What people ask before booking a slot

Earlier than most firms will, and it is arranged at booking rather than negotiated on the day. Where a building or a controlled parking zone restricts the hour, that is the binding constraint rather than our willingness.

Some will and some will not. Managed blocks around the station commonly set permitted move hours, and a few rule out weekends entirely. Ask the managing agent the week you sign rather than the week you move.

An early-afternoon start, in our experience — you have slept, the roads are manageable, and there is enough daylight left. It is also our least-booked slot, which means you can usually have the date you want.

That is usually the better plan and we will suggest it. Doing a move on four hours of sleep after a long shift is how people get hurt and how things get broken.

Send us the pattern — which days rotate, how far ahead the roster is published — and we will hold a provisional slot against it. We would rather do that than have you book blind and pay to move it.

A marked-up plan of what is going and what is staying, a floor plan of the destination with the rooms named, keys arranged, and one named contact who can answer a question by phone. Those four, agreed in writing.

No. A partner, a relative, a friend or a neighbour is fine, as long as they can actually make a decision. What does not work is nobody being reachable — that is the version of this that goes wrong.

Every room is photographed as it empties and as it fills, and you get the set the same day. It is the substitute for having stood there, and it answers most questions before they are asked.

Decide what is rubbish. Disconnect anything plumbed or hard-wired. Remove fitted items. Move anything that might belong to a landlord or a housemate. Where there is any doubt it stays where it is and we ring the contact.

Collected from an agreed place and returned to an agreed place, recorded both times. Where an agent or a neighbour holds them we confirm it in writing beforehand rather than turning up and hoping.

Not in itself. It takes more preparation and rather less time on the day, and the quotation reflects the actual work either way.

Controlled, and the newer blocks work on booked bays and lifts rather than kerbside space. Where a suspension is needed we apply in advance, because there is no route to arranging one on the morning.

Considerably. Interwar and postwar semis with drives, side access and garages. The access is easy, which is exactly why the loft and the garage volume gets underestimated there.

A different problem entirely: loading bays with height restrictions, gate hours, and sometimes a security process for the crew. All of it is manageable and all of it needs arranging before the day.

No. Being near an airport does not make us a freight forwarder, and we would rather say so than let the geography imply it. Our international work is road work into Europe.

We serve and cross both. A job beginning and ending inside one of them is often better placed with a firm from there, and we will say so rather than take it.

Yes, and it is a large share of what we do here. Park once, carry once, disturb nobody else, and leave the communal areas as we found them.

Regularly — a sofa, a fridge, a bed frame, a piece somebody has bought secondhand. Tell us what and from where and the survey does the rest.

As long as the gap runs. Everything is inventoried at collection and the storage agreement sets out access and the notice we need to bring it back out.

It is the commonest booking we take. Collect on the date that is fixed, hold the goods listed, deliver when you actually have keys.

Sometimes, and the odd hours are where the capacity usually is. What we will not do is take a booking we cannot staff properly — we would rather tell you no than turn up short.

The measured volume, the access at both ends, how much packing you want, whether anything is held, and the hour the work has to happen at. That last one is stated before you book rather than added afterwards.

We will talk usefully and we will not put a figure on it. A call cannot see a loft, a loading bay height or a stairwell, and a figure given without those gets revised.

Goods in transit and in store are covered to the level stated on your quotation and storage agreement, subject to the exclusions written there. Declare anything of unusual value before the day.

Entirely fine and it lowers the cost. Cartons you pack are covered for damage arising from our handling but not for damage caused by the packing itself — the standard position across the trade.