Guide · delivery day
Delivery and crane day, demystified.
What transport and the lift cost, the access checklist that predicts your quote, and what happens hour by hour.
A 3.4m module travels without pilot vehicles; 4.0m models take an escort. Most suburban crane lifts run $3,500 to $9,000; a hard main-road lift with traffic control invoiced about $14,000 on one of our builds. Access decides the number, so it gets checked before it gets quoted.
The short version
Delivery day is two hours of choreography built on two weeks of planning. A 3.4m-wide module travels as a standard-ish wide load without pilots; 4.0m models take an escort. The crane is the cost that varies: $3,500 to $9,000 covers most suburban lifts, and a hard one, long reach over a house on a main road, ran about $14,000 with traffic control on one of our jobs. Access decides everything, which is why we look before we quote.
Transport, by width
| Series | Travels as | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| 3.4m series | Wide load, no pilots | Day travel, simple permits, suburban-street friendly |
| 4.0m series | Escorted wide load | Pilot vehicle, route planning, a real line in the quote |
Kits change the game entirely: flat-packed on a standard truck, no permits, no pilots, any driveway a delivery truck can use. It is why kits are the answer at distance and on tight sites.
What the crane costs, straight
- Straightforward: crane in the driveway or street, module over the fence line, $3,500 to $6,000.
- Longer reach or bigger module: $6,000 to $9,000 as counterweight and setup grow.
- Hard lifts: long reach over the house from a main road, traffic control, permits. Ours invoiced around $14,000. Rare, but real, and visible in advance.
The access checklist that predicts your quote
- Street width and parking: can a crane set up legally where it needs to stand?
- Power lines between crane and pad, the classic complication.
- Trees: what hangs over the lift path matters more than what stands beside it.
- Distance from crane pad to footings: reach drives crane size, and crane size drives price.
- Ground: cranes need firm, level ground for outriggers.
The day itself
- Crane arrives and sets up, usually first thing; traffic control if required.
- Module arrives on the float, rigging checked, lift plan confirmed.
- The lift: minutes, not hours, when planning was right.
- Set on footings, levelled, tied down to the engineered detail.
- Trades connect services over the following days; certifier final follows.
Wet weather moves lift days, soft ground more than rain itself. We would rather slip 48 hours than stand a crane on ground that will not hold it, and your installer should say the same.
Straight answers
Can a module go over my house?
Often yes, with the right crane. Reach over the roof drives crane size and price; that is the difference between a $5,000 lift and a $12,000 one, and it is knowable in advance from a site look.
What if my site has no crane access?
The kit answers it: flat-packed on a standard truck and assembled in place, which is exactly how tight inner-city and battle-axe blocks get done.
Who runs delivery on a kit or ex-factory purchase?
Any transport company and crane crew, working from the lift and tie-down details in your drawings. Inside our area we run it; anywhere else your installer does, and the engineering travels with the home.
Where this lands on price
Every price, every way to buy, on one page.
Kit $59,900 to finished and installed, with the all-in number printed.