London removals
It is not the van. It is not the mileage. In this city the figure that decides what a move costs and whether it goes well is how many pairs of hands turn up — and on more jobs than anyone admits, the building picks that number rather than the load.
Packers are extra people on a separate visit, and an overseas move adds a crew that loads in London but does not cross with the goods. Both are counted the same way.
Counted in hands
We quote the crew first and the vehicle second, because the vehicle almost never decides anything. Below is every crew we run, what it covers and — more usefully — where it stops.
The load decides. Most flats are two, and one is narrower than it sounds.
The building decides. Stairs, carries and lifts add people, not hours.
Packers are separate people on a separate visit, not the same crew working longer.
Our crew drives the route. The same hands load in London and unload at the far end.
The physical part
Every one of these is a constraint rather than an upsell. A second person is not a faster version of one person — on most furniture it is the difference between the job being possible and not. A third person is nearly always the building speaking. And one item on this list we will not take at any crew size.
Why not alone
It is not the weight. One person cannot control both ends through a ninety-degree turn, and a sofa that pivots unaided takes the plaster with it.
Two
One leads and reads the turn, one follows and takes the weight. This is the normal way and it works.
Three
Only where it has to go over a bannister or through a window, where a third person anchors from below.
Why not alone
A pocket-sprung king is close to unmanageable alone on stairs because it folds against you rather than with you.
Two
Routine. One at each end, on edge, and it goes down a straight flight without drama.
Three
A tight dogleg staircase where the mattress has to be fed round rather than carried.
Why not alone
A drum that is not transit-bolted swings inside the case, so the load moves while you are holding it. On stairs that is how people get hurt.
Two
Two and a sack trolley. Disconnection should be done and drained before we arrive.
Three
Basement steps, or any flight without a handrail on at least one side.
Why not alone
Too wide for one person to get a grip either side of, and heavy enough that a slip cannot be recovered.
Two
Two, strapped, upright, and standing for a while before it is switched on at the far end.
Three
Any staircase at all. These do not go up or down stairs with two people.
Why not alone
A glued carcass is a large light box with no grip points and an enormous sail area on a windy day.
Two
On the level, yes. Through a standard doorway, usually only if it is laid down first.
Three
Stairs, or any approach where it cannot be laid flat at some point.
Why not alone
The weight sits high and off-centre, and it does not behave like furniture at any crew size.
Two
No.
Three
No. A piano is a specialist job with specialist equipment and we will say so rather than attempt it.
We do not move pianos. Not with two people, not with four, not with a stair climber. It is a specialist job with specialist equipment and the honest answer is a different firm.
Not your decision
Six situations, all of them common in London, where the number of people has nothing to do with how much you own. In each one somebody has to be doing something other than carrying — holding a lift, staging a lobby, staying with a vehicle — and that person still has to exist.
Three
You cannot hold it and nobody will thank you for trying.
Everything is staged in the lobby first and moved in bursts, which needs someone permanently at each end of the lift.
Three or four
Building management issues a slot and the slot is the whole day.
The load has to be beside the lift before the window opens, not fetched during it. That is a separate person doing nothing but staging.
Two, three if the turn is tight
A half-landing turn with a fixed clear diagonal, shared with the flat below.
Nothing can be left in the stairwell, so the carry is continuous and the pace is set by the narrowest point.
Three
No stopping, no loading, and enforcement by camera rather than by a person.
The vehicle cannot be left, which removes one person from the carry for the entire job regardless of the load.
Three or four
The nearest legal standing point is not the address.
The carry becomes the job. Distance multiplies every trip, and trips are what the crew count actually buys you.
Three
No vehicle access to the door at all, on any permit.
Everything is trolleyed in from the nearest reachable point, on whatever surface is between the two.
This is why we ask what floor you are on and where a vehicle can legally stand before we ask how many boxes there are. Get those two answers right and the crew size follows on its own.
How far the hands go
All four destinations are road routes, which means the crew that packs your flat in London is the crew that unloads it at the far end. What is not ours is the crossing itself — a booked slot on an operator we do not own — and the paperwork, which is legally yours. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.
How an overseas move runsAsked most often
More on the questions page — counting the crew, access and parking, what happens on the day, leaving the country, and how quotes work here.
Both addresses, what floor each one is on, where a vehicle can legally stand at either end, and the widest thing you own. That is what sets the crew — and the crew is what sets the price.