Change of Plans

In my quest to do good and be honest, I have run into a snag. As I was filling out the paperwork for obtaining a building permit for my new shed project I called the county building permit office and inquired as to what the setback requirements were for my property. According to the county (Hanover County, VA) planning/zoning commission, my shed needs to be 25 feet from the property line. As it stands now, I have 17 feet from the property line to the intended back of the shed, where the cinder block is embedded in cement.

There are a few things that I could do to rectify the situation: 1) Move the shed forward 8 feet, or 2) move my existing 12x12 shed to this spot and move it 4 feet forward, and build the new shed where the old one was, or 3) apply to the planning commission for a variance to allow my new shed to be less than 25 feet from the property line.

I asked the planning commission to send me the packet for applying for a variance. After reading over the process (the process was going to take several months) I was about to apply for the variance until I got to the last page, fees. To apply for the variance was going to cost $600 and certainly did not guarantee that your variance would be granted. I decided that it was not worth going that route.

I could simply build a 12x12 shed and move it 4 feet further forward but I really wanted a 12x16 shed.

So that leaves me with the last idea, move the existing shed to the site I just spent $400 clearing (rental of the backhoe) and building the new shed where the old one is now. There are no setback rules that would affect me where the existing shed is sitting, so that's a good thing.

Next post here will be the steps it takes to move a 12x12 shed from its old location to its new location. A move of about 75 feet or so.

Before I do that, I will need to do a little bit of additional work to get things ready. First, I will need to place 2 more cinder blocks 4 feet further forward where I had intended to build the new shed, as seen in the videos below. This will be the base for the existing shed once its moved there. Next, I will need to get some schedule 80 PVC pipe 4 inches in diameter to use as rollers under the shed while I move it. Then get all the stuff out of the shed, jack it up and put the rollers under it and drag it to its new spot. I have a winch on the front of my truck that should make this a bit easier.

More video to come....