Are removal companies worth it?

Welsh_Totster

We moved last week and used a removals firm, I cannot praise their hard work enough! No way would we have been able to do it ourselves and they were worth every penny. We paid for a pack and move, so they came in on Monday and basically packed the whole house up for us, 4 bed house packed by 2 professional packers in roughly 5 hours, with the best will in the world my husband and I couldnt have done that.

Tuesday a team of 5 turned up with the largest removals lorry ever and a LWB transit for all the garden stuff. They loaded the contents of an oversized 4 bed/2 attic roomed house into the lorry in 3 1/2 hours.

(after wondering if we were going to complete the purchase or not on Tuesday) Wednesday they arrived at the new house and unloaded everything into the rooms we wanted in 5 hours (we do have a lot of stuff!)

No stress, no packing, no doing your back in, all insured against breakages and sorted for £1000 all in. Worth every single penny, they worked their socks off and Id use them again.

Dont underestimate how much stuff youve got (its really easy to though!) and weigh up the cost of professional removals against your own time and health!

housebuyer_abc

Removers every time - I've tried doing it all myself including hiring a huge lorry (biggest you can drive without a HGV licence) and hauling it 300 miles across the country.

Never again!!!



We now always get packing and removal done by the company, although our last two moves have been overseas (once to get there and once to get back to UK). They are a breeze.

To comply with customs and insurance rules they have to pack everything and unpack everything into it's final location including assembling flat packs etc... It's great almost worth the £2500 price tag. (especially when someone else pays)

Last time we did a pack and move in the UK (over 200 miles) it was £750 or thereabouts (5 bed house - loads of stuff actually it took more than one removal lorry)

LilacPixie

Professionals all the way for me.

We are opting to pack ourselves then have a local firm do the actual moving. I is costing us just over £200 for a 2 bed flat and a 60sqm storage unit and worth ever penny.

lincroft1710

Are you sure about that?

Absolutely positive as the one time I did self move I contacted my insurers who said as I was doing the move myself I was "my own insurer".

So they don't trust you with your own stuff? Surely that's whose possession it is in most of the time

Yes but you don't usually carry them from home to van to home when they're in your possession, risk dropping them or being damaged in transit (and I don't mean the Ford van!).

456789

Professional Removers - top notch!!

But make sure they are actually professionals - not just some guy who can drive a van and advertises on Gumtree - had one once he was terrible!

dacouch

I do some work in removals and if would recommend you use proper removal card board boxes and not boxes from a supermarket. Good removal boxes are double skinned and are much stronger than normal boxes. This means they can be stacked very high in the van and the box walls do not bend so their contents are undamaged.

You can buy the boxes from your removal company or on the internet eg ebay.

Do not buy them from boxeasy as they are very thin skinned, you cannot stack them more than one high without them bending. We did a move recently and the customer had bough some of their boxes from their. Luckily they also had some proper boxes we could put on the bottom layers of the stacks. If they had bought all their boxes from box easy or had used supermarket boxes it would have meant two trips and a bigger bill for them...

P.S Times are hard for removal companies so don't be afraid to negotiate them on their price as they will negotiate.

slosher

I would use Professional Removers every time, did one move ourselves, hired a van and had some friends help, it was a nightmare never again, last used a removal firm and they worked so hard, was worth every penny, will be moving again soon London - Cornwall so expecting quite a large bill, but well worth it.

lindos90

dacouch wrote: »

I do some work in removals and if would recommend you use proper removal card board boxes and not boxes from a supermarket. Good removal boxes are double skinned and are much stronger than normal boxes.

I take your point, as some boxes are very flimsy and may openup at the bottom with too much weight (like big crisp boxes), but banana boxes are double skinned (not pun intended!!) and the lid fits over the top and sides too giving extra sturdyness.

They also have carry handles which are very useful. When we moved we had them stacked almost as high as the van, probably 8 high at a guess, and nothing got broken. They also stacked well together as they were a consistant size.

Another little tip I got from MSE before we moved, and found it invaluable, is to number your boxes as you are packing, and what room it is going into, and then have a little hardbacked note book with headings to make a list:

Box number contents room.

I then made a brief list in the book, just a one liner for each box, so I didnt have to try and scribble all the contents on each box.

Put the number and room on the top and side (so you can see even when they are stacked, saves time if you need to go into a box you have already packed and stacked)

This little book became invaluable as I then used it for other things like:

List of people/places to inform of change of address, I just added to it when I remembered somewhere, and could tick as I did it, as there are some people who need telling before the move, and some after.

Page for meter readings...old house and new.

Page for important phone numbers..solicitor, removals, EA anyone I might need to call on the day.

List of things we needed to remember to do the night before etc.

Everything was all in one place, and I kept it with me all the time.

It also helped when we unpacked, as I didnt have to sort through and lift boxes around for a particular thing, I just looked at the list and identified which box number I needed.

We also had A4 sheets that the kids did for us for each room. (particularly if you have more than one bedroom) as the removals men will not know which bedroom is which, or if you are referring to the front room, lounge, diningroom etc. Just cellotape it near the door of the room, our men said it helped them so much, as each box had the room written on, and each room was identified. (except the obvious like kitchen:rotfl:)

gratefulforhelp_2

Have done both, if you have a lot of stuff, I would get professionals in.
They will come and quote you for free, then you will have an idea.
The price may be different depending on the day of the week.
If you are in Devon, I can recommend a great, cheap company.

dacouch

lindos90 wrote: »

I take your point, as some boxes are very flimsy and may openup at the bottom with too much weight (like big crisp boxes), but banana boxes are double skinned (not pun intended!!) and the lid fits over the top and sides too giving extra sturdyness.

They also have carry handles which are very useful. When we moved we had them stacked almost as high as the van, probably 8 high at a guess, and nothing got broken. They also stacked well together as they were a consistant size.

Banana boxes sound ideal then.

The other good thing about using removal boxes or even banana boxes is they are a uniform size or are different sizes but designed to stack together. This makes it much easier to stack and thus get the most in the van. The tighter the packing in the van the less everything moves which greatly reduces the potential for damage