Due to move soon , thinking of hiring man and a van

laura2506

Hubby and I have just bought our first home. At the moment, we are renting a third floor council flat. We have gathered a lot of stuff over the last couple of years. I remember when I moved to the flat ( on my own before hubby moved in with me ) and it was awful as we tried to move most of the stuff ourselves ( moved lots of light things and boxes etc ). I paid over £300 for removals to pick up large boxes and furniture !!! This time I was thinking of hiring a van and doing it ourselves, but my Dad suggested a man and a van. Anyone got any advice about this? How much can I expect to pay ? Anyone recommend a good firm in the Wrexham area ?

Thanks

Laura

cattie

Whenever I used a man & van type of removal in the past there was always an item of furniture damaged. After 2 such moves where good quality pieces of furniture were damaged, I decided it was false economy. I decided in the future that I'd only use proper removal firms where the staff are experienced in furniture handling & loading & have liability insurance should anything be broken or damaged.

When I moved to this house the only broken item was a tumbler. Also the men ensured that my bed was assembled & every item & box were placed into the room they were destined to live in before leaving.

If you can afford it, pay for a decent removal company, but if money is tight & you do have to use a man & van, ensure that your belongings are not crammed in so tight that the sides of the van are ready to burst, just to avoid the driver having to make an extra journey.

GingeG

Seriously

Get yr Hubby and Dad and any Brothers, male mates etc to hire a van and do it!!

There is no excuse for healthy young males not to be able to help you out.

Man and Van what is this country coming to??

I apologise if yr Hubby is ill or whatever but even then you must have brothers or cousins or mates who can do it. You can hire a decent size truck with a tail gate lift for less than a hundred pounds a day!!!!

GingeG

http://www.upmystreet.com/UK/findmynearest/moving-home/relocation-and-removals/van-and-truck-hire/results/in/Wrexham.html

This is a link to a few companies in yr area

silvercar

IMO you get what you pay for.

We last moved 13 years ago. We booked a packing service along with the actual removal. They arrived at 7 in the morning. Sent us out of the house for breakfast and packed everything. In the new house they unpacked all the kitchen stuff and put it on worktops, put the clothes straight from rails into the new cupboards and left with all the boxes and packing material.

The most memorable thing was that I had deliberaltely run down our food stocks. Opened the fridge in the new house to find the one solitary egg that I had not yet got around to throwing out sitting in the eggbox; with faint traces of newsprint on it where they had wrapped it up!

mattt44

I have 2 ways of looking at this,
One, we have moved us and others 3 times by hiring a van and it can be hard work, you need at least 3 blokes I think, or 2 blokes that are willing to work hard.
Two, we hired 4 guys with 2 vans last time we moved (we had alot of stuff) we had already filled up my van and car and packed everything in boxes, cleaned house etc, after that I was more than happy to let other people do all of the lifting.

Conclusion:
It all depends how much stuff you have and how many friends you can get round to definately help. If there is only one strong enough person in the home and one other friend coming round, divide up your stuff by 2 and work out if you would be happy carrying that 2 ways in the same day.
Then there is cost, a man with a van will need help lifting, so you are in effect hiring a friend and a van, look at the costs of hiring a van for the day.
Do get costs in from proper moving firms, I can tell you they vary wildly, we got a fantastic quote from one firm, as I say 4 guys, 2 vans, a 45 mile move, all for about £300 I think.

Oh and if you do it yourself, put one competent person in charge of filling the van, I saved a friend the cost and time of driving a van a 100 mile trip just by repacking his van properly, so he only had to make one journey.

Good luck!

totalguitar

silvercar wrote:

We booked a packing service along with the actual removal.

Has anyone done this recently and have a price to quote. I'm moving from a 3 bed with lots of things in to a 5 bed about a mile away and could quite fancy a complete removal service. I like the idea of doing as little as possible !

eamon

I've just moved (in fact still unpacking). I used professionals. It will cost more in comparison to hiring a van/lorry & doing the job yourself. Things to bear in mind though if you choose to move yourself.
If you are moving during the week will you have enough friends/family to assist?
Have you experience of driving a 7.5 ton vehicle? Think about it if you are moving more than a couple of houses away then time wise its just not practical to be doing multiple trips in a transit van.
Access to said vehicle?
Lastly money. If you don't have access to a free vehicle, then a hired truck is about £100 per day (inclusive of insurance) Fuel will vary, but you should be aware that a lot of truck hire firms don't provide pre-fuelled vehicles and it can be scary searching for a filling station when your truck is running on fumes! And you've got to return the truck to the hire depot!

All that when moving alone is stressful enough. Best of luck

Eamon

mattt44

eamon wrote:

If you are moving during the week will you have enough friends/family to assist?Eamon

Very good point, I forgot that, thats what mucked us up last time, most people move on Fridays I was told, for some reason.

Also that means moving firms are very busy on Fridays and you need to book ahead, we had a large problem because we only had 1 or 2 weeks notice to move I think and they were all booked.

micheleen

I moved 350 miles last year and used a man-with-a-van. Okay I didn't have a house full of furniture but it was enough to almost fill a high top Luton bodied transit van. Cost £160 whereas removals companies wanted £700+.
Nothing damaged (lots of bubblewrap used though) and all I had to do was say which box went into which room.