Flat, apartment & mansion block
In a flat, the route out of the building is the job. Everything else — the packing, the drive, the unload — is downstream of whether the sofa can get to the pavement.
London flats fall into four broad types and each fails in a different way. Knowing which one you are in tells us most of what the day will look like.
The route out
Stairs, always. Usually a half-landing turn.
The commonest London flat and the most demanding to move. The staircase was built for a single household and then divided, so the turn at the half-landing decides what can physically leave the building. Sofas and mattresses frequently go out through a window on a rope or not at all — which is a plan, not a disaster, provided it was made in advance.
The route out
A passenger lift, sometimes a goods lift, often neither big enough.
Post-war and later blocks with a lift that was sized for people rather than furniture. We take the internal dimensions at survey and work out what fits, what comes apart and what goes down the stairs, before the day rather than in front of your neighbours.
The route out
A porter, a booked lift and house rules.
Kensington, Chelsea, Marylebone, St John's Wood. The building has its own protocol — permitted hours, lift protection to be fitted, sometimes a requirement to see our insurance before anyone is admitted. We deal with the managing agent directly and arrive with the paperwork they asked for.
The route out
A booked service lift and a reserved loading bay.
Docklands, Nine Elms, Stratford and the newer Thames-side developments. The concierge runs a booking system and the window is finite. The load order gets built backwards from that window so the lift is never standing idle while somebody looks for a trolley.
Six questions. Answering them at enquiry stage saves a surprise on moving day, and usually saves money too.
It is a normal London job. It affects the crew size and the time on site, both of which come out of the survey, and it is the single biggest reason we ask which floor you are on before quoting rather than after.
Either it comes apart, or it goes out through a window on a rope with a crew trained for it, or it does not leave. Which of those applies is established at survey, while you still have time to decide whether that sofa is coming with you.
That is the normal case. We speak to the concierge or managing agent, book the lift and the bay for a window, fit whatever protection the building requires, and plan the load order so the window is used properly.
Please send them as early as you can. A number of mansion blocks and new-build developments will not admit a removals crew without seeing cover details first, and finding that out on the morning is the worst possible time.
Yes — that is usually better handled as a man-and-van job. Same wrapping standard, smaller vehicle, priced by the job.
Tell us the floor, whether there is a lift, and what the building asks for. That is most of the survey done already.