A construction company managed to move a historic building in Canada in the most unusual way: with bars of soap.
Workers faced a major challenge moving an old Victorian hotel that weighed more than 200 tonnes.
The nearly 200-year-old iconic structure had to be moved several meters to make way for a housing project in the city of Halifax.
The company S. Rushton Construction was commissioned by the real estate agency Galaxy Properties to carry out this complex task.
“The Elmwood Hotel is a true Halifax gem and has a storied past dating back to its original construction in 1826, with notable additions of wings and additional floors in the late 1890s,” the company said.
Experts installed more than twelve steel beams and attempted to move the building using two excavators and a crane.
However, the effort was not as successful as expected. Until Sheldon Rushton had the idea to try again.
The soap ultimately solved the problem
The company owner suggested using bars of soap to make the building easier to slide on the beams.
Workers raised the building with hydraulic jacks and placed the soap bars. The next day they were crushed by the weight of the structure, making the beams slightly slippery.
In this way, it was possible to move this historic and heavy building by about nine meters using a very unusual tool such as bars of soap.
“Approximately 700 bars of Ivory Soap, along with two large excavators and a heavy-duty tow truck, quietly and slowly pulled the 220-ton building to the desired location to make room for new construction,” the company said.
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