GOING UP IN YOUR ESTIMATION

How do you get an accurate and appropriate estimate for moving home or office  ?  The answer is to choose a removal company that is recommended when ever possisble.  The moving firm should be a member of the Removals industry Ombudsman Scheme and a recognised Trade Body. They will have a written Code of Practise that looks after the customers interest.

You should talk directly to the removal company and remember that the industry attracts many ‘man and van’ amateurs that opertate in the black economy with untrained staff and illegal vehicles.  When you speak to the removals office, give them as much information about your property,  position and the place you are moving into. Every move is different and presents its own unique challenges, no one solution or price is appropriate.  The more details concerning your move that you give the better the intial estimate will be.

After this stage of the estimation process when you feel comfortable with the removal companies attitude and cost you can to to the home visit.  Often this is a good time to have some packing material delivered by the surveyor.

A trained surveyor will ask lots of questions, he will want to look throughout your office or home and garden.  He will, where possible, access parking requirements (especially for London removals). All this will take time but is is worth taking this time, as it will ensure that your move is costed correctly.

Once the survey has been completed, the surveyor should provide an on the spot written and realistic quotation with the removers terms and conditions.

Parking in London

One of the most important issues to address when conducting a removal is the access to to the properties. When you have men loading up a whole van of your belongings, you want to reduce the distance from the entrance to the van as much as possible. You don’t want them to have to dodge passing pedestrians on a long walk down the block to the van. London, however, has some of the most finicky parking regulations you will ever find. Each council has different rules regarding pay & display bays, resident bays and yellow lines. For example, a yellow line dispensation in London is fairly easy to arrange and costs nothing. However, there are many rules that need to be stuck to while making use of the service. You have to give the council 24 hours notice, be specific about location, time and the vehicle to be used. Then once you’ve arrived, you have to ensure that someone is constantly at the van and that you are not causing any obstructions. This results in vans being driven round the block to ease congestion even though all steps have been taken to ensure that they are allowed to wait on the yellow line. This is just the nature of managing transport in a city that was not designed around the needs of tradesmen using vans. That was just one example of one of the easier parking situations to resolve in London. Most customers move from one borough to another – new parking situation, new regulations. This all needs to be taken into consideration when moving home or business in London and most customers don’t even realise that all these considerations are being dealt with while we are moving their property.

To Dismantle or not dismantle? that is the question

Both the home and the office contain items of furniture that have been assemble in situ.   London removals often have, desks, beds, sofas, bookcases, twin cupboards, wardrobes, tables, cots and ouotside toys and garden furniture, even sheds.  All took time to build (more than you remember) and are usually accompained by assembly instruction. However when it comes to your move, the instruciton have disappeared  (not that you understood them in the 1st place) and these items all have to be dismantled unless they are being left behind. They also need to be reassembled in your new home or office unless they are to be put into storage. 

It is recommended that these items are dismantled prior to the move day where ever possible, although with moving home this is not always possible as you are likely to need to use the furniture up until the actual move day.   Amber Moves usually dismantles on the packing day. Taking apart these items is a skilled job and requires the proper tools. (Do you know were you put that allen key?)  If you want this service, make sure it is included in your removal cost.  Many removal firms hide this cost as an extra and it does not appear in the estimate.  The more items of furniture that you have to be disassembled and put back together on the house move  or Office move the longer the job will take.  Again it is important that the time is considered and usually a fitter is required as part of the removal team , particularly in the office move environment where desks with partitioning and computer trunking systems can take upto an hour per desk to dismantle and reassemble. 

Wardrobes are the most complicated and time  consuming items to deal with in the home move.  Old style wardrobes divide in the middle, so all the pieces crossing the join have to be removed.  Modern wardrobes dismantle into panels and although termed ‘flat pack’ the chipboard is very easily damaged and needs extra care and attention when taking apart in preparation for reassembly,  all the component parts also need to be wrapped and protected particulary the frontages and any glass pieces, usually a super bubble wrap with edging is required.

So to answer the question  ‘ do I need a dismantling service ?’ the answer is yes if the furniture was put together and you do not have the skill, time , tools and wrappings to complete the proceedure.