Image: One of the two units used for the house relocation was a Kenworth W924 hauling a three-axle TRT fully hydraulic house moving trailer. The steep bank of the river necessitated careful manipulation of the trailer lifting hydraulics to keep the house level.
Relocating a 100-square-metre house from Ngatea to a lifestyle property on the Coromandel Peninsula may sound like a reasonably easy move, but Progressive House Movers had to overcome a significant obstacle: a narrow forest road and the flood-prone Whangamaroro River.
By Richard Silcock.
Relocating a house to a remote part of the Coromandel and living a self-sufficient lifestyle away from the trappings of modern-day life was the dream of Progressive House Mover’s client, Ashlee Dunn. Dunn had owned the vacant farmland property for nine years and was looking for an affordable solution to establish a free-standing house on the site.
Inland from Kaimarama on State Highway 25 south of Whitianga, the cleared and elevated farmland site affords views of the Whitianga Harbour and is surrounded by native bush and stands of macrocarpa and radiata pine trees with abundant bird life.
Access to the site from the highway is via a narrow unsealed forestry road, a distance of some 15 kilometres through dense overhanging native bush and over several high-sided one-lane bridges before reaching a reserve and access to the Whangamaroro River.
Andrew (Andy) Silcock of Progressive House Movers says he saw the job as an interesting challenge that would draw on their 25 years of experience in the house relocating industry, and he takes up the story of what was involved.
“Very early this year Ashlee had visited our house storage yard at Ngatea to discuss and view suitable houses and had settled on a two-bedroom weatherboard-clad bungalow which we had sourced from a redevelopment site in Auckland and cut into two sections for transporting,” says Andy.
“It was pretty obvious that the job could only be done in the summer months when the ground was not inundated by heavy rainfall and the river level was sufficiently low as it can evidently rise by two to three metres quite rapidly in the winter and even higher when in flood.
“As there is no bridge or formed concrete ford crossing it was critical that the river crossing was only attempted when the water level was low as we did not want to risk getting stuck or marooned midway across. Another obstacle was the steep muddy riverbanks on both sides making ingress and egress difficult.
“Unfortunately, due to a series of delays in obtaining building consent approval from the local council, the actual move date had to be pushed back to May, making the weather and the river-level all critical factors for the planned move.
“With a window of good weather forecast for several days, we swung into action and loaded the first half of the securely-braced house section onto our TRT three-axle hydraulic house moving trailer hauled by our Kenworth W924, while the other half of the house was loaded onto our MTE three-axle hydraulic house moving trailer hauled by our 500 horsepower Freightliner.
“As evening approached we pulled out of our Ngatea yard and headed for Kaimarama via SH25 and 25A, in the knowledge that the Met Service was now warning of torrential rain approaching from the south-east within the next few days.
“The next morning dawned with a heavy mist, a precursor to the impeding storm, so it was fortunate that negotiating the narrow unsealed inland forestry road to the reserve was reasonably straightforward although it was quite tight at times especially on the sharp corners, as were the two wooden high-sided bridges, which we overcame by raising the two house sections using the hydraulic lift mechanism on the trailers.
“A check on the river level indicated it was still very low, but not wanting to take any chances through the rocky riverbed we had brought along our Ford tractor fitted with a heavy-duty winch to provide additional ‘pulling power’ for the truck units as they negotiated the river and the steep muddy riverbank.
“By altering the centre of gravity using the hydraulically-operated truck turntables and hydraulically raising and lowering the house sections to keep them level, we were able to ‘caterpillar’ metre-by-metre down the bank and across the 10-metre-wide river at an angle and up onto the opposite bank. It was then just a short distance across farmland to the cleared building site.
“At the deepest point in the river the water level was around 80 centimetres deep and was just above the centre of the wheel hubs on the truck and trailers units.
“Having previously pre-drilled the piles and poured the concrete foundations in the weeks prior, the house was lowered into position using PHM single-acting hydraulic house jacks and aligned so that the two sections of the house were re-joined in a seamless reconnection.
“With the job done and our equipment loaded back onto the trucks it was then just a case of retracing our steps back through the river.
“In what was perhaps an omen of good fortune and a further sign of the approaching stormy weather, a rainbow arced across the sky as we headed out, grateful in the knowledge that we had a very satisfied and delighted client.”
On a subsequent revisit to the house several months later, Andy says the owner had installed a solar power supply, a composting toilet, tanks to capture rainwater from the roof, fitted several handmade stained-glass windows and established a large vegetable garden – all in the interests of self-sufficiency.
Parting words from Jeremy Sole- a final column