Large Tank Transport in Sharptown, Maryland

A house moving and lifting project can be a complex process. Pricing these jobs is more than only knowing the square footage or the distance moved. Be wary of any relocation contractor that gives you a final estimate without making an onsite visit. An onsite visit allows us to identify all the variables needed in order to develop an accurate estimate for the lift or move of your home.
Variables that can affect the cost and feasibility of a job are:

• Working room
• Type of construction (wood frame, stone, concrete, brick, block, veneer, etc.)
• Measurement under your house between the crawl space and the bottom of your first floor
• Condition of the building
• Type of foundation under the current structure
• Type of foundation to be installed
• For relocation jobs, move route clearance

If you are interested in finding out what it would cost to move or lift your structure, Contact Us today with your questions and Get a Quote.

Permit requirements differ in every municipality, it is always best to check with your local building official to verify what is needed in your area. That being said, in most places there is no permit specifically for lifting or moving your home, the exception being the State of New Jersey. Once the home is elevated or moved to its new location, a new foundation will have to be built for the home to be set on. The construction of a new foundation always requires a building permit. Building and construction-related permits are to be obtained by the homeowner or General Contractor. Expert House Movers Inc. only obtains over the road permits for house moves.

Expert House Movers Inc. serves the Mid –Atlantic region of the United states for small to medium size projects, including the Eastern Shore of Delmarva, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Northern Virginia and New Jersey. For larger more complex projects and jobs that involve historic stone, brick and masonry buildings, we cover the lower 48 states.

We would love to talk to you today about your potential project and answer your questions. All job quotes require an onsite visit. Please Contact Us at 800-669-7315, by e-mail at expmover@aol.com, or fill out a form on this website. Someone will get back to you within 24 hours or the by the end of the next business day.

Before Expert House Movers starts work on any elevation or relocation job, the HVAC systems, gas, water, sewer, as well as any underground electric service, need to be disconnected from the house. This work will be done by each respective trade professional or coordinated by a General Contractor in charge of running the job. After the house is set back down on its new foundation, it will also be the responsibility of the General Contractor, or other trade professionals hired by the home owner, to reconnect all of these utilities back, reestablish entry ways, grade around the house, and install landscaping.

A majority of our projects are completed with little to no damage to the homes being lifted or moved, however it is not unreasonable to expect small cosmetic damage to drywall and sheet rock. Typically this damage does not happen during the lift or move process, but when the house is lowered onto the new foundation. The main reason for this is because the old foundation may not be as level as the new. Expert House Movers works with the General Contractors, masons and/or carpenters onsite to limit this differential settlement during the lowering process.

Expert House Movers is not a turn-key, full service contractor, and do not typically install foundations. We are more than happy to refer masonry contractors we have worked with in your area in the past. Any experienced mason is fully capable of installing a foundation under a house that has been lifted or moved and Expert House Movers will work with your contractor to ensure they are familiar with our process and coordinate our services so the estimating and execution of the job goes smoothly. If your job is located on the Delmarva Peninsula we can provide the option to include the foundation installation.

The fastest way to find out if your home is in a flood plain is to visit the FEMA Flood Map portal. https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search?AddressQuery It is as simple as entering your address to view the most up to date flood maps direct from FEMA.

The second way you can identify which flood zone you are in is to have a licensed surveyor supply you with an “Elevation Certificate”. In almost all cases, an Elevation Certificate is a required document for the financed purchase/sale of a home or building permit for residential construction in a flood plain.

The surveyor will come out to your house, shoot the elevations of your floors and the lowest horizontal structural members, and compare those to pre-existing benchmarks. The elevation certificate will tell you yours home’s elevation in relation to sea level. Cross reference the location of your home with the latest FEMA flood maps to identify if you are in a flood zone.

The simple answer is YES! Expert House Movers Inc. specializes in raising and moving historic masonry structures, and has been doing so successfully for over 70 years. We use a unified hydraulic jacking system on every job. This system allows us to lift multiple jacks with different weights at the same rate, maintaining the structural integrity of your home at all times.

Almost any building can be lifted or moved regardless of age, condition or quality of the construction. During an onsite visit, we will identify the methods and materials used to build the structure, as well as assess areas that have deteriorated over time. If deemed necessary, structural repair work and bracing will need to be completed before lifting the home.

The answer is, “It depends.” Lifting or moving a building, with a concrete slab floor, can be done one of two ways:

A. Slab Separation – This method is where you lift only the walls and roof, leaving the concrete slab floor behind. The inside of the house has to be gutted approximately 4’ above the floor to expose the wall studs to which we attach ledgers to carry the weight of the house. Once the house has been lifted or moved, the new foundation is installed and a wood frame subfloor is typically constructed onto which the house is lowered.
B. Concrete Slab on Grade Lift/Move- This method entails carrying the whole structure including the concrete slab floor. Homes with concrete slab floors are built using two different techniques. The first is a monolithic poured slab, which is integrated into the footing of the structure. The second is called a floating slab floor, where the house has a traditional foundation sitting on a footing with the concrete slab floor not attached to the wall but resting on compacted fill. Floating slabs are very hard to lift because they are typically not structural and not attached to the exterior walls. Many times the cost of properly trying to lift a house with a floating slab floor outweighs the expense of using the slab separation method.

The Matyiko family name has been synonymous with the house moving industry since the early 50’s, when Big John Matyiko, Sr. started moving houses in Virginia Beach, VA. From those humble beginnings, he created a family of movers and lifters that would cross generations and spread out across the country. 70 years later, there are over 15 family members currently working throughout the industry. Some are employed by other movers, while others have independent structural moving companies in different parts of the nation. Jerry Matyiko, and his son Gabriel, own and operate Expert House Movers Inc., based out of Sharptown, MD.

Jerry Matyiko’s nephews operate house moving companies EHM Consulting, Inc. in St. Louis, MO and Expert House Movers in Virginia Beach, VA. Although we share the same family heritage, each of our companies are separate entities standing on our own individual accomplishments.