A larger house · XL
Detached and larger house removals
Four bedrooms and upward. At this rung the rooms stop being the interesting part: the volume sits in garages, garden stores, workshops and everything that has accumulated in them, and the constraint frequently moves outside the building altogether.
On the largest properties the first question is not what you own. It is whether a vehicle reaches the door.
What a larger move involves
Carrying distance is a real cost
A long gravel approach, a front path of thirty metres, or a house set well back behind planting all add carrying time to every single item. That is not difficulty; it is arithmetic, and it is why two houses with identical contents can be very different days.
We measure it at survey. It is also why moving a large house with a small crew is a false economy — the distance multiplies across hundreds of trips.
Everything that is not the house
Garages with two decades in them. Garden stores with mowers, strimmers and half-used chemicals. Workshops. Log stores. Greenhouses with pots and compost.
These are heavier, dirtier and slower to load than household furniture, and they are routinely left off a customer's mental inventory entirely. We open everything at survey, and we would rather you overstate than understate.
A note on the chemicals: fuel, gas bottles, solvents and similar cannot travel. It is worth knowing early so you can dispose of them properly rather than discover it on the morning.
Getting the vehicle in at all
On the largest properties this comes before everything. Width at the narrowest point, height under trees, the surface, whether there is anywhere to turn, and whether a gateway built for a carriage will take a modern lorry.
Where it will not, we shuttle with a smaller vehicle. That is a planned cost rather than a failure, and it appears in the quote because it was established at survey rather than found on the day.
Furniture that has never moved
Large houses accumulate pieces that came in before a wall was built, a carpet was laid or a door was rehung. Some of those will not come out by the route they went in.
We look for them specifically and say so plainly. It is much better to know in advance that a wardrobe needs dismantling in the room than to find out with four people holding it on a landing.
Detached and larger houses
Questions about detached and larger houses
01 Will your lorry reach the house?
That is the first thing the survey answers on a large or rural property, and it is why we prefer to see those in person. Where it will not, we shuttle with a smaller vehicle, planned in advance.
02 Do you empty outbuildings?
Yes, and they must be on the inventory. Garages, stores and workshops are where large-house quotes most often go wrong.
03 What about garden chemicals and fuel?
They cannot travel. Worth knowing early so you can dispose of them properly rather than finding out on the morning.
04 Might we need more than one vehicle?
Sometimes, and it is planned and sequenced rather than discovered halfway through. The survey establishes it.
05 Some furniture has never been moved. Is that a problem?
Sometimes. We look for pieces that came in before a wall, carpet or door changed, and tell you in advance what will need dismantling in the room.
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.