House Move - The Wain's move their 2 story colonial house. House Movers, moving a house

House Move Disaster
The Scenic Ridge House Moves
September 3, 1999

* This was one of the houses from our neighborhood which was moved 9 months after we had moved our house. Unfortunately the move was unsuccessful.

Pulling out onto Gill Hall Rd. Time 9:33am.	Getting ready to go up road.	Going up the road.
	Tree to left had to be cut down for house to fit.	The house had finally reached its property where it would sit at about 1:30pm. The house movers where in the process of making a 180 degree turn when the hydraulics pin went on the one set of wheels and the house shifted and all the bricks came down. It took only a second and looked as if someone was blowing up the house. Then they realized one of the workers was buried under the brick ruble. People ran and helped to dig him out but unfortunately he did not make it. He was Verl James Wolf Jr. age 43, son of the owner of the house moving company.
Bricks as they were falling off house.
Aftermath front view of house	Aftermath back view of house. Hole is where full size bay window use to be. Inside the 2nd floor is cracked away from 1st floor.	View through bay window area. You can see one of the cracks running up the inside wall.
It was decided to demolish the house right where it sat and then shovel ruble off onto property. Where it fell was right on the road, making it impassable for cars & power could not be restored to nearby homes until house was cleared away. Seen is backhoe scooping away first level support walls.	1st level walls being removed until second floor falls.	Second floor falls and backhoe goes to work demolishing what's left.
Ceiling fan from master bedroom gets caught on backhoe.

This was just a freak unfortunate accident. This was the first house Wolf House Movers (from Bethel, PA -Lancaster County) had lost in their 30 years of being in business. The only difference between our house movers (Schepp House Movers) and Wolf, was that Schepp didn't use a hydraulic wheel system. Wolf did a great job of moving the house, as did Schepp! It was just a freak accident that Wolf's hydraulics broke when they did. The day after this tragedy I had every news station interviewing me asking me after seeing this would I still move my house. I said absolutely, I told them it was no different than when a plane crashes, a car wrecks, or you fall off your bike, you get up and go on. These things happen, you just don't know when or where. So if anyone is considering moving a house GO FOR IT!!!

A great big thanks to the Mashuda Corporation who is doing work for the PA Turnpike Commission for the Mon Fayette Expressway. They brought in their heavy equipment at their expense & took the time to help remove the house ruble so they could re-open the road & restore power to area homes. Mashuda also came out in July '99' and cleaned up fallen trees, etc... after the terrible microburst storm. It seems that the news only reports the negative things about the Expressway & the Turnpike so we just wanted to let everyone know of the many good things they have done for our community.

Update Oct 1999: The two families that owned the house that fell & 3 others had to move their other 3 houses by the Turnpikes deadline. The Turnpike had worked around the houses for as long as they could (9 months). So when this accident happened and they couldn't move their other homes they had run out of time. We decided to let them put the homes on our property, otherwise the Turnpike was going to demolish them. None of the area land owners would give permission to move their homes onto their property because of legal issues. Since we had 1.5 acres, no neighbors just woods around us we decide we would risk the legal issues and save their homes. We did receive a notice from Jefferson Boro saying we are in code violation because we are not zoned for four houses and they must be removed within 30 days. They did not take any further action. Certainly hope they would not since the homes are only on our property temporarily. They are actually considered cargo without a foundation underneath them, not a house, so no zoning violation is actually occurring. I hope being a good samaritan does not get us in trouble and hope Jefferson Boro will see it this way too. It is to the Boro's advantage because once the homes are relocated the Boro will collect taxes on all 3 of them.

Update Nov. 16, 1999: We are happy to report one of the houses was successfully moved to the same location that the house that fell was taken to, except this time the move went perfect! (Wolf House Movers moved the house) The house looks great up on the top of the hill where it now sits. It has a incredible view of the valley & hills below!!! Only 2 more houses to move and everyone will be happy!!!

Update April 28, 2000: One of the two houses left on our property is scheduled to be moved in May, 2000. It will not be going far, only up Gill Hall Rd. about 500ft. to a lot on the left. If the house is moved as scheduled we will only have 1 house left on our property. Hopefully it will be moved before the Turnpike finishes the bridge (this summer). Once the bridge is done it will cross over Gill Hall and the house cannot be moved.

May 9 & 11th, 2000: The last two houses which were sitting in our backyard were successfully moved, pictured below. Ending the Scenic Ridge House Moves!

June 1, 2001: More than a year since they were moved off our property the last two houses moved are still not functional or occupied. The foundations are completed but no plumbing has been hooked up yet.

June 1, 2002: Another year and one house is completed and the family that moved it has moved in. There is still one house sitting vacant waiting to be sold.


Houses went down the dirt path & then up Gill Hall Rd. You can still see the roof of the one house in our backyard above the word was.	House #1 sitting at top of dirt path.	House ready to be moved.	House is just being pulled out onto Gill Hall Rd.

Going up Gill Hall.	She just squeaked by the railings, trees and telephone poles.	House at entrance to new lot. Movers had to crib it up and switch the wheels around so they could pull it up driveway. No room to turn it around.	My husband Gary goofing off before directing traffic. He really enjoyed it, even though most people were nasty because they couldn't get by.

I took a turn turning away traffic.	House starting up driveway path.	Continuing up driveway.	Second & last house making it's way up Gill Hall. This house is owned by the Dietrich's who also owned the house that fell.

House reaches driveway.	Movers turning around wheels.	Foundation hole where 2nd house will sit.	House starting up driveway path.
			And that Ends the Scenic Ridge House Moves!
House finally reaches its final destination.	Houses moved just in time. The beams for expressway will be installed across Gill Hall Rd. on May 16th, blocking the path of the houses.	First beam is put in place across Gill Hall Rd. on May 16, 2000. The houses wouldn't have fit underneath.