Volume
Not bedrooms — cubic metres. A three-bed with a packed loft, a full garage and a shed is a substantially bigger job than a three-bed without, even though the listing says the same thing. The survey measures what is actually there.
House removals
House removals, room by room
It is the service we are named after and the bulk of what we do. A house move is not complicated, but it is detailed — and the detail is where it either goes smoothly or goes wrong.
Most removals firms will quote you for a house move over the phone. We would rather come and look at it, because the number of bedrooms tells us almost nothing useful. Two identical three-bed semis can be completely different jobs depending on what is in the loft, whether the wardrobe comes apart, and whether the van can get past the parked cars on the street.
So the survey comes first. It takes about an hour, it costs you nothing, and it produces the document the crew actually works from on the day. Everything after that is execution.
What a full house removal includes
Everything below is standard rather than a list of extras. What varies between quotes is how much packing you want us to take on and how much crew and vehicle the access demands.
- A proper survey
- Someone walks the house and writes the access notes the crew will work from — the turn on the stairs, where the van can stand, what comes apart.
- Protection
- Floor runners through the hall and up the stairs, door frame and corner guards, banister covers where the route is tight.
- Wrapping
- Blanket wrap and shrink on upholstery, edge protection on polished wood, crates for mirrors, glass, marble and framed art.
- Dismantling
- Beds, wardrobes, tables and desks taken down, with fixings bagged and taped to the piece they came off.
- Loading in order
- Loaded so the new house unloads in the sequence you need — the kettle and the bedding are not at the back.
- Putting it back
- Beds rebuilt, wardrobes stood up, boxes in the rooms you labelled. We do not leave you with a hallway full of cardboard.
What actually drives the cost
This is the question everybody asks first and almost nobody gets a straight answer to. We will not put a figure on this page, because a figure without a survey is a guess that gets revised later — and that is precisely the thing people hate about moving. What we can do is be completely open about the four things that decide it.
Access, at both ends
The single biggest swing factor, and the one people forget when comparing quotes. Stairs versus a lift. Whether the vehicle can get within twenty paces of the door or needs a shuttle. Whether the street needs a parking suspension arranged in advance.
Distance
Straightforward on a local move. On a long one it stops being a simple multiplier, because driver rest periods are a legal limit and a run past a certain length becomes a two-leg job rather than a longer day.
How much packing
Full packing is a whole extra day of skilled work and a vanload of materials. Part-packing takes the fragile and time-consuming rooms only. Doing it yourself costs nothing but your evenings — and a badly packed kitchen costs more than the packing would have.
If you are comparing quotes, compare what each one includes rather than the number at the bottom. A cheaper quote that excludes packing materials, assumes easy parking and sends one fewer person is not cheaper — it is a different job.
Packing: all of it, some of it, or none
Full packing means we arrive with materials and do the lot, generally the day before. Part-packing is the common middle ground — we take the kitchen, the china, the glassware and the artwork, and you handle clothes, books and the children's rooms at your own pace. Materials-only means we drop boxes, paper, tape and wardrobe cartons off ahead of time.
One honest piece of advice if you are doing it yourself: order more boxes than you think you need, start with the things you will not miss, and do not put books in large boxes. Everybody underestimates the kitchen.
The day itself
Protection goes down before anything moves — runners in the hall and on the stairs, guards on the door frames. Furniture is wrapped as it comes out rather than in the van, because that is when it gets knocked. Anything that needs dismantling comes apart with the fixings bagged and taped to the piece.
Loading follows the plan from the survey. Not simply "biggest first" but an order that matches how the new house needs unloading, so the essentials come off first and the loft boxes come off last. At the other end, boxes go into the rooms you labelled them for and beds get rebuilt before we leave.
When the dates do not line up
Chains slip. It is the normal condition of the English property market rather than a disaster. Tell us the moment you know and we will re-plan; a booking moved with reasonable notice is usually just a diary change.
If you have to be out before you can get in, your things go into sealed, inventoried storage and come back when you say. That turns a crisis into a scheduling problem, which is a much better kind of problem.
If it is not a whole house
A flat or apartment brings its own set of problems — lifts, porters and managing agents — and those are covered on the flat removals page. A single room or a handful of items is usually a man and van job. And if the house is going a long way, long-distance removals explains how those are planned differently.
Good to know
House moves, asked and answered
What drives the cost of a house move up or down?
Volume first — a three-bed with a full loft and garage is more than a three-bed without. Then access at both ends: stairs, lifts, how close the vehicle can get, whether a parking permit is needed. Then distance, and finally packing. A survey lets us see all four rather than guessing at them, which is why the written quote after a survey is the only figure worth having.
Do you dismantle and reassemble furniture?
Yes — beds, wardrobes, dining tables, desks and flat-pack units. Fixings go into a bag taped to the piece they came off, so nothing is hunting for a bolt at the other end. Fitted furniture with its own manufacturer fitters is the one exception; we would rather they took it down.
Can we leave clothes in the drawers?
In a chest of drawers, usually yes if the unit is sound — it saves a lot of boxing. In a wardrobe, no: we bring wardrobe cartons so things travel hanging and come out without a crease. Bedside drawers full of books are a no, for the sake of the runners and the person carrying it.
What happens to mirrors, artwork and marble?
Purpose-built crates and mirror cartons, never a blanket and optimism. Marble and stone tops travel on edge rather than flat, because flat is how they crack. Tell us at survey about anything genuinely valuable so it is crated properly and listed separately on the inventory.
Our staircase is very narrow. Is that a problem?
It is the most common problem there is, and it is exactly why we measure the turn at survey. Most upholstery makes it with the feet off. Where something genuinely will not, you hear that before the day — with options — rather than discovering it with the sofa wedged on a half-landing.
Can the move be split across more than one visit?
Often that is the sensible answer for a larger house — a packing visit first, then loading and delivery separately. It also helps when the two ends have different key-release times. We will suggest it at survey if the job looks like it wants it.
Do you take the empty boxes away afterwards?
Yes, where we did the packing. Tell us when you have unpacked and we will collect them. It saves you a car full of flattened cardboard and a trip to the recycling centre.
Send us the address and we'll come and measure it.
A survey, then a written quote with the access notes in it. That is the whole process before anything gets packed.