FAQ
Questions, answered properly
Everything people ring and ask, written out. If yours is not here, the contact page has three ways to reach us and none of them is a chatbot.
Heavy items
- Can you actually get a piano down a Victorian staircase?
- Usually, and the honest answer depends on the staircase rather than the piano. We survey the route out first — the turn, the headroom, the width at the narrowest point, the front door. That tells us the method: boards and skates, a rail temporarily removed, or occasionally a window lift where the building allows it. If the answer is genuinely no, you hear it at survey rather than with an instrument stuck on a half-landing.
- Do you only do heavy items, or whole moves as well?
- Both. Most of our work is ordinary house, flat and office removals — the heavy specialism is what people call us for and what we are set up to do properly. If your move happens to contain a safe, a range cooker and a multi-gym, it is all one job and one quote.
- What makes a heavy-item job different from a normal move?
- Crew size, gear and assessment. A wardrobe needs two people; a safe on a first floor needs four, boarding under it, and a look at what the floor is built on. The difference is planning, not brute force — and a firm that sends two people to a four-person item is how furniture and backs get damaged.
- Are you based anywhere in particular?
- We work nationwide rather than from a single high street. Heavy items and long-distance moves are not local-radius work — a piano in Cornwall and a safe in Cumbria are both a day out either way, so we plan around the job rather than around a catchment.
- How do you work out what a move costs?
- Volume, distance, access and the handling each item needs. Heavy pieces carry their own assessment because they change the crew size and the gear. We look before we price, so the figure you get is the figure you pay.
- Will you move a safe out of a domestic property?
- Yes, and it is one of the commonest calls we get. The weight sits in a very small footprint, so the assessment is about the floor, the threshold and the stair treads as much as the safe. Tell us roughly what it is and where it stands and we will tell you what the job involves.
- Can you move an American-style fridge-freezer?
- Yes. They are wide rather than heavy, which makes doorways and hall turns the constraint. Doors come off where the model allows it. It travels upright, and it should be left to settle before being switched on at the other end — the manufacturer will say how long.
- What about gym equipment?
- Multi-gyms, racks, benches, plate stacks and treadmills all move. Most of them come apart, and the ones that do not are a straightforward heavy carry once the route is clear. Plate weights are far easier in several loads than in one heroic one.
- Do you move hot tubs and garden machinery?
- Hot tubs yes, with access and drainage sorted in advance — a full tub is not a moving job, it is a plumbing one first. Mowers, compressors, workshop tools and stone planters all travel once fuel is drained and fluids are dealt with.
On the day
- Is the heavy stuff insured?
- We carry goods-in-transit and public liability cover, and the limits and exclusions are in the booking terms so you can read them before you commit. Anything of unusual value — an instrument, a piece of equipment, a collection — should be declared at survey so it is properly accounted for.
- Who is responsible for disconnecting things?
- Gas appliances need a registered engineer and plumbed items need the water off and capped. We are movers, not gas or plumbing trades, and we will say so rather than improvise. Everything that simply unplugs, we handle.
- Do you dismantle and rebuild furniture?
- As standard. Beds, wardrobes, flat-pack, table legs, and the heavy pieces that only travel in parts. Fixings are bagged and taped to the piece they came off so nothing is a puzzle at the other end.
- What will you not put on the van?
- Anything flammable or pressurised — petrol, gas bottles, aerosols by the crate, solvents. Perishable food, plants and anything living stay with you, as do cash, jewellery and documents. Fuel in machinery has to be drained before it travels.
- Do you do long-distance and one-way moves?
- Yes, and a good share of our work is exactly that. The same crew loads and unloads, the vehicle is loaded for distance rather than for a short hop, and driver hours are respected rather than pushed.
- Can you collect from more than one address?
- Yes — a house and a storage unit, a workshop and a home, a relative on the way. Mention every pickup point at survey so the route and the load order are planned around them.
Distance, storage and abroad
- Do you supply packing materials?
- Yes. Cartons, wardrobe boxes, picture and mirror cases, tissue, bubble and tape, plus the boarding and padding a heavy carry needs. We can drop materials off in advance or pack the lot for you.
- Do you store things between dates?
- Yes — containerised storage, inventoried on the way in. Useful when a chain slips, and useful when a heavy item needs somewhere to wait while a floor is reinforced or a room is finished.
- Can heavy items go to France or Spain?
- They can, and they need their own line on the customs inventory rather than being folded into a carton count. A piano or a safe also changes how the vehicle is loaded for a long road run. Mention it early and the European pages explain the rest.
- What if something will not come out?
- It happens, usually with furniture assembled in place or a piece that went in before a wall or a bannister changed. We establish that at survey and talk through the options — dismantling further, a window lift where the building permits it, or leaving it. What we will not do is force it and hope.
- Do you work weekends?
- Saturdays regularly, and Sundays by arrangement. Commercial jobs are frequently out of hours because that is what suits the building and the business.
- How do I get a quote?
- Send both addresses through the quote form with a few lines about the heavy items and the access, or call. We will come back to arrange a survey — photographs and a video walk-round are fine for most jobs — and put a written quote together, normally within a working day or two.
Still stuck? Heavy item removals goes item by item, services covers everything we do, and coverage explains how nationwide work is planned.
Question not covered?
Ask it. We answer removals questions from people who have booked nothing and intend to book nothing, and that is entirely fine.