Richard W

The TGI Fridays on Tverskaya Ul. in Moscow was picked up and moved backwards when the road was widened - although it wasn't a TGI Fridays in those days.

I couldn't find a source for that one but they did move another building on Tverskaya street:

Further expansion occurred in line with Stalin's 1935 master plan. During that period, all the churches and most other historic buildings were torn down in order to widen the street and replace low-rise buildings with larger, early stalinist apartment blocks and government offices. Arkady Mordvinov, who handled this ambitious project, retained some historical buildings, like the ornately decorated Savvinskoye Podvorye by Ivan Kuznetsov. This building was moved to a new foundation north from the new street line, and is now completely enclosed inside Mordvinov's stalinist block at 6, Tverskaya Street.

(Note: TGIF is on nr. 18)

[Richard W]

A tour guide told me that the one with TGIF in had been moved too, although she could have got the wrong building I suppose; it does say in Wikipedia that more than one was moved.

[diddy]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: I once heard a story a long time ago about the USPS. It said that
the reason there are size/weight limits is that someone once tried to mail
their house because it was cheaper than paying a house mover to do it.

I am pretty sure that size and wight restrictions were not implemented because somebody wanted to ship a house. The USPS originated in about 1775. I seriously doubt that charges on large mail would not have restrictions before than. If that were the case, than it makes sense that the USPS would model its business around other countries and their abilities to practically move mail.

[dewey]

It is not unheard of for historic houses in my area being given for free to anyone willing to move them. Between moving costs and land costs they sometimes are unsuccessful and end up demolishing beautiful old houses.

dewey

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Originally Posted by Richard W

There's a Buster Keaton film (One Week, 1920) about the perils of assembling a mail-order house. If the reality was anything like the film then I'm not surprised they went out of fashion.

They have not gone out of fashion. They are just not mail order anymore. Do a search on "kit homes" and you will find many places that sell the plans, and lumbers (some more prefabed than others) to you and ship it to your lot. For a fee they will also asmeble it as well.

[Nonny Mouse]

A couple of years back, an old church got moved to the open-air museum in Cape Breton where my aunt works. They had to load it on a barge and sail it down the Bras d'Or lakes.

Info here.

Nonny

[Roadsterboy]

They did a segment on this on Dirty Jobs. It was really very interesting-I'd seen buildings being moved, but I'd never known just how it's done.

Last fall, the old train depot in Wayne, IL was restored to a site trackside in the town. It's still "on blocks" as it were. It'll look wonderful once it's restored.

-Doug

[snopes]

Comment: A long time ago (1980's) I heard a story about a builder in
Alaska that wanted to build a concrete block building. He found it was
extremely expensive to ship the blocks to the remote village so he had the
supplier mail them and it was cheaper. Today a co-worker came into my
office and told a similar story about shipping bricks to a remote town in
Colorado.