House removals, handled gently.
Moving house is consistently listed among the most stressful things people do, and most of that stress is not about furniture. It is about not knowing what happens next. So we tell you.
Most people move house a handful of times in a life. That means you are almost always buying something you have no real way of judging, on a day you cannot reschedule, while also dealing with solicitors and a van full of everything you own.
We take that seriously. Not by being precious about it — it is still a physical job done by people carrying heavy things — but by removing as many unknowns as we can before the morning arrives.
What happens, in order
A survey first, usually a video walk-round. Then a written figure with what it covers and what would change it. Then, on the day: protection down at both properties before anything is carried, furniture dismantled where it needs to be, everything wrapped before it goes near a doorway, loaded in an order that makes the unload sensible, and carried into the rooms you actually want it in.
We put the beds back up before we leave. The first night in a new house is hard enough without assembling a bed frame at eleven o'clock.
What you choose
- How much we pack — everything, some rooms, or just the fragile things
- Whether wardrobes travel on hangers in wardrobe cartons
- Which furniture comes apart and which travels whole
- What gets left behind or kept separate
- Whether anything goes into storage in between
- What we handle personally rather than boxing
The things worth mentioning early
The loft, the garage and the shed, which between them account for most of the difference between an estimate and reality. Anything very heavy. Anything that matters more than it is worth — a piece from a grandparent, a picture, something that could not be replaced at any price. Tell us which those are and we will wrap them ourselves and carry them last.
And any complication at home: a small child, someone unwell, an animal that will not cope with the front door being open all morning. None of those are problems. They just change the order we work in, and we would much rather know.
How the quote is built
Volume, distance and access. No figure appears anywhere on this site, because the honest answer for your house is not the same as the honest answer for anyone else's, and a headline number would only mislead one of you.
A flat rather than a house? Flat removals. A smaller load? Man and van. Want help with the boxes? Packing.
House move questions
How long does a house move actually take?
It depends on volume and access far more than on distance, so we will give you a realistic shape of the day when we quote rather than a number now. What we will say is that the moves that overrun are almost always the ones that were under-crewed to win the job, and we would rather send enough people.
Do we need to be there the whole time?
Someone does, at each end, to point and to answer questions. But you do not need to hover. Plenty of people find a job at the origin and someone else at the destination works best, and if you would rather be out of the way for the loading, that is completely fine.
What about the children, or the dog?
Both are easier when planned for. A house being emptied is not a safe place for a small child or a nervous animal, and most people arrange for them to be elsewhere for the loading. If that is not possible, tell us and we will work in an order that keeps one room untouched until last.
What happens to things we are not taking?
Tell us at survey and we will keep them separate rather than sweeping them onto the van. If you want them taken away entirely that is a clearance rather than a removal, and we will be straight about whether we are the right people for it.
Can you move us on a completion day?
It is the usual pattern — load in the morning, wait for keys, unload in the afternoon. If the release runs late we will talk to you about the load staying secured on the vehicle rather than leaving your things standing on a drive.
Thinking about a house move?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and when you are hoping to move. We will take it from there, and there is no pressure at the end of it.