Studios and flats
One or two rooms, usually upstairs
A studio or a one- to two-bedroom flat. Small in volume and frequently awkward in access, because the constraint is a staircase or a lift rather than the quantity of furniture.
House removals · United Kingdom
Start with the size of the house
We are a national firm rather than a local one, so we will not pretend to know your street. What we do know is that almost everyone describes their own move the same way — a one-bed flat, a two-up two-down, a four-bed with a garage — and that the size tells us most of what we need before anything else does.
Free survey, in person or by video. No figure before one.
What we do
Grouped by the size of the place
A national site cannot organise itself around a postcode, and organising around service names tells you nothing you did not already know. Size is the one thing everybody can place themselves on immediately.
Smaller than a house
Studios and flats, where access decides the day rather than volume.
A house
Terraces and semis — the bulk of British housing and of this work.
Terraced houses
Narrow hall, stairs with a turn
The most common house type in the country and the one that most often defeats a large sofa. A narrow hall, a turn at the bottom of the stairs, and no guaranteed space outside the door.
Semi-detached houses
A drive, side access, a loft
Interwar and postwar semis: generous halls, straight stairs, a drive at most and side access to the rear. The easiest houses in the country to move out of, and the ones with the fullest lofts.
A larger house
Detached and above, where the outbuildings hold more than the rooms.
Detached and larger houses
Outbuildings and carrying distance
Four bedrooms and upward, with garages, garden stores and a front path long enough to matter. The volume is rarely in the rooms; it is in everything around them.
Any size, going far
Distance changes the packing standard, not the principle.
Long-distance moves
One crew, one vehicle, no transfers
Moves crossing the country rather than the town. The load stays on one vehicle with one crew from your door to the new one, because transfers and depot handling are where long moves go wrong.
Any size, waiting
When the far end is not ready for whatever is coming to it.
Storage between homes
Held while the far end resolves
Goods collected, listed and held when the two dates do not meet. The same arrangement whatever size the house is; only the number of containers changes.
Between two rungs, or moving from one size to a very different one? Put both on the quote form and we will work from there.
The reckoner
What changes as the house gets bigger
Not simply more of everything. The binding constraint moves as you go up the ladder — from the staircase, to the hallway, to the garage, to the lane. Knowing which one applies to you is most of a survey done in advance.
S
Studio or one-bed flat
What it holdsA bed, a sofa, a table, a wardrobe and a surprising number of boxes. Rarely more than a van.
What decides the dayThe staircase or the lift. Volume is almost never the constraint at this size; the way out is.
M
Terraced house
What it holdsTwo or three bedrooms, a full kitchen, a small garden's worth of things and often a cellar.
What decides the dayThe hall width and the turn at the foot of the stairs, plus whether there is anywhere to park.
L
Semi-detached
What it holdsThree or four bedrooms, a garage, a loft and a shed — the last three holding more than expected.
What decides the dayWhether the loft and garage were counted. They are the commonest reason a quote moves.
XL
Detached house
What it holdsFour bedrooms upward, outbuildings, garden machinery and a decade of accumulated storage.
What decides the dayCarrying distance and outbuildings. The rooms are the straightforward part.
XXL
Large or country house
What it holdsMore than one vehicle's worth, frequently including furniture that has never been moved.
What decides the dayAccess to the property itself — the lane, the gateway and the turning space before anything else.
A flat in a converted house and a flat in a purpose-built block are the same rung and different jobs — which is the one thing size alone will not tell us. Say which on the form.
How a long move runs
What a national firm owes you on a long move
We do not have a branch on your high street and we are not going to claim one. What a firm working across the country can offer instead is a way of running long moves that removes the things which usually go wrong on them.
- 01
One crew, one vehicle
The people who load your house are the people who unload it. No transfers between vehicles, no overnight depot handling, no goods sitting on a pallet somewhere in the Midlands. It costs a little more to run that way and it removes the single biggest source of loss on a long move.
- 02
Distance changes the packing
A load travelling fifteen miles and a load travelling four hundred are not packed to the same standard. Over distance everything works against everything else — drawers ease open, mirror corners find a gap. Long moves get wrapped and strapped differently, and it is worth letting us do the fragile categories even if you would not locally.
- 03
The departure hour is the plan
On a cross-country move the motorway decides more than the mileage. Leaving at the right hour is usually worth more than an hour saved anywhere else in the day, which is why we sometimes propose starts earlier than customers expect.
- 04
Arriving before the house is ready
It happens more on long moves because more has to line up. Rather than deliver into a house that is not ready, goods can be listed and held — and on a long move that decision is much better taken before departure than at the far end.
For a short local move, a good firm in your own town will often beat us on price and convenience, and we will say so. This is written for the other kind of move. Long-distance moves.
Beyond the UK
Moving a house to Europe, by road
Four established road routes, collected anywhere in mainland Britain. What we are not is a shipping agent — if your move ends in Australia, the States or the Gulf that is sea or air freight and a different trade, and we will tell you so rather than take the enquiry.
UK to France
Paris and the Île-de-France, Normandy, the Loire and the south-west.
UK to Spain
Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalucía and the Balearics by ferry.
UK to Italy
Milan and the lakes, Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria and Rome.
UK to Portugal
Lisbon and Cascais, Porto, the Silver Coast and the Algarve.
Collections from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and points between when a European vehicle is already routed that way. How the European side works.
Asked most often
Before anybody books a vehicle
01 You are not local to me. Why would I use you?
For a short local move, frequently you should not, and we will say so. Where a national firm earns its place is on a move crossing the country — one crew and one vehicle from your door to the new one, rather than a local outfit subcontracting the long leg to somebody you never meet.
02 How do I know which size I am?
Pick the nearest rung on the ladder and do not agonise. Being one out changes nothing, because the survey settles the volume properly. The rung is there to get the conversation started, not to price the job.
03 Will my things be transferred between vehicles?
No. The load stays on one vehicle with one crew throughout, and nothing sits overnight in a depot or on a pallet. Transfers are where long-distance moves lose things, and avoiding them is most of what a national firm is for.
04 Do you ship overseas?
Four European road routes — France, Spain, Italy and Portugal — with collections anywhere in mainland Britain. Beyond that is sea or air freight, which is a different trade run by different firms. If that is what you need we will tell you rather than take the enquiry.
05 What actually sets the price?
Volume, access at both ends, how much packing you want done, and whether anything is held in between. Distance affects the day but far less than people expect — the loading and unloading are the bulk of any move, and those do not shrink with mileage.
More on the questions page — what a survey settles, why the loft and the garage move a figure, and what changes when the move crosses the country rather than the town.
What size is the house?
Both addresses and roughly how much house is going. Five rungs from a studio to a country house, and knowing which one you are on is enough for us to ask something useful back.